Type 3. labelling : time for action

The latest record shows that close to 17,000 organisations and companies worldwide have been certified as complying with the ISO 14001 Environmental Management Standards. Japan leads in terms of total number certified, while Sweden is ahead of the others based on certification per capita. Most countries in the EU are actively engaged in moving for certification. Not so in the USA where per capita wise it is at the lower end. This suggests that in terms of proactive action for the environment, the USA is not among the leaders. But judging from what can be seen at the annual meeting of the ISO TC207, there are groups in the USA out to change all that. Or do Americans just like to talk? But whatever it is, the ISO TC207 is aggressively marketing the ISO 14000 family of standards as a viable option for industries and governments alike to ensure the continued safeguard of the environment. At the same time the objective is to facilitate fair trade. Admittedly, such efforts to make environmental standards more transparent and multilaterally acceptable should be lauded. Prior to the ISO TC207 initiative, countries were coming out unilaterally with their own series of environmental labels. These more often than not confused the market place. Seen as barriers to trade, such unilateral initiatives also proved retrogressive. But the TC207 mechanism of using consensus in their decision making process makes sure that the eventual standards are acceptable to all parties. But implementing the standards is another issue which concerns TC207 members. Some members, especially those among the developing countries, are still deficient in their capacity to implement. Such imbalance will not help trade. Where is Malaysia with regards to implementation? It is generally agreed that the standards on environmental labels will be the ones to watch. The labels are the ones which interact directly with the consumers in the market place. As far as standards on labels go, so far TC207 has already published ISO 14020 which deals with the basic principles on environmental labels and declarationsISO 14021 dealing with self-declared environmental claims (Type II environmental labelling) and ISO 14024 which provides principles and procedures for type I labels. In addition, TC207 has also published a technical report type 2, ISO/TR 14025. This discusses all the issues related to type III labelling. Though still a technical report, the feeling is that eventually this will also be converted to a standard. And judging by the views expressed, the type III standard will eventually be the determining labelling norm in the market place. The question is, are we in Malaysia prepared to adopt and implement this type III labelling? Many countries, especially among the developed economies have already established national programmes to experiment with such labels. It is time Malaysia also pursue a national programme on type III labelling to prepare the industries here. This paper proposes the mechanism to put such national progamme into place.