Environmental
Standards
“Environmental standards are standards for materials, products and production processes to ensure that negative impacts on the environment are minimal or kept within certain limits.“ (FAO 2003)
In recent decades growing importance and attendance is given to environmental issues on the international policy agenda. Negative effects of an extensive use of natural resources and exploitation of the environment can be observed in climate change, water and air pollution, soil erosion, water scarcity, deforestation and loss of biodiversity.
Milestones in the formulation of environmental policy recommendations were
- the report “Our Common Future” of the Brundtland Commission (formerly known as the World Commission on Environment and Development - WCED) in 1987,
- the UN Conference on Environment and Development (informally Earth Summit) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992
- and the UN Millennium Declaration in 2000.
As a consequence, a range of International Multilateral Environment Agreements (MEA) have been ratified that relate to global environmental issues such as CO2 reduction, eco-efficiency, land degradation, biodiversity, energy systems and technology innovation. Examples are the Kyoto Protocol, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, or the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, POPS.
Standards on the protection of the environment and its resources aim at the maintenance of natural capital and its capacities. Capacities include source capacities (raw material inputs such as food, water, air, energy, soil) as well as sink capacities (assimilating outputs and wastes), whereas the exploitation of these capacities must be kept to a rational extent in order to allow for future utilization.
In the agricultural sector (including forestry and fisheries) there are many types of environmental standards along the various steps of the product value chain, from the planting and extraction of raw materials, harvesting, processing, to packaging and transport. On the international scale, “while there is no specific agreement dealing with the environment, under WTO rules members can adopt trade-related measures aimed at protecting the environment provided a number of conditions to avoid the misuse of such measures for protectionist ends are fulfilled” (WTO 2009).
Generally, environmental standards are based on the internationally agreed principles and MEAs. National environmental regulations can be grouped into five categories:
- environmental quality standards,
- emission standards,
- product standards,
- standards based on process and production methods, and
- performance standards.
An example of a national and supranational environmental standard in agricultural trade is the organic certification scheme (e.g. Japan Agricultural Standard, EU Organic Regulation).
There further exists a plethora of business- and NGO-driven environmental standards. Many of these standards or eco-label initiatives are process standards, being mainly sector-specific. In the forestry sector for example, labeling initiatives provide international standards on sustainable forestry practices (e.g. Rainforest Alliance, Forest Stewardship Council). Similar label and certification initiatives exist for environmentally friendly production techniques in the floriculture sector (e.g. Milieu Programma Sierteelt Flowimark, Flower Label Program), coffee sector (e.g. Fair Trade, Utz Certified), tourism or fisheries (e.g. Marine Stewardship Council). Other generic standards relate to environmentally friendly management processes (ISO 14000).
Author: Ruth Holtz
References:
FAO (2003). Environmental and social standards, certification and labeling for cash crops. Rome: FAO.
Gerbens-Leenes, P.W., Moll, H.C. & Schoot Uiterkamp, A.J.M. (2003). Design and development of a measuring method for environmental sustainability in food production systems. Ecological Economics, 46 (2), 231-248.
Goodland, R. (1995). The Concept of Environmental Sustainability, Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 26 (1995), 1-24.
UNEP, IISD (2005). Environment and Trade: A Handbook, 2nd Ed. Geneva: UNEP and Winnipeg, Canada: IISD.
World Bank (2008). Environmental Sustainability: An Evaluation of World Bank Group Support. Washington: World Bank Publishing.
WTO (2009). Trade and environment. http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/envir_e/envir_e.htm
Further information:
Ecolabelling: http://www.ecolabelling.org/
ISEAL Alliance: http://www.isealalliance.org
Sustainability Consortium: http://www.sustainabilityconsortium.org/
Sustainability Product Index (Walmart) http://walmartstores.com/Sustainability/9292.aspx
Sustainability Food Lab: http://www.sustainablefoodlab.org/
Finance Alliance for Sustainable Trade (FAST): http://www.fastinternational.org/
State of Sustainability Initiatives (SSI): http://www.sustainablecommodities.org/ssi
Sustainable Commodity Assistance Network (SCAN): http://www.iisd.org/markets/tech/scan.asp
Committee on Sustainability Assessment (COSA): http://www.iisd.org/standards/cosa.asp
Roundtable for Sustainable Biofuels: (RSB): http://cgse.epfl.ch/page65660.html
The Nature Conservancy (TNC) Freshwater Conservation: http://www.nature.org/initiatives/freshwater/
AWS ‐ Alliance for Water Stewardship: http://www.allianceforwaterstewardship.org/
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