Government to implement national ecolabeling plan

Government to implement national ecolabeling plan

Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government is planning to implement its own ecolabeling
measures for domestic manufactured and agricultural products
starting in June next year following an agreement signed on Nov.
19, a senior government official says.

Masnellyarti Hilman, the deputy for the environmental
management policies at the Ministry of the Environment, said last
week that a consortium consisting of her ministry, the Department
of Industry and Trade, the National Standardization Agency (BSN),
the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI), the Indonesian
Ecolabeling Institute (LEI), certification agencies, industry
associations, and environmental NGOs had agreed upon a standard
that would be used to certify and label environmentally friendly
products.

"The standard is an Indonesian National Standard (SNI)
formulated by the BSN," Masnellyarti said.

Details of the ecolabeling measures remained unclear, with
Masnellyarti saying only that the measures were based on the
international standard, the ISO 14000, which specifically deals
with the environment.

The ISO 14000 standard on environmental management systems
defines environmentally friendly products as those that take into
accounts biodegradability, recyclability, toxicity, resource
consumption, and nature conservancy in their entire process of
production, distribution and consumption.

The consortium, according to Masnellyarti, agreed that the
competent certification agencies, including those owned by
manufacturing companies, could issue ecolabeling certificates.

"This is to simplify things and widen access for manufacturers
who want their products ecolabeled," Masnellyarti said, adding
that ecolabeling was voluntary rather than obligatory.

To maintain the independence and transparency of certification
agencies, however, the government had decided that the National
Accreditation Commission (KAN), a unit of the BSN, would act as
the custodian.

"KAN will also supervise the agencies in reviewing ecolabeled
products every year. If a product is found to no longer be
environmentally friendly, the agency must withdraw its
certification," Masnellyarti said.

Concerning the voluntary nature of the ecolabeling scheme,
Masnellyarti admitted that this was because many manufacturers
still felt that ecolabeling was an additional cost in their
production process, even though, in fact, many international
trade practices now require ecolabeling.

The government, however, had prepared an incentive plan for
small and medium enterprises (SME) to participate in the scheme,
Masnellyarti said, while urging major producers, especially of
Indonesia's main export products such textiles, pulp, and leather
products, to participate as well.

Until now, only Indonesian wood product manufacturers have
introduced ecolabeling, organized by the LEI, to help them pass
the requirements imposed by most developed countries.

Meanwhile, in anticipating next year's deadline for the
putting in place of the scheme, the consortium holding a design
competition for its logo which will run from now until January,
with a Rp 7.5 million (US$ 882) prize for the winner.

Several countries already have national ecolabeling schemes,
complete with logos, such as the Netherlands with its "EKO-seal"
scheme, Canada's "Environmental Choice", Japan's "Eco-Mark", and
Germany's "Blue Angel".