ISO/TC 207/SC 3 - Environmental labelling

This document establishes principles, specifies requirements and gives guidance on self-declared environmental claims about products and their environmental statement programmes, including claims that also cover related social and economic aspects that are affected by environmental conditions or the environmental performance of a product. This document defines selected terms commonly used in self-declared environmental claims and provides qualifications for their use, as well as describing the documentation and methodologies required for assessing self-declared environmental claims. This document is applicable to self-declared environmental claims that predominantly take the form of words, but can also be symbols or graphics on product or package labels, or appear in product literature, technical bulletins, advertising and publicity, including on digital platforms.

This document specifies principles and requirements and gives guidance on environmental product declaration (EPD) programmes and their associated EPDs. This document specifies the use of ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 on life cycle assessment (LCA) in the development of EPDs. This document is applicable to EPD programmes and their associated EPDs that are intended to address the potential environmental impacts and environmental aspects of products, and which can also include related social and economic aspects in support of sustainable development. NOTE 1 This document does not deal with social or economic LCA indicators. NOTE 2 Related social and economic aspects of the products can be reported as additional sustainability-related information, where relevant and available. This document provides requirements and guidance for the communication of the potential environmental impacts and environmental aspects of products to the intended audience of the EPD. This document does not apply to sector-specific provisions, which are dealt with in other ISO documents. It is intended that sector-specific provisions in other ISO documents related to EPDs are based on and use the principles, requirements and guidance of this document.

This document specifies principles and requirements and gives guidance on ecolabelling programmes and ecolabels This document is applicable to ecolabelling programme development, selection of product categories, product environmental criteria and product function criteria, and the process for assessing and certifying products that are licensed to use an ecolabel. It provides guidance on how ecolabels in conformity with this document can be differentiated from other environmental statements and ecolabels in the market. NOTE Ecolabels and ecolabelling programmes address environmental aspects of products but can also include social and economic aspects in support of sustainable development.

This document establishes principles and specifies general requirements that are applicable to all types of product-related environmental statements and environmental statement programmes. Environmental statements result from environmental statement programmes and include self-declared environmental claims, ecolabels, environmental product declarations (EPDs) and footprint communications. This document is intended to be used in conjunction with other standards in the ISO 14020 family. NOTE Those other standards contain additional terms and definitions, principles and requirements that are relevant to their specific scopes.

This document specifies requirements for mutual recognition arrangements (MRAs) and gives guidance on how to initiate developments on MRAs between environmental product declaration (EPD) and footprint communication programme operators. It addresses administrative and operational duties, through evaluation of such programmes, and how to externally communicate the results of the cooperation as well as plans for future related activities. This document is primarily applicable to MRAs but can also be a basis for bilateral agreements.

ISO 14026:2017 provides principles, requirements and guidelines for footprint communications for products addressing areas of concern relating to the environment. ISO 14026:2017 also provides requirements and guidelines for footprint communication programmes, as well as requirements for verification procedures. ISO 14026:2017 does not address the quantification of a footprint, nor does it address the communication of footprints that are not related to the environment, e.g. footprints addressing social or economic issues. In particular, footprint communications relating to the economic and social dimensions of sustainable development are outside the scope of ISO 14026:2017. Footprint communications relating to organizations are also outside the scope of ISO 14026:2017.

ISO/TS 14027:2017 provides principles, requirements and guidelines for developing, reviewing, registering and updating PCR within a Type III environmental declaration or footprint communication programme based on life cycle assessment (LCA) according to ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 as well as ISO 14025, ISO 14046 and ISO/TS 14067. It also provides guidance on how to address and integrate additional environmental information, whether or not it is based on LCA in a coherent and scientifically sound manner according to ISO 14025.

ISO 14024:2018 establishes the principles and procedures for developing Type I environmental labelling programmes, including the selection of product categories, product environmental criteria and product function characteristics, and for assessing and demonstrating compliance. ISO 14024:2018 also establishes the certification procedures for awarding the label.

ISO 14021:2016 specifies requirements for self-declared environmental claims, including statements, symbols and graphics, regarding products. It further describes selected terms commonly used in environmental claims and gives qualifications for their use. This International Standard also describes a general evaluation and verification methodology for self-declared environmental claims and specific evaluation and verification methods for the selected claims in this International Standard. ISO 14021:2016 does not preclude, override, or in any way change, legally required environmental information, claims or labelling, or any other applicable legal requirements.

ISO 14025:2006 establishes the principles and specifies the procedures for developing Type III environmental declaration programmes and Type III environmental declarations. It specifically establishes the use of the ISO 14040 series of standards in the development of Type III environmental declaration programmes and Type III environmental declarations. ISO 14025:2006 establishes principles for the use of environmental information, in addition to those given in ISO 14020:2000 Type III environmental declarations as described in ISO 14025:2006 are primarily intended for use in business-to-business communication, but their use in business-to-consumer communication under certain conditions is not precluded.

This International Standard establishes guiding principles for the development and use of environmental labels and declarations. It is intended that other applicable standards in the ISO 14020 series be used in conjunction with this International Standard. This International Standard is not intended for use as a specification for certification and registration purposes. NOTE Other International Standards in the series are intended to be consistent with the principles set forth in this International Standard. Other standards currently in the ISO 14020 series are ISO 14021, ISO 14024 and ISO/TR 14025 (see Bibliography).