Executive Summary
2. "Eco-verification" involves setting standards for the environmental impacts of products and processes and verifying that these are met.
3. Government has four roles in relation to eco-verification. As a regulator, it can increase the scope or stringency of standards and regulations so that eco-verification becomes a powerful tool for delivering New Zealand's sustainability objectives. As a facilitator, it can accelerate progress by supporting or boosting the actions of other organisations involved in eco-verification and by providing information to help consumers make informed choices when buying products or services. As a leader, it can raise the bar and create incentives for others through the eco-standards and tools it employs in initiatives like procurement, Govt3 and the carbon-neutral public sector. As a provider of standards and conformance infrastructure, it can support and streamline the underpinning arrangements associated with standards setting, measurement, verification and certification.
4. Enhanced Eco-verification actions will need to deliver long-term economic outcomes as well as environmental outcomes. This will require a clear understanding of the interrelationship between trade and sustainability objectives. It will also require aligned objectives between the private sector and government, including a commitment to cementing New Zealand's reputation as a country at the forefront of proactive sustainability management.
5. The Enhanced Eco-verification initiative can support these goals in the following ways:
- increasing business commitment to use management systems, including product standards, that meet eco-standards;
- developing better measurement technologies and systems to exploit opportunities, manage risks and position New Zealand as a leader in sustainable management;
- supporting development of sector eco-verification infrastructures that are consistent with global leadership positions;
- leveraging existing regulatory frameworks to identify possible stretch eco-verification requirements;
- leveraging New Zealand's standards and conformance infrastructure internationally to identify areas where we should attempt to influence standards and assessment approaches; and
- developing eco-verification tools to support government objectives for sustainable procurement, Govt3 and a carbon-neutral public service.
6. Current and potential actions that support these objectives are summarised in Annex 1. The latter have been drawn up with input from a range of stakeholders. From these, four are recommended as high-profile actions with the potential to make a large difference:
- develop initiatives to accelerate the uptake by businesses and government agencies of ISO 14000 environmental management systems, including product standards, or other internationally recognised systems;
- position NZ as a global research and development leader in product life-cycle analysis and application of eco-verification support structures;
- work with stakeholders such as Landcare Research to position New Zealand as a leader in carbon-footprint measurement and management in areas that will make the greatest contribution to sustainability and economic transformation; and
- work with primary-sector stakeholders to develop a greenhouse-gas footprint response, including scoping opportunities for co-ordination of research, eco-verification, promotion, market development and international trade.
7. Officials will undertake a stock take of the eco-standards, eco-labels and eco-verification infrastructure currently employed in New Zealand with a view to providing better and more co-ordinated information to businesses, consumers and government procurement and to underpin the Enhanced Eco-verification initiative as a whole.
8. It is recommended that Cabinet endorses the key actions as a preliminary list. They can be finalised when officials report back on feasibility, probable impacts, risks, possible resource requirements and implementation timelines at the end of August 2007.
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