Recommendations
43. We recommend that Cabinet Policy Committee:
1. Note that Cabinet agreed in February to a set of sustainability initiatives, including a sustainable government procurement initiative that contained proposals related to enhanced eco-verification (CAB Min (07) 4/1A).
2. Note that Budget 2007 contains funding of $7.4 million over four years in Vote: Environment to fund both the eco-verification and sustainable government procurement initiatives.
3. Agree that the objectives for Enhanced Eco-verification initiative will be:
- increasing business commitment to use of 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.
4. Agree that the lists of current and potential actions to enhance eco-verification (Annex 1) drawn up by officials with inputs from a range of stakeholders be used as a broad agenda for development of the Enhanced Eco-verification initiative.
5. Agree that government should focus its efforts to enhance eco-verification on a small number of key actions that these be selected on the basis of:
- strategic importance to New Zealand;
- topicality in relation to domestic and overseas trends;
- potential scale of impact;
- appropriateness for government action;
- immediacy of impact; and
- boldness or symbolic value.
6. Agree that the following be selected as key actions to enhance eco-verification:
- 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. Note that further work by officials will be required to shape this preliminary list into an actionable list and that this work may show that particular actions should not be pursued by government.
8. Note that 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.
9. Direct the Ministry of Economic Development, working with the Ministry for the Environment, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and other public- and private-sector agencies and organisations as appropriate, to lead work on the first three key actions of recommendation 6, to maintain an overview of current and developing eco-verification actions and to ensure that projects are co-ordinated.
10. Direct the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, working with the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry for the Environment, and other public- and private-sector agencies as appropriate, to lead work on the fourth key action of recommendation 6.
11. Invite the Minister for Economic Development, in conjunction with the Minister of Agriculture, the Minister for the Environment and the Minister of Commerce, to report by 31 August 2007 on:
- the feasibility, probable impacts, risks, funding arrangements and implementation timelines for the selected key actions; and
- wider progress in enhancing eco-verification processes and infrastructure.
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