to developing cleaner

2.2 Label elements

1) Collecting information from suppliers 2) Development of work plan Jysk Nylon Funding LCA Auditor: Information to 1) Initiator customers 2) Coordination Consultant Data analysis Table 8.1: Characteristics of companies and initiatives within the resource area furniture and clothing The companies among these cases, which manufacture final products, have a focus on the possibility to achieve eco-labels on their products and expectations to a growing public green demand as part of an increasing focus on public green procurement. The customers of these companies are businesses and public institutions. The public customers are very important in two of the three companies. The initiatives are primarily eco-labelling and supplier assessment and dialogue. Eco-labelling is seen as an opportunity to be recognised at the market. Supplier assessment and dialogue is seen as an element in an outsourcing strategy to transfer demands for environmental protection and quality and to achieve certainty for suppliers’ delivery. The driving forces for the companies are a combination of customer demands and own interpretation of the societal discourses. The companies placed more upstream in product chains and with other manufacturing companies as customers have initiated life cycle assessment and documentation or improvements in order to meet demands from customers, who are qualifying for an eco-label license. The possibility to get public funding is mentioned as another driving force. Within the textile and clothing sector, relations with focus on environmental competence have been developed among consultants, schools and colleges, the trade organisation and the more pro-active companies. The Danish Environmental Protection Agency launched a product panel with stakeholders within industry, retail and civil society organisations among the members. The panel developed a strategy with a strong focus on a joint effort to develop supply and demand of eco-labelled products. Unfortunately, the public funding ended and the activities were stalled, because the sector was not committed enough to continue the funding of the activities itself. Recently a new public funded initiative has been launched, this time with funds from the Ministry of Economy and Business. 86 Within the furniture and clothing resource area, it seems like the important driving forces have been expectations among the manufacturers of final products of an increased demand for eco-labelled products. The dialogue about environmental issues in the product chains has been influenced by existing types of agreements about delivery and about quality between the textile companies and their suppliers. Where companies already had stable relations to suppliers based on price and quality, environmental issues have been included as a new theme. For companies more upstream in the product chains, the possibilities for public funding seem to have been a important prerequisite. It looks like the expectations of increased demand for eco- labelled products were not met, neither among the consumers, nor among the professional public customers. It seems to be a characteristic for the area that initiatives are organised by single companies, as well as by joint initiatives involving manufacturing, sales, knowledge institutions and civil society organisations. 8.2 Construction/Housing This resource area is characterised by many small and medium-sized companies and a few very big companies. Especially the raw material suppliers, the consultancy companies and the contractor companies are among the big companies. The products are physical products with a relative long lifetime and big numbers and amounts of materials and chemicals are used during the construction and are part of the finished building or other type of construction. Other activities focus on maintenance and refurbishment of existing buildings. The big resource consumption has implied a focus on waste management and recycling of construction materials, since the waste management costs are high due to the governmental regulation. The consultancy companies have had an important role in the environmental initiatives within the resource area as initiators, evaluators and mediators of experience and knowledge. The market has a public and a private part and is characterised by big investment companies, foundations etc. The resource area as such has had a relative low productivity improvement compared to the similar sector in other countries .Despite this, the Danish companies have had a positive economic development because of increased domestic construction activities (Erhvervsfremmestyrelsen 2000). However, foreign companies have bought a number of Danish construction companies. The resource area is much more project-based than other resource areas, and the product chain relations seem to be less stable and formalised than within other areas. However, more long term partnerships among the companies are seen, but less formalised than in more industrialised resource areas. Demands for changes come from the building owners’ demands and from the demand for increased productivity in the different companies. Environmental demands do not play an important role in public construction projects, due to lack of demands from the public building owners. New, more formalised partnerships, so-called partnering relationships, are considered in order to increase the productivity (BAT-Kartellet 2001) (Bonke & Kristensen 2000). Seven cases are from this resource area. Table 8.2 shows the role of the initiating companies in the product chains and the environmental initiatives. 87 Supplier companies Final product companies Company / Initiative Funding and knowledge Company / Initiative Funding and transfer knowledge transfer Akzo Nobel Deco Environmental Skanska Consultant: Green product knowledge in own Supplier assessment Building development organisation. and -dialogue contractors’ (Substitution) Customers have used occupational health service centre service centres to 1) Development of develop the demands to chemical the company assessment tool 2) Assessment of products Technos A/S Public funding Cardodoor Supplier (Technos) LCA Consultant: Information to used a consultant Eco-labelling (of Training activities customers customer product) Consultant: Environmental product Introduction of LCA declaration software tool Danogips Business organisation Recycling 1) Development of demands for recycled gypsum 2) Development of collection scheme Centre for resource Funding saving concrete Consultants and constructions universities initiated the Strategic co-operation co-operation H+H Fiboment A/S Funding LCA Business organisation initiated Consultant: 1) Data collection 2) Development of software tool 3) Advice Table 8.2: Characteristics of companies and initiatives within the resource area construction and housing One of the contractor companies has initiated supplier assessment and – dialogue in co-operation with the suppliers. The contractor company sees this initiative as one of its obligations within its environmental management system and at the same time as an opportunity to improve their own planning. For the companies more upstream in the product chains the initiatives have focused on improvement of products and resource savings through recycling of products and the use hereof in new products. The main driving forces have been governmental regulation with focus on higher taxes on waste management and possibilities for cost savings and public funding of initiatives. The initiative for recycling of plasterboard waste was organised as a branch initiative with co-operation among competing companies. The initiative implied major changes in the waste management schemes and development of standards for the handling of the waste materials. The companies saw it as an advantage to organise the new framework themselves. 88 Market forces are not seen as important driving forces within this area. Only few companies highlight customer demands as the occasion or driver for environmental initiatives. Market forces are mainly focused on the productivity of the companies. It seems to be a characteristic for the area that initiatives are organised by single companies, as well as by business organisations. 8.3 Information technology and communication The companies within this resource area support other resource areas with information and communication services. The resource area includes the electronic industry. The resource area covers small, medium-sized and big companies. The products include very different types of products from immaterial products to materiel products, like electronic devices and printed goods. There has for many years been focus on the use of chemicals and substances in the manufacturing in the electronic and the printing industry, but also on the content of these chemicals in the final products. The markets include private and professional users, including public institutions. In the printing industry, the driving forces for environmental initiatives have been governmental regulation of chemicals and substances, expectations of increased public demand for eco-labelled products and increased competition from digital products. The business organisation and the educational institutions became a number of years ago initiators and mediators of environmental initiatives. The other parts of the resource area have grown, which have implied bigger resource consumption, including increased consumption of environmental hazardous chemical substances and products, and increased amounts of waste from electronic and electrical products. Two directives have been issued by the European Community, one with focus on waste management (WEEE – Waste from Electronic and Electrical Equipment) and one with focus on the reduction of the use of hazardous substances and restrictions to the import and sale of electronic products containing hazardous substances (RoHS – Reduction of Hazardous Substances). The actual implementation of the two directives may be difficult because of the frequent product changes, long product chains and big manufacturers of basic components, which may make it difficult to smaller companies to set demands and get them accepted. Five cases are from this resource area. Table 8.3 shows the role of the initiating companies in the product chains and the environmental initiatives. Supplier companies Final product companies Company / Initiative Funding and Company / Initiative Funding and knowledge knowledge transfer transfer Danrens A/S Funding Levison Johnson + National eco-labelling Green procurement Consultant: Johnson secretariat: policy Occupational health Information to Approves new suppliers service centre: customer Approving data Eco-labelling sheets Danfoss Drivers Environmental Phønixtrykkeriet A/S Consultant: LCA knowledge in the (printing house) Analysing how printing Information to organisation Green product companies may improve customer Eco-labelling their environmental Recycling Strategic practice co-operation 89 Brødrene Hartman Environmental A/S knowledge in the Information to organisation customers Supplier assessment and -dialogue Table 8.3: Characteristics of companies and initiatives within the resource area information technology and communication The case companies, which manufacture final products, are printing companies. Their initiatives are directed at their customers – especially the public customers. The initiatives include provision of information and eco- labelling licenses. The main driving forces seem to be the environmental management systems of the companies and the expectations of increased public demand. The suppliers within the resource area, which are not printing companies, have focused on information to customers, green procurement policy, recycling, and life cycle assessments as a way of providing information about the conditions for recycling of the final products. The main driving forces have been direct customer demands and expectations to the new EU directives during the period, when the directives were shaped. 8.4 Comparative analysis of the resource areas Despite the rather different types of products supplied within the three areas, a comparative analysis of the three resource areas shows similarities in the environmental dynamics among the areas: • Expectations to public demand for more environmentally friendly products or solutions in several are often not met, including a lack of high priority environmental demands in tendering processes • Branch specific business organisations and knowledge institutions are involved as initiators and mediators, whereby the conditions for diffusion of experiences should be ideal • Environmental demands in business-to-business sales and purchase have a limited extent Within all three resource areas chemical substances and products give environmental impacts throughout the product chains, although maybe to different extent within the different parts of the product chains, and within all the three resource areas the chemical impacts has been in focus of some of the environmental initiatives. Eco-labelling is seen as a strategy within all three areas, although with different degree of success. Especially the expectations to increased public demands are not met or only partly met, which is due to higher prices of the eco-labelled products. Within the textile and clothing area, the development of a national strategy for eco-labelling gave the opportunity to differentiate the products at the market through eco-labelling. Within furniture eco-labelling was also seen in one of the cases, but here with expectations to increased public green procurement as a driving force. These expectations, however, were not met because the eco- labelled products were more expensive. Within the construction and housing area, one supplier company also focused on eco-labelling of construction 90 materials. Also within the printing industry, eco-labelling has played an important role as environmental initiative. Within this area, it has mainly been driven by expectations to increased public green procurement. These expectations were met to a higher degree although some public customers seem not to want the products labelled, they only want the environmental quality of the labelled product, because they do not want to pay the extra cost for the labelling, which the manufacturer allocate to the customer as an extra cost. Within a part of the printing industry the eco-labelled production concept become the only quality, because it is easier only to produce according to one concept, but not all customers choose to get the products labelled, due to the fee on eco-labelled products, which the printing companies choose to ask the customer to pay. It looks like these fees, the pricing strategies in companies and the restricted public economic frames all together restrict the diffusion of eco-labelled products. Also in relation to the integration of environmental concerns into construction projects, the lack of demand from public customers seems to be a barrier. The public tendering process and lack of environmental criteria may be one of the important structural barriers. Some professional building owners, like one of the big municipalities, are aware of this lack of demand and have – at least for some years – built internal competence to make it easier to get environmental demands included in construction projects. One of the multinational contractor companies with affiliates in Denmark seems to initiate some kind of environmental management with focus on chemical substances and products. It is not clear, however, how widespread this practice is used, whether it automatically becomes a part of a construction project, or it still is necessary for the customer to demand specific concerns to be taken. Within electronic and electrical products, focus is on chemical substances and products as environmental issue. The public regulation has been developed as international regulation, like EU Directives, probably because of the bigger amounts of products and the bigger problems during waste management. All three areas show participation and initiatives from business organisations and from knowledge institutions, in most cases organisations and institutions, which already are part of the resource area. Only in relation to LCA other, more generally focused, knowledge institutions got involved. Development of information to customers is seen within two of the resource areas within rather different product areas: electromechanical products, packaging, printing goods and building products. Although business organisations and branch related knowledge institutions have been involved within all three areas, it looks like the diffusion of the role of environmental demands in business-to-business sales and purchase is limited, like with respect to public green procurement. 91 9 The role of the size of the companies This chapter focuses on the role of company size in the shaping and implementation of environmental initiatives in product chains. The aim is to see whether there is a need for recommendations developed according to the different size of companies. The basis has been the case studies and data about the size of the initiating companies. The companies represented by the case studies are relative big, compared to the Danish business structure 1. This implies that there is a bias in the analyses towards the initiatives of medium-sized and big companies, while initiatives by small companies (below 50 employees only is covered by the cases to a limited extent). The material covers one company with less than 10 employees, maximum three companies with less than 50 employees, while the remaining initiating companies are medium-sized (50 – 250 employees) or big (more than 250 employees. The distribution of companies is seen in Table 9.1. Micro Small Medium-sized Big companies Companies companies (more than 250 (less than 10 (less than 50 (less than 250 employees) LCA Jysk Nylon Technos Danfoss Drives Dan-Rens A/S Gabriel A/S HH Fiboment A/S Customer Jysk Nylon (Brdr. Hartman Post Danmark Information A/S) HCI Nordic A/S Levison+ Bambo Johnson+ Johnson Skylight A/S Green Dan-Rens A/S DSB (Danish procurement Railway) Recycling (Danogips) Skylight A/S Supplier Novotex (Brdr. Hartman Kompan assessment A/S) Skanska and -dialogue HCI Nordic A/S Green product Phønix trykkeriet Berendsen development A/S tekstilservice A/S Akzo Nobel Deco Trevira Neckelman A/S Bambo 1 213.149 of the 229.976 companies in Denmark (excluding agriculture and fishery) had in 2001 less than 50 employees. The total number of employees in this 93% if the companies had around 50% of the total number of employees (Statistical Yearbook 2003) 92 Eco-labelling (Leika Danmark Technos A/S Berendsen A/S) Levison+ Tekstilservice Johnson+ A/S Johnson Trevira Neckelman A/S ISS Danmark Strategic (Leika Danmark Phønix trykkeriet Berendsen co-operation A/S) A/S Tekstilservice A/S ISS Danmark Table 9.1: The size of the companies, which initiated the different types of environmental initiatives in product chains 9.1 LCA LCA is referred in the cases as a relative comprehensive effort, which may include training and technical knowledge about the methodology and the organisation of the activities. Furthermore, LCA is described as a relatively new tool, where not much experience has been obtained, compared to other environmental management tools. The expectation is therefore that rather big companies, which have the knowledge and the economic resources to conduct a LCA, will initiate the use of LCA. The table shows, however, that not only bigger companies have applied LCA, since also a micro company and a small company are among the companies, who has initiated a LCA. The cases show that all the LCA’s, except one conducted by a big company, were based on public funding of the activity. The cases show that the companies see themselves as more innovative and focused on environmental concerns than, what they consider, the average than their competitors. Furthermore, that their customers also are more environmentally concerned. The environmental concerns together with the possibilities for public funding, seems to explain the interest in LCA. The cases also show that in big as well as in smaller companies, LCA often is applied together with other initiatives, especially in connection with documentation of a certain environmental performance or the practice around certain chemical substances. 9.2 Customer information Information to customers about environmental aspects of production or processes is here understood as information, which is given directly to the customers through business-to-business dialogue or through written information about the company. Eco-labelling is discussed in paragraph 9.7. A number of the medium-sized and big companies refer to customer information as an element in their environmental management. These companies also produce or sell products, which are seen as having certain environmental advantages, compared to the products of the competitors. It seems like a characteristic of the companies that they are selling to professional customers. 93 9.3 Green procurement Green procurement has as point of departure that the same product or the same service can be purchased in versions, which include different levels of environmental concerns. Two of the companies among the cases, have a green procurement policy, which have been the background for other initiatives like supplier assessments and LCA. Green procurement is a concept, which has been developed as part of the environmental management in governmental companies and institutions. The only public company among the case companies are together with a private company the two companies with a green procurement policy among the cases. According to the other cases, the implementation of public green procurement policies in governmental companies and institutions is limited, since the cases within green product development all show lack of success, because the governmental institutions do not buy the greener products. Size may influence the use of green procurement. Smaller companies may find it difficult to make the necessary information or doubt whether they can influence the practice of bigger suppliers. According to Stranddorf et al (2002) it is, however, possible for smaller companies to make bigger suppliers interested in co-operation around their environmental demands; for example if the supplier sees the demands as a possibility to get access to a certain customer segment.. 9.4 Recovery of materials and products The cases include two cases where companies initiate the development of recycling schemes, one focused on plasterboard and one focused on plastic. Both schemes start out as internal schemes, which should enable internal recycling of production waste. Later on, the schemes were developed to have a broader basis. The scheme for plastic is developed to include plastic waste from other companies and the scheme for plasterboard is developed to include waste plasterboard from construction sites as raw material for new plasterboard. In the plasterboard case the development of the scheme into a more national scheme and the dialogue with competitors etc. about quality demands has probably only been possible because the company is a substantial actor on the market and also has organisational resources to devote to this task. This perspective is mentioned in the cases, but it seems to be a reliable conclusion that establishing such schemes is only possible in companies with an important role within the area in focus. 9.5 Supplier assessment and -dialogue Supplier assessments have primarily been used when companies based on information from suppliers make an assessment of their environmental performance. Supplier dialogues have been organised when a company enter into dialogue with existing and potential suppliers about changes in the supplied products or services. When a company is conducting supplier assessment or entering into dialogue with existing and potential suppliers the outcome is not necessarily a change in the practice of the supplier. 94 Small, medium-sized and big companies from the cases have conducted supplier assessment or supplier dialogue. Based on the cases it is not possible to conclude whether the size of the company is important in relation to this environmental initiative. The cases seem to show that companies with many suppliers assess their suppliers (Skanska, HCI Nordis A/S), while companies with fewer or very specialised suppliers tend to enter into dialogue with the suppliers (Novotex, Bdr. Hartmann, Kompan). 9.6 Green product development As earlier mentioned, green product development may have an economic focus, where the new product is supposed to enable cost reductions due to reduced resource consumption, or may have a focus, where the product itself has less environmental impact and maybe at the same time is a more expensive product. The reason why green product development with focus on resource savings are not more widespread may be that the company lacks knowledge about its current resource consumption or about alternative materials or methods and lacks the organisational capacity to conduct this kind of assessments and surveys. The barriers to the development of products, which have less environmental impacts, seem to be lack of demand or the need to engage in development of this kind of demand. This may also introduce uncertainty whether it is possible to develop this kind of demand. With respect to both types of green product development, it could be expected that bigger companies would have better possibilities to devote organisational resources for this kind of activities. The cases include four big companies and one medium-sized company, which have been able to develop greener products and develop demand for these products. The cases seem to show that the companies need a certain size to devote the necessary resources and furthermore that the companies need to have a certain position on the market to establish demand for the product. The cases where the product development takes place based on expectations to future public green procurement, seem to show that economic considerations among the public institutions, as mentioned earlier, are a barrier to development of demand for this kind of products (Bambo, Phønix, ISS Danmark). 9.7 Eco-labelling Different types of eco-labels have been in focus in the cases, including public initiated and controlled eco-labelling schemes and eco-labels based on private organisations. The aim of eco-labels are to document that the products fulfil certain requirements to the product itself, to the manufacturing of the product and maybe also to the waste management of the products. Since eco-labels are based on specific demands they are more based on societal expectations to environmental documentation, compared to supplier assessments and LCA’s where the customer may have to develop the criteria for the assessments. This may enable smaller companies to use eco-labelling as a tool, since the assessments are based on a limited number of already known criteria. The company Technos A/S changed its environmental 95 management from LCA to eco-labelling because (some of) its suppliers were not willing to provide the necessary information for a LCA; apparently because Technos was a customer of limited importance compared to the amount of work that the development of the LCA data would demand. Furthermore, the eco-labelling only implied a limited scrutiny of the practice of the supplier, which may have made it more acceptable to the supplier to engage in dialogue about it. Maybe the type of customer also influences the choice of eco-labelling as tool, since it may be seen as easier for smaller or less advanced customers to handle this kind of information. However, the cases do not make it possible to draw a conclusion in relation to this hypothesis. 9.8 Strategic co-operation The cases with focus on strategic co-operation include two big companies and one medium-sized company. The cases have focus on development of the environmental competence of the companies and development of a stronger market position through development of new products or services. The cases show development of more committed co-operation between customer and supplier. One case shows development of co-operation between two companies of the same size. In another case, the customer makes an agreement with a smaller company, which probably is more depending on the customer than vice versa. 96 10 The role of governmental regulation This chapter analyses the role of different types of governmental regulation in the shaping of environmental management in product chains. By governmental regulation is also meant regulation issued by other actors than local or national governmental authorities. The cases show several examples where different types of governmental regulation has been important as driving force or barrier in the shaping and embedding of the environmental initiatives in product chains. The analyses of the cases have identified the following types of governmental and international regulation as important in the shaping and embedding of the initiatives: • Public funding for innovation, competence development etc. • Regulation of chemicals • Waste management regulation • Product standards • Public green procurement • Eco-labelling • Product panels • ISO 14001 standard • The Kyoto-protocol The following paragraphs analyse the role of the different types of regulation, including interaction between the different types of regulation. 10.1 Public funding for innovation, competence development etc. Some of the initiatives have been started because of public support for development projects within the Danish cleaner products programme and support for implementation of environmental management. Three of the initiatives with implementation of life cycle assessment have been supported through funding for dissemination of life cycle assessment as part of the efforts from the Danish Environmental Protection Agency for the further development and application of life cycle assessment as tool in environmental management and product design. However, the results of the two of the cases seems limited in terms of LCA achievements, since the partners in two of the projects found the provided LCA-model too time-consuming and too data 97 demanding. One important barrier was the problems with collection of the necessary data from suppliers due to the limited role of the companies as customers with several of their suppliers. One company decided in stead to focus on an eco-label for a product, because it turned out to be easier to make the suppliers answer rather specific questions concerning their use (or non- use) of specific chemicals. The programme for cleaner products also supported a project developing a supply chain management system (focusing on environment, work environment and quality) in a textile company. Earlier on, projects on environmental management and cleaner technology in the printing industry were supported by a programme for cleaner technology and for employment of unemployed academia in business as environmental coordinators. There was a strong interaction between these projects and the initial phase of public green procurement, where printed products were an important product group in focus. A project with development of environmental product declarations for a certain type of concrete products was supported by the programme for implementation of environmental management funded by the Danish Agency for Development of Trade and Industry and the Danish Environmental Protection Agency. This project seems to have been part of a branch project, since the programme only supported branch-oriented projects and not specific companies unless it was aiming at providing experience for the whole branch. Finally, there is one example of governmental support from a non- environmental programme. A centre for so-called resource-saving concrete constructions with a number of the companies and consultants within design and manufacturing of concrete and the Danish Agency for Roads were supported by a programme for centre contracts managed by the Danish Agency for Development of Trade and Industry. The programme aimed at supporting targeted and strategic innovation projects. The aim was to develop and test new forms of concrete using rather high amounts of residual products as a substitute for a part of the cement in the concrete, whereby the amount of greenhouse gasses from the production of cement for a concrete construction was reduced. The project was seen a contribution to the fulfilment of Danish target for reduction of Danish emissions of greenhouse gasses according to the Kyoto protocol. This project shows interaction between two types of governmental regulation. An international agreement (although not officially sanctioned at that time) acted as guidance for environmental innovation activities, which were supported by an innovation programme. The project shows also another (intended) interaction with governmental regulation, since it was the expectations of the participants in the centre that the experience with the new forms of concrete would inspire changes in the Danish rules for construction of roads and bridges, the co-called Road Rules. These rules act as a kind of standard for the public tenders within the area. 10.2 Regulation of chemicals The Danish regulation of chemicals, in terms of the so-called list of unwanted chemicals, has provided guidance for some companies focusing on substitution of hazardous chemicals applied in the manufacturing of their products. 98 Another way that regulation of chemicals has shaped some of the cases is through demands from foreign industrial customers in order for them to meet demands for the application of chemicals in their manufacturing processes and/or in their products. 10.2.1 Waste management regulation The increased fees on waste management have shaped two cases. A national initiative on recycling of waste plasterboard material from construction sites was initiated based on a wish for recycling of plasterboard waste to a manufacturer of plasterboard material from a big renovation project. This wish from the renovation project might have been inspired by the fees on waste for landfilling, like the manufacturer’s efforts for reduction of landfilling from their own production. Due to the wish from the renovation project, the manufacturer of plasterboard decided to initiate a project on the development of a national scheme for collection of plasterboard waste. Guidelines for the quality of the waste, which should be accepted for recycling, were developed in co-operation with the other major manufacturer of plasterboard and two inter-municipal waste management companies. However, the need for every municipal administration to allow this form of collection for recycling as part of their local waste management regulation turned out to be a weak point in the implementation of the scheme, since only a few municipalities have signed the agreement. However, the development of the scheme with respect to logistics and the type of plasterboard, which is recyclable, has continued. The barrier with the differences in the municipal waste management schemes has been a barrier to the other initiative within recycling of residual materials, in this case a project on recycling of plastic waste. 10.3 Product standards The role of standards for construction materials (concrete and plasterboard) has already been mentioned as an important condition for integration of quality aspects into the development of products (partly) based on use of residual products as raw materials. Another example is the role of the European Directive on Construction Products, which initiated an enquiry from a big Swedish company to a Danish manufacturer whether a number of chemical products were included in the components the company was delivering to the Swedish company. This enquiry inspired the Danish company to further develop their database with information about the many components, which the company is selling, and develop guidelines for integration of environmental concerns into the development of new products. 10.4 Public green procurement The demand for public green procurement in national governmental administrations and institutions, and the focus on this in municipal and regional administrations and institutions, has implied an interest for the development of “greener” products in a number of the cases. In several of these cases there is an interaction with eco-labelling. Several companies, within printed goods, furniture, sanitation products and detergents, have used eco-labelling criteria as guidance in their product development. However, most of the cases show no or very limited interest from the governmental institutions for buying these products. The problem seems to be an increased price (in some cases) and the turnover fee for eco-labelled products. Often the 99 manufacturer add this turnover fee to the product price, which make some customers ask for the eco-labelled quality, but without the label on the product in order to avoid the turnover fee. Only within printed goods there is some demand for eco-labelled products, but also here governmental customers ask for products without the label. The two printing houses print only eco-labelled quality, but the lack of the physical eco-label on a part of the products reduces the visibility of the eco-label and reduces thereby the potential dissemination of the eco-label. The restricted governmental budgets and the surplus price on many eco- labelled products limit together eco-labelling as environmental strategy. It is not clear to what extent the eco-labelled products are more expensive – apart from the turnover fee – and whether surplus prices mirror actual surplus product costs. The case with eco-labelled napkins shows extra product costs of around 4%. 10.5 Eco-labelling Besides the interaction with public green procurement as described above, eco-labelling has also had a role in one of the initiatives, where eco-labelling criteria together with the list of unwanted substances acted as guidance for the development of an environmental declaration on metal products. The list and the eco-labelling criteria help identifying criteria for what information to include in the environmental product declaration. 10.6 Product panels The product panels are not mentioned in any of the cases, but in relation to the dissemination of the eco-label within the textile and clothing sector the textile product panel played an important role in bringing together actors within the supply side (the manufacturers and the designers), the demand side (the retailers) and the knowledge system (NGO’s). These panels can be seen as a case within the policy network governance paradigm. As mentioned, it has had an important role in the interaction with eco-labelling as strategy within the sector, although the actual market share still is very limited. The product panels have similarities to the centre on concrete constructions, which also included demand, supply and the knowledge system. 10.7 ISO 14001 standard The standard on environmental management systems has played a role in a number of cases. Some companies have engaged in initiatives in product chains as part of their implementation of an environmental management system. One company describes how the environmental management system was helpful in the data collection when answering an enquiry from a customer. 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