INDIAN SCENARIO

BACKGROUND

As part of an effort to improve environmental quality and to increase environmental awareness among industries and consumers, the Indian Parliament initiated a voluntary ecolabeling program known as the Ecomark in February 1991. The Ecomark is a government operated seal-of-approval program for enviromentally-preferable consumer products. The Ministry of Environment of Forests (MoEF), with the technical advice of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), manages the program. Unlike many other international ecolabeling programs that are independent, India’s Ecomark is tied with the BIS’s product quality standards. In order to be Ecomark certified, products must meet these product quality standards, as well as product-specific environmental criteria set by the Ecomark program. In meeting Ecomark requirements, manufacturers will also have both the BIS’s quality standards label on their products.

The Ecomark label is seen as a “movement of consumers” and is therefore given exclusively to consumer products.Interestingly, even though (as of January 1997) sixteen product categories had been selected for the Ecomark, only one product, in the detergent product category, has been awarded the Ecomark. So far, however, there are no products available on the market with the ecolabel; the manufacturer of the detergent product that had been awarded the Ecomark did not market the product with the ecolabel. According to Dr.Sudhir K.Ghosh, Member Secretary of the Ecomark Technical Committee, “Indian industries are not coming forward to get eco-certification of their products, though they are involved in the process of criteria development”. Some attribute this to the costs involved in applying for the Ecomark and the numerous regulatory requirements manufacturers must meet before being awarded the ecolabel. Other reasons may include industries’ concerns about the Ecomark program, which are outlined below.