Flower-power needs regeneration

In the early 1990s the EU set up an eco-labelling scheme to make it easier for shoppers to spot environmentally friendly products.

Dubbed the "flower label", this was one of the first EU-wide attempts to improve the energy efficiency of goods and raise environmental standards more generally.

Eco-labelling, an entirely voluntary scheme, has seen green groups, producers and retailers draw up environmmental criteria for more than 20 common products. These include mattresses, televisions and laptops. Since 2003 standards for tourism have also been developed.

But interest in the flower label remains low. This is partly blamed on rivalry from well-established national eco-labels, including the Nordic Swan, and partly on low interest from industry.

The scheme comes up for review next month and Herbert Aichinger of the European Commission said he hoped to see simpler eco-labelling rules emerge.

"So far the scheme has delivered a bit, but we have not really got the real boost [for environmentally friendly products and services] that we wanted," he said.

A 2000 review of the scheme, according to Aichinger, made things worse. "It made the process very bureaucratic; more red tape went in than out."

Documents setting out the criteria for being awarded a flower label can run to 50 pages, he pointed out. Applications involve submitting large amount of information and conducting numerous tests: "This can be too expensive for a lot of small- and medium-sized businesses," according to Aichinger.

He said the criteria for being awarded a flower label should remain the same but become easier to understand. "This is not about ambition, everyone agrees that the flower label should be for the elite…but now is really the time to look at the issues and make them more business friendly."

Business should be encouraged to get more involved with drawing up the criteria, he suggested. The current slow and bureaucratic procedure sees many industry groups dropping out of talks before conclusions are reached.

The scheme has in the past overstretched itself, he added, for example during efforts to agree criteria for furniture. "It was too ambitious, we tried to cover all materials." An eco-label for wooden furniture is now being developed instead.

Aichinger said the Commission also planned to link the flower label more closely with the energy labelling directive. This compulsory label grades certain products from G to A+, according to their energy efficiency.

"We want to have more synergies with the energy label," said Aichinger. "We will have to look very closely at how to do this; it is not logical to have two separate labels."

He said the revised flower label would also help public authorities buy more environmentally friendly products and services: "Green public procurement is coming more and more into focus in the energy efficiency discussion. We want to make criteria that can be cut and pasted to public procurement contracts."

In the early 1990s the EU set up an eco-labelling scheme to make it easier for shoppers to spot environmentally friendly products.