Environmental labelling agreement

The Australian Environmental Labelling Association (AELA) and the Thailand Environmental Institute (TEI) have entered a mutual recognition agreement aimed at facilitating greater access by industry and environmentally preferable manufacturers to each other's green purchasing markets. Both the AELA and TEI are not-for-profit organisations with the core function of delivering transparent and credible information on the environmental performance of products on the market and promoting the development of green procurement and sustainable consumption.

The agreement confirms the recognition of the Australian Good Environmental Choice and Thai Green Label Scheme in the two countries and allows each to represent the other on verification services in their domestic markets.

"The Australian Good Environmental Choice program has now gained international and domestic acceptance as Australia's national environmental labelling program for consumer and building products," said Mr Petar Johnson, President of Good Environmental Choice - Australia.

"The Australian ecolabel now offers over 200 verified and recognised environmentally preferable products for the discerning consumer. As markets shift towards the procurement of environmentally preferable

products, Australia is well positioned to benefit in trade," he said. The Australian environmental label has current mutual recognition agreements in Asian markets with South Korea, Taiwan, China and now Thailand. Both in South Korea and Taiwan, government green procurement is mandated by legislation. The Thai program has voluntary environmental standards for 35 product categories, while another 11 are currently under development. The product categories include rubber insulation, personal cars, wood substitute construction materials, refillable containers, silica gel, televisions, mobile phones, fax machines, MDF boards, disposable plastics, and paper insulators.

Mr Johnson said, "The Thai market is maturing with much greater emphasis on consumer products with a lower environmental and human health impact during the product lifetime. The mutual recognition agreement is an opportunity for Australian companies seeking to export to the Thai markets to have their products assessed for environmental performance domestically to Thai requirements as a way of gaining greater market access and recognition in Thailand. The business opportunities for Australian environmentally preferable products continue to grow and grow in overseas markets."

For more information see www.aela.org.au; www.tei.or.th; http://www.gen.gr.jp