Evaluating product panels
4 Product panels as a Product-Oriented Environmental Initiative tool
Product panels are tools used in many environmental-policy contexts. Above all, they are part of the Programme for Cleaner Products, etc., and therefore also part of the Product-Oriented Environmental Initiative. Concurrently with this evaluation, the entire Programme for Cleaner Products, etc., is undergoing an assessment looking at how the individual elements of the Programme interact and how the Programme interacts with other strategies of the Product-Oriented Environmental Initiative. As there is no reason to duplicate this focus, this evaluation will, drawing on the product panels’ experience, mainly address how other elements of the Programme interact with the Product-Oriented Environmental Initiative.
To help readers, the following section gives a brief introduction to the role of product panels in the Programme for Cleaner Products, etc., and the Product-Oriented Environmental Initiative.
4.1 Product panels’ role in the Programme and the Product-Oriented Environmental Initiative
The Product-Oriented Environmental Initiative comprises a number of strategic initiatives in the environmental field, all aimed at promoting the development and sale of cleaner products. The initiatives come in response to the huge potential for reducing the environmental impacts that result from the vast number of products consumed by every household, company and the like on a daily basis. At the same time, the Product-Oriented Environmental Initiative has an industrial-policy goal: to reinforce Danish trade and industry's competitive edge in a future market that will increasingly put the environment on the agenda and demand cleaner products.
The Product-Oriented Environmental Initiative uses a number of instruments to promote the development and sale of cleaner products. These are:
 | Accumulation of knowledge, methods and competence |
| Information |
| Green taxes and other economic measures |
| Regulation of use |
| Player involvement and cooperation |
| International activities |
| Subsidies |
As far as the Product-Oriented Environmental Initiative is concerned, product panels are a tool included in the Player Involvement and Cooperation group of instruments. Since the introduction of the Product-Oriented Environmental Initiative in 1998, activities have been or are being supplemented with several new initiatives that, from a product life cycle approach, focus on specific target areas:
| Strategy for chemicals |
| Focus on resource efficiency |
| Strategy for waste prevention |
| Green strategy for industrial development |
Furthermore, the Danish Government is working on a national strategy for sustainable development that will go beyond the scope of the Product-Oriented Environmental Initiative. The strategy for sustainable development includes integration of environmental considerations in a number of policy areas such as climatic conditions, nature and biodiversity, health and life quality, waste, etc. The idea is to incorporate the Product-Oriented Environmental Initiative into the strategy for sustainable development.
The Programme for Cleaner Products, etc., is one of the key tools for implementing the Product-Oriented Environmental Initiative. The Programme is divided into:
| Development Scheme Part I (knowledge, product and market) |
| Development Scheme Part II (waste and reuse) |
| Environmental Competence Scheme |
| Eco-Labels Promotion Scheme |
| Cross-cutting information |
| Perspective Pool |
Product panels have their own operating budgets under the Development Scheme, but they can also recommend projects and initiatives fundable under the Programme.
4.2 Innovative character of product panels
Previous experience shows that, in some respects, product panels contribute new elements to the Product-Oriented Environmental Initiative. All three product panels have helped foster new and cross-sectoral forums for dialogue in areas where networks and work groups of this kind have not previously existed. Panel members are generally very open to these new forums, which integrate the market players in the Product-Oriented Environmental Initiative to an unprecedented extent.
Compared with other types of player involvement and cooperation, such as the Environmental Council for Cleaner Products, industrial initiatives, consultation rounds and the like, product panels differ in being new networks based on the product life cycle approach. The novelty lies in the fact that so many market players from the same product area are sitting at the same table. Probability and experience suggest that such new networks tend to get off to a fitful start and that their full value can only be assessed in the long run. Product panels represent a new approach to putting the environment on the agenda from a product life cycle perspective.
For one thing, the environmental impacts of product panels should be evaluated in terms of their spreading effect. The product panels do not exist for the mere purpose of allowing individual panel members to reap the benefits of such cooperation and accumulation of knowledge; they should also benefit an entire industry. In this connection, the textiles panel has managed to involve a large group of textiles and retail companies in the product range of eco-labelled textiles launched in early 2001. Thus, at the launch of this product range, eleven Danish textiles producers were using the EU flower on their products, while about sixteen retail chains and a number of specialty stores were selling these eco-labelled textiles to retail customers. This spreading effect is the result of extensive fieldwork undertaken by the knowledge centre founded by the textiles panel.
The other two product panels have yet to boast the same spreading effect, but the electronics panel has established a website that compiles knowledge, methods and tools in the field of environmental issues and electronics products. In addition, all three product panels have held a number of workshops, conferences and the like.
According to the panel members, work undertaken by the individual product panels has helped put the development and sale of cleaner products on the agenda in the three industries. However, impact has varied greatly between the three industries. The question is to what extent do the market players sitting on and involved in the product panels feel bound to this new panel cooperation? Outside of its operating budget, the textiles panel has invested resources in building a knowledge centre funded by the Federation of Danish Textile and Clothing, a trade association. Furthermore, many textiles companies have worked hard to have their products eco-labelled. Otherwise, the panel members have generally not invested resources in panel work beyond time spent. The panel member interviews suggest that many consider product panels interesting dialogue forums that give them a relatively informal opportunity to keep abreast of environmental issues and to discuss environmental problems.
4.3 Interaction with other Programme elements
The product panels encompass entire product life cycles, thus touching on other elements of the Programme for Cleaner Products, etc. At the same time, the product panels are relatively free to lay down their own strategies for promoting the development and sale of cleaner products and for selecting the instruments that they want to test.
Through their action plans, the product panels have recommended and spurred a wealth of analysis and development work in the three product areas (see chapter 2). The electronics and goods transport panels, in particular, have focused primarily on the part of the Programme known as the Development Scheme, which addresses the accumulation of knowledge and methods, product development, market development as well as waste and reuse.
As a result of the textiles panel’s efforts in developing a product range of environment-friendly textiles, about half of the producers using eco-labels have been subsidised under the Environmental Competence Scheme. Furthermore, when the textiles panel launched a new product range of eco-labelled textiles, an amount of approximately DKK 6m was allocated under the Programme for Cleaner Products, etc., to a large-scale eco-labels information campaign addressing products like textiles.
4.4 Product panels – a useful tool in the Product-Oriented Environmental Initiative?
Basically, Danish environmental policy uses two traditional tools: regulation and economic measures. Regulation comprises environmental legislation, whereas economic measures include subsidy schemes and environmental taxation. However, international policy, especially European Union policy, increasingly limits both tools. Denmark is under an obligation to adjust environmental regulations to EU directives, and EU rules governing subsidisation and indirect taxation also put a cap on economic measures. In this light, efforts are currently being made to introduce alternative tools to allow Denmark to pursue an active environmental policy.
A third tool in the Product-Oriented Environmental Initiative is player involvement and cooperation, including the product panels. These three tools interact closely, all aiming to control, encourage and get the market to develop and sell cleaner products. Figure 4.1 illustrates interaction between the three policy tools.
Figure 4.1:
Product-Oriented Environmental Initiative tools
Source: Oxford Research A/S, 2001
The product panels interact with the other two tools in that they provide input to new and existing regulation. Not only does such input give the environmental authorities valuable technical response and an insight into the effects of regulation for a broad group of market players, the direct involvement of market players may also ensure increased support and better understanding of the need for environmental regulation. Furthermore, the product panels can enhance the market players’ insight into future regulation, which could be an advantage when they develop long-term strategies, for example in product development.
In this process, the product panels can also help stimulate market self-regulation, with market players setting new standards for environment-friendly products on their own initiative. This will happen when, for example, a company contributes to market development by marketing new environment-friendly products or when consumers start demanding cleaner products.
Unlike with the economic measures, the product panels themselves initiate the development of products and the like under the subsidy schemes. This makes them users of the subsidy system and thus able to make recommendations for subsidies. Similarly, product panels can contribute experience to indirect-tax policy.
The product panels strengthen interaction between the market and the environmental authorities. Using the regulation tool, the environmental authorities are already seeking to involve market players through consultation rounds on bills, the composition of the Environmental Council for Cleaner Products and the ongoing public debate on regulation. As far as subsidies are concerned, projects and initiatives often involve close cooperation between project members and the Danish EPA. Characteristically, however, these two traditional tools in fact interact bilaterally between the Danish EPA and one or few market players. In this respect, the product panels are a novelty in that they introduce dialogue forums representing a relatively broad selection of market players along product life cycles. This links market supply and demand together in a shared dialogue with the environmental authorities.
As a Product-Oriented Environmental Initiative tool, product panels remain an experiment with some teething troubles. Yet it appears to be a relevant and useful tool capable of:
| strengthening interaction between the market and environmental authorities |
| strengthening the implementation of the Product-Oriented Environmental Initiative |
| increasing market self-regulation |
| making people more aware of the product life cycle approach |