Miljøprojekt, 1093 – Evaluering af Program for renere produkter

Evaluering af Program for renere produkter

Summary and conclusions

In 2005-2006, Oxford Research A/S carried out an evaluation of the ”Programme for Cleaner Products”. The study was made on behalf of the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, and was carried out in cooperation with the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE) at Lund’s University and Pluss Leadership A/S. The Programme for Cleaner Products was initiated in 1999, and projects were implemented to the end of 2003, with the overall purpose of reducing the environmental impact of products in connection with development, production, marketing, sales and application – including waste management - throughout the entire life cycle of the products. The Danish Environmental Protection Agency was managing the programme, and also provided secretarial services to the Environmental Council for Cleaner Products. The Council was composed of several key stakeholders, and gave advice on strategic aspects in connection with the implementation of the programme.

The purpose of the evaluation has been ”to evaluate whether the efforts made under the programme have directly or indirectly contributed to fulfilling the purpose and sub-targets”. On this background, the evaluation was carried out as an evaluation of the combined achievements regarding goal fulfilment and effects. Besides, other environmental, economic, strategic, organisational and administrative issues which were not directly included in the programme’s objectives, were also addressed.

The Programme for Cleaner Products

The Programme for Cleaner Products has been one of the most important instruments of the Danish Integrated Product Policy (IPP) strategy, which has formed the predominant basis for action within Danish environmental policy since the mid-1990s. As mentioned, the Programme for Cleaner Products was implemented from 1999 to the end of 2003. The programme was partly based on the earlier efforts made within the “Action Plan for Cleaner Technology”.

The programme has primarily been implemented based on two objectives; A development objective (parts I and II) aiming at improving the basis for the development of cleaner products, and an environment competence objective, aiming at increasing the environmental competence of the key players with regard to production and application of cleaner products. In addition, the programme included two minor sub-targets for promotion of environmental labelling and for particularly promising projects. Each year, priority plans have been developed as the basis for allocating funds to projects, and a series of special priority areas have been selected. Just around DKK 515 million have been allocated to 1,440 projects during the programme period.

Overall conclusions

The programme was to decrease the environmental pressure from products in connection with development, production, marketing, sales and application of the products, including the quality of waste management throughout their entire life cycle. The overall objectives of the programme are listed in the table below, together with the evaluator’s assessments. The assessments are further elaborated in the following sections.

The programme was to contribute to improved conditions regarding:
	Development of products with improved environmental characteristics from cradle to grave – including reduction of the environmental pressure from production and application, also in connection with waste management.
	The environmental characteristics of the products were to become part of the market and competitive conditions, on the same level as price, quality, functionality etc.
	Each group of players could and would participate in reducing the environmental pressure during production and application of products, and in waste management as well.
The programme was to contribute to the following aims:
	To develop and distribute general knowledge and methods which are the basis for being able to develop, produce, sell and dispose of cleaner products.
	To use the aggregated knowledge for development of cleaner products.
	To change the consumption pattern towards use of cleaner products.
	To develop and distribute general knowledge, and to develop more environmentally sound methods and systems for waste management.

In a high-level perspective, the different efforts of the Programme for Cleaner Products have to a large extent contributed to creating the framework for reducing the environmental pressure of products in a complete life cycle perspective.

The programme has had a high degree of inner strategic cohesion based on a well-documented and relevant approach. Furthermore, to a large extent, an external strategic cohesion has existed in relation to other initiatives in terms of environmental policy, but to a lesser extent in relation to business policy issues. However, the programme has to a significant degree involved business players, who have contributed to its implementation, both at industry and company level.

In an international perspective, the design of the programme stands out as quite unique – with regards to both systemic approach and timing. The programme has been ahead of its time, and has created a series of synergies by paving the way for unique combinations of efforts and projects at a time where the international community has been pursuing more traditional and narrow-focused efforts.

However, the systemic approach of the programme has also been the most significant ”Achilles heel”, since, as an example, the hierarchy of goals under the Programme for Cleaner Products has to a large degree not been quite clear. This has made it difficult to create an overview and to pursue the goals and concrete results in the implementation of the programme.

The programme has contributed to the development of products with improved environmental characteristics. However, the strengths of the programme lie first and foremost in its framework-creating nature. The funded projects have to a large extent focused on the development of knowledge and methodology, and to a lesser extent on product and technology development. Even when projects have received funding as a technology development project, the projects have, according to the recipients of the funds, been about the development of knowledge and methodology. There are only very few examples of newly developed products and technologies that have been commercialized, but there are many examples of prototypes etc. which could have a market potential in the longer term.

The framework-creating nature of the programme has resulted in the fact that – in spite of a very high degree of goal fulfilment – the two key objectives of the programme (the development objective and the environmental competence objective) have to a significant extent not resulted in directly measurable environmental effects, and, to an even lesser extent, in directly measurable business economic effects. On the other hand, the two objectives have contributed to significant potential environmental effects. In this context, calculations show that the future socio-economic environmental benefit of five selected projects could amount to DKK 200 million. If this environmental benefit is realized, the result will be achieved by a programme investment of approximately DKK 10 million. In a programme perspective, this could be interpreted as evidence that the environmental benefit of around 20 to 100 successful projects would be able to repay the total programme investment of about DKK 515 million, which have been allocated to the total of 1,440 projects.

The long-term time perspective is essential in this respect – in relation to finishing development of products and technologies, in relation to products being sold in the market, and in relation to the actual realisation of the environmental potential. Furthermore, it can be concluded that the programme has not to a significant extent resulted in giving the environmental characteristics of products the same standing in market and competitive conditions as those of price, quality and functionality etc., which was an explicit objective of the programme. A possible future realization of the environmental benefit will, in this context, depend on many social influencing factors, which go way beyond what is possible to address in a programme context.

Special attention should be directed to the programme’s focus on specific environmental problem areas – for example substitution of lead and PVC as waste fractions. The effort has contributed to Danish companies – in particular small and medium-sized – having gained potential international competitive advantages. In the long term, this position will be able to contribute to the realization of direct environmental and business economic effects.

Together with the programme’s other areas of effort with product panels and industry efforts, the effort directed toward the special environmental problem areas has also contributed to a high degree of player involvement in the work to promote cleaner products. In this context, the product panels must be praised as an innovative instrument, where players in specific product groups meet across value-chains, for common dialogue and action. The industry effort has also shown good results – in particular with regard to embedding the environmental work in the companies, and, in this context, also contributing to the distribution of knowledge.

In general, the product panels, the industry efforts and the special environmental problem areas have been very appropriate programme instruments – and also served as tools for supporting the implementation and adjustment of existing and future environmental legislation.

Distribution of the programme results and contribution to the viability of the results have been key objectives during the programme period. Knowledge about good results has been distributed, and several initiatives and projects are still on their way. Several projects have been driven by consultants. In many cases this has been important in order to distribute new knowledge and methods. However, more focus on efforts to follow-up on the results on the part of the Danish Environmental Protection Agency – combined with a more thorough assessment of the distribution potential of individual projects and clusters of projects etc. – could have paved the way for better distribution of the project results.