New paths to competitive advantage
Cleaner products – a key issue in Denmark
For some years now, Denmark and a number of other Western countries have been working systematically to develop IPP - Integrated Product Policy.
In Denmark, the starting signal for this work was the discussion paper "Intensified Product-oriented Environmental Initiative" published by the Danish EPA in 1996.
Attention was thereby focused on the overall environmental impact of products throughout their whole life cycle. At the same time, attention was also focused on the interplay between the market, the products and the actors.
The ideas in the discussion paper are founded on several years of efforts to promote the use of cleaner technology in enterprises.
Integrated product policy
Integrated Product Policy is about exploiting the market forces so that the environmental properties of the products in their whole life cycle are included in the competition on the market.
The market can support sustainable development in the many areas where the environmental impact of the individual products is not so great that regulatory intervention is needed. The goal is to ensure continual improvement in the products' environmental properties.
IPP is about improving the environment by enhancing the development and sale of cleaner products, and about strengthening the enterprises' possibilities on national and international markets.
Product policy is integrated at three levels:
 | Environmental assessment is to be used to examine all steps from cradle to grave, and all significant environmental effects are to be included in the overall decision. |
| All the actors are to be taken into account - all links in the product chain from design to disposal are to participate and cooperate. |
| A broad range of measures is to be used that support both supply and demand on the market. |
Danish initiatives
Since presentation of the discussion paper in 1996, the Danish authorities have been promoting the market for cleaner products through various initiatives:
| A knowledge centre for life cycle assessments has been established. The centre's task is to help enterprises with knowledge and tools for their efforts to reduce environmental impact of their products. |
| Considerable efforts have been made to promote cooperation between the various actors in the product chain. As a unique Danish solution, this has been achieved among other means through a number of product panels where enterprises, branch organizations, consumers and other actors in a given area cooperate on promoting the development and sale of cleaner products. The sectors hitherto encompassed are electronics, textiles, freight transport, building, retail trade and agriculture. |
| Green procurement policies have been promoted in the public sector. The public market is large and comprises an important locomotive for the development of a stable and sustainable market for cleaner products. |
| Denmark has joined the Nordic Swan ecolabel and has actively promoted both the Swan and the EU Flower ecolabels. Criteria have been established for new product categories, and information campaigns have been conducted to increase awareness of the two ecolabels. |
| A support programme for cleaner products has supported the abovementioned initiatives and others for several years. Examples are projects to develop cleaner products devoid of undesirable chemical substances and to develop methods and tools for documenting and disseminating knowledge about environmental aspects of products and enterprises. It is also about promoting involvement and cooperation among the actors and about building up environmental expertise in enterprises. |
| On the international scene, Denmark participates actively in efforts to promote IPP, especially in the EU. For example, Denmark played a major role in the work to get environmental requirements incorporated into public tenders. |
