Ethical Clothing Australia provides textile, clothing and footwear businesses with practical resources to help ensure compliance with relevant laws and regulations in Australia and offers a method to communicate this to consumers and buyers. It is a voluntary system that helps meet compliance requirements. See: http://www.ethicalclothingaustralia.org.au/ … [Read more...]
Product Stewardship Bill 2011 (Commonwealth)
Product stewardship extends the responsibility for environmental impact of a product to everyone involved in its life-cycle; not only manufacturers but also retailers, consumers and recyclers etc. The Product Stewardship Bill 2011 was passed by Parliament on 22 June 2011. It provides the framework to effectively manage the environmental, health and safety impacts of products in Australia. It forms part of the National Waste Policy and includes voluntary, co-regulatory and mandatory product … [Read more...]
Australian Packaging Covenant
The Australian Packaging Covenant sits under the National Waste Policy and is the voluntary component of a regulatory arrangement based on the principles of shared responsibility through product stewardship, between key stakeholders in the supply chain and all levels of government. The Covenant is designed to minimise environmental impacts arising from the disposal of used packaging, conserve resources through better design and production processes and facilitate the re-use and recycling of … [Read more...]
The Australian Ecolabel Program
The Australian Ecolabel Program, managed by Good Environmental Choice Australia (GECA), is based on the international standard ISO 14024: "Environmental Labels and Declarations - Guiding Principles" which requires environmental labeling specifications to include criteria that are objective, reasonable and verifiable. The program has developed a number of voluntary standards for ‘environmentally preferable products’, based on a life cycle assessment approach to environmental performance … [Read more...]
National Carbon Offset Standard (NCOS)
From 1 July 2010 Australia has a National Carbon Offset Standard (NCOS) to encourage businesses to offset their greenhouse-gas emissions in a voluntary carbon market. It provides a voluntary standard for businesses to use in becoming carbon neutral and in developing carbon neutral products. It also includes guidance on calculating the carbon footprint of an organisation or product and product life cycle analysis for the purpose of achieving ‘carbon neutrality’. Only emissions sources that … [Read more...]
ISO 14000 Set:2005 Environmental Management Standards set
The ISO 14000 family of standards addresses various aspects of environmental management which aims to control and improve the environmental performance of an organisation as measured against objectives. The standards are voluntary. The family of standards includes: ISO 1400 1 :2004 Environmental Management Systems (requirements) ISO 14004:2004 Environmental Management Systems (guidelines) ISO 14050:2009 Environmental management - Vocabulary ISO 14040:2006 Environmental … [Read more...]
ISO 26000 Social Responsibility Guidance Standard
ISO 26000 is an International Standard giving guidance on social responsibility - what it means, what issues an organisation needs to address in order to operate in a socially responsible manner, and what is best practice. It contains voluntary guidance, not requirements, and therefore is not a certification standard like ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2004. http://www.iso.org/iso/social_responsibility … [Read more...]
