Green Product Certification - Type II Labels

These are environmental claims made about goods by their manufacturers, importers or distributors. They are not independently verified, do not use pre-determined and accepted criteria for reference, and are arguably the least informative of the three types of environmental labels.

A label claiming a product to be 'biodegradable', without defining the term, is not necessarily a compliant Type II label. Under ISO 14021, all claims must be backed by bona fide and readily available third party information such as in the case of a claim for Biodegradability - independent laboratory test data from an ISO 17025 compliant laboratory. Furthermore an explanatory statement is required to be provided in close proximity and of reasonable size, so they can be read together explaining the reasons for the claim.

This labelling places the following responsibilities on Self-Declared environmental claims

• be honest and truthful
• detail the specific part of the product or process it is referring to
• use language which the average member of the public can understand
• explain the significance of the benefit
• be able to be substantiate the claim