We are always looking to deepen our cooperation with other Type 1 ecolabels in the world. In January we traveled to Berlin to meet our Blue Angel friends to discuss more possibilities for cooperation. The focus at this meeting was on an increased harmonization between us on the criteria for office machines.
" Our meeting with the Blue Angel was the starting point for a closer cooperation. We will work on exchanging more criteria information between our companies with the goal of having even more criteria harmonization for office machines", comments Ove Jansson, product manager for Office Machines at Ecolabelling Sweden, and adds,
"After this, we will continue our work of looking into the criteria for other product groups in the hope of being able to harmonize more product criteria. "
Since many companies have international markets and need Ecolabels that will work in all their markets, it is important to cooperate on criteria cooperation. By striving to harmonize, as much as possible in our criteria development, we hope this will make it easier for companies to have Ecolabels that will work for them in the global marketplace. The idea is that if a company´s product fulfills the criteria for one Ecolabel they can apply this to another Ecolabel, saving both time and money.
" We want to make it as simple as possible for our customers to use Type 1 Ecolabels throughout the world. It is therefore important for us at the Blue Angel to harmonize our criteria as much as possible", comments Dr Hans-Hermann Eggers, from Umwelt Bundesamt, who is responsible for criteria development at the Blue Angel organization.
" Both the Nordic Swan Ecolable and the Blue Angel are well-established Type 1 Ecolabels and respected in their markets. If we can increase our cooperation we can accomplish many things together," says Dr Hans-Hermann Eggers.
The Nordic Swan will now be a part of the Blue Angel´s expert group for criteria development of office machines.