Development of assessment criteria and collection of data for the evaluation of sustainability standards

In 2013, the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) was commissioned by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) with the project "Quality check of sustainability standards". The aim of the project was to provide consumers, public authorities, companies and civil society with access to an internationally agreed methodology for monitoring and evaluating the performance and credibility of sustainability standards. The analysis tool reviewed both sustainability standards in production processes (e.g. standards, such as fair trade and FSC) as well as standard systems focussing on product properties (e.g. labels such as the Blue Angel and the EU ecolabel). The comparative and evaluation methodology looked both at the substantive aspects (ecological and socio-economic dimension) as well as at the system-related aspects (covering areas such as standardization process, control systems, and the planning of management arrangements). Within this project, Oeko-Institut scientifically supported GIZ with the development of the substantive evaluation criteria including minimum requirements, the assessment schemes as well as the data acquisition and assessment of existing sustainability standards in different product sectors such as food, forestry, paper, textiles and laptops, as well as cosmetics, detergents and natural stones. The assessment results were published on the consumer portal www.siegelklarheit.de.

More information about the project

Status of project

End of project: 2016

Project manager

Project staff

Markus Blepp
Kathrin Graulich
Deputy Head of Division / Senior Researcher Sustainable Products & Material Flows
Katja Moch
Senior Researcher Sustainable Products & Material Flows
Siddharth Prakash
Head of Subdivision Circular Economy & Global Value Chain / Senior Researchers Sustainable Products & Material Flows
Britta Stratmann

Funded by

German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)

Project partners

Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ)