Expert advice on the product group IT

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 provided scientifical advice on the product group IT with regard to the improvement of environmental and social criteria, on the integration of the field of "resource extraction", on the development of weighting factors relating to the relevant criteria, as well as on the review of the assessment methodology through a pilot evaluation of various IT standards.