Expert advice related to the project 'Quality check of sustainability standards'

In March 2013, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development commissioned the GIZ with the project 'Quality check sustainability standards'. The project aims at providing consumers, public authorities, enterprises and civil society with an internationally coordinated methodology for measuring and assessing the performance and credibility of sustainability standards. The development of the methodology builds on previous work from other initiatives and studies. However, much of this work only covers process-related standards. The current project, however, also includes product-related standard systems. The goal of the study is therefore the development of a methodology for comparison of both product- and process-related standards. It includes the following work packages: (1) Presentation and analysis of existing ISO type 1 environmental labels with respect to their structure and function. (2) Development of a framework for comparison and evaluation that covers the specific elements of product-related environmental labels. (3) Development of a framework for comparison and evaluation between ISO Type 1 environmental labels and product-related standards. (4) Advice for the conversion of the framework into an IT-based tool for end-users. (5) Participation in user consultations. (6) Participation in expert consultations.