Ecolabelling of Seafood: The Basic Concepts - SEAFOOD Ecolabelling: Principles and Practice - page 11

(a) First-party labelling schemes: These are typically established by individual
producers or resellers based on their own product standards, and can cover
criteria related to specific environmental issues, food quality and health issues.
This form of ecolabelling is usually 'self-declaration', and can be considered
to be an ISO Type II environmental labelling system.
(b) Second-party labelling schemes: These are typically established by industry
associations for members' products, and the criteria are determined by the
organisation. Verification of compliance is normally conducted by certifica-
tion procedures internal to the industry or association, or by use of external
certifiers, and may be either ISO Type I or Type III.
(c) Third-party labelling schemes: These are usually created by organisations
external to the relevant industry sector, and therefore carry a perceived level
of independence. The owner of the labelling scheme usually sets the criteria
and awards a label to products that are independently verified (through an
certification process) to comply with the criteria. Third-party schemes are
typically considered to be the most robust form of ecolabelling, because of
the independence of the criteria and the verification process from commercial
influences, and are usually of the ISO Type I form.

The primary theme that these three ecolabelling systems hold in common is the
expressed intention and the common purpose of creating market demand for prod-
ucts that are, relative to other products, caught, grown or prepared for consumption
in a more environmentally friendly way. The primary differences between the three
types of schemes relate to the standards and criteria used to determine if a product
complies, and the independence and robustness of the process of verification of
compliance - determining that a product correctly complies with the standard and
criteria.

Table 1.1 ISO categories of environmental labelling systems.

Type I Voluntary, multicriteria third-party

programmes that award environmental labels
to products meeting a set of predetermined
requirements

Environmental labels and declarations
- Type I environmental labelling
- principles and procedures (ISO 14024:
ISO 1999a)

Type II Self-declared environmental claims made by

manufacturers, importers, distributors,
retailers or anyone else likely to benefit from
such claims

Environmental labels and declarations
- self-declared environmental claims
(Type II environmental labelling) (ISO
14021: ISO 1999b)

Type III Declarations that provide quantified

environmental information about products,
using predetermined parameters based on
the ISO life-cycle assessment series of
standards. Additional environmental
information, such as the impact on
biodiversity, hazard and risk assessment on
human health and the environment may be
given. May be verified by a third party

Environmental labels and declarations
- Type III environmental declarations
- principles and procedures (ISO 14025:
ISO 2006)