Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
second, the way in which compliance of a product with the standard is assessed and
verified.
Along with the range of ecolabelling, rating and buyers guide programmes (see
Appendix 1.1), there is a similar range of sustainability standards, because each
programme has a specific (and typically unique) purpose for which it has been
established. Thus, the MSC programme was established by Unilever and WWF to
focus on the main global industrial wild-capture fisheries to secure fish supplies,
and so the MSC standard is set in relation to fisheries that have the capability to
fund major investments in assessment and certification of their products across a
range of ecological issues. In contrast, some programmes are based on a narrow set
of ecological issues (such as dolphin-safe) and the label and the programme relate
to only specific issues.
In addition to the matters covered in the standard, the level of performance of
achievement can vary between programmes. So for example, the MSC programme
permits the bycatch of protected species, provided these are assessed as being of an
acceptably low in number or impact and leading to minimal ecological effects on the
population (Ward 2003). However, other programmes use a different approach to
the problem of unintended catch of protected species. For example, the Blue Ocean
Institute programme (blueocean.org/Seafood) specifies that a fishery bycatch should
not 'regularly include a threatened, endangered or protected species' and if it does,
then the fishery is highly penalised within the scoring system. Both systems assign
scores, but the MSC system assigns a score on the ecological impact of the bycatch,
whereas the Blue Ocean system assigns a score simply based on whether any such
species are caught in the fishery.
The way in which compliance with the sustainability standard is assessed also
varies widely across the various ecolabelling programmes. The MSC programme
requires third-party independent assessment of compliance, carried out by an ac-
credited certification company. In direct contrast, other programmes promote less
rigorous assessment of sustainability and a product endorsement may be secured
without an external evaluation or compliance assessment. Friend of the Sea, a cer-
tification and ecolabelling programme based in Italy, was reported to issue seafood
ecolabels to applicants through a process of self-assessment and submission of an
online form (Leadbitter & Ward 2007), although this is now improved.
Irrespective of how a programme determines its sustainability standard or verifies
compliance, for the market that it expects to influence, each programme must seek
to achieve a balance between these three key factors within the structure and content
of their sustainability standard and assessment process:
market appeal to consumers to drive their preferential purchases (although such
appeal must be credible, easily recognisable and robust);
a credible, rigorous and high-level sustainability standard that can be verified
and demonstrated (although few fisheries or aquaculture ventures can meet a
very high level standard); and
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