The Environmental Label Jury agreed on the criteria for two new ecolabels at its summer meeting:
New ecolabel for events
The new Blue Angel ecolabel for events offers event organisations the opportunity to advertise their events such as conferences and trade fairs or cultural events such as concerts and theatre festivals with the ecolabel if they comply with high environmental and sustainability standards.
As the event sector is very diverse in nature, the potential environmental impacts are extremely varied. However, aspects such as mobility, catering, energy consumption at the event locations and circular economy themes play an important role and are addressed by the ecolabel with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and conserving resources.
For example, the ecolabel promotes environmentally compatible mobility for employees and participants by focussing on, among other things, the location of the event and the associated options for travelling to and from the event using public transport. The use of electricity sourced from renewable energies is obligatory and holders of the ecolabel must use environmentally friendly recycled paper and energy-saving electrical and electronic equipment. Catering services can also be responsible for a significant share of the event’s climate and environmental impact. Therefore, the ecolabel promotes catering services that offer primarily vegetarian or vegan meals. It also stipulates that these services must predominantly use products from organic production, which promotes environmentally friendly farming, preserves soil and protects biological diversity. In addition, the catering services must avoid food waste using appropriate measures and planning. If the event organizer is unable to do this despite their best efforts, the food waste must be properly disposed of at the very least. The requirement to use reusable cups also helps to conserve resources. Any temporary structures used for the event must be completely dismantled and either reused or, if this is not possible, all materials must be separated for disposal in accordance with statutory regulations.
There is also potential for reducing greenhouse gases in the equipment and technology used at the event. Companies are obligated to give preferential consideration to the equipment and technology available at the location and must create comprehensive energy requirement plans that disclose the energy saving potential. Alongside those criteria that mainly focus on the environment, the ecolabel also includes social criteria, such as minimum requirements for barrier-free accessibility, to make the event sector more sustainable.
Due to the huge complexity of the event sector, it is necessary to differentiate between “must” criteria to be complied with by all types of events and optional “can” criteria.
The following benefits for the environment and health are stated in the explanatory box:
- reduce greenhouse gas emissions
- conserve resources
New ecolabel for printing inks, dyes and toners for paper and cardboard on professional printing machines
Printing inks, dyes and toners for graphical printed matter such as books, magazines, brochures, prospects and flyers are widely used and around 1.9 million tonnes of press and catalogue paper is printed on every year in Germany alone (Paper industry 2023).
Most of the paper products and thus also the printing inks, dyes and toners end up in waste paper collections at the end of their life. To ensure that this waste paper can be reused for high-quality products, it is necessary to ensure that any impurities are largely removed. For this reason, it must be possible to easily remove the printing inks, dyes and toners.
The production and use of printing inks, dyes and toners can negatively impact the environment and health due to the use of hazardous substances. Toxic and persistent substances and also those hazardous to water can reach bodies of water or find their way into recycled products via the recycled paper fibres. Hazardous substances include heavy metals and amines in dyes. Persistent environmentally hazardous substances include perfluorinated and polyfluorinated chemicals (PFAS) that are used to improve abrasion resistance. Substances that prevent the recycling of the paper fibres include hydrocarbons from mineral oil and their impurities containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). All of these substances are either completely prohibited or largely prohibited in products certified with the ecolabel.
The requirements in the new “Blue Angel for Printing Inks, Dyes and Toners” ecolabel guarantee that the products have a low impact on the environment and health. They minimise the hazardous ingredients and also ensure that the printing inks can be easily removed from the fibres during recycling of the paper and that the recycled fibres have a lower level of pollutants. Some printing inks contain oils based on renewable raw materials instead of mineral oils. The criteria ensure that the renewable raw materials are sourced from certified sustainable production to conserve biodiversity and help protect the climate.
The new Blue Angel is a B2B ecolabel for use in the commercial sector and was closely coordinated with the Blue Angel ecolabel for printed matter. It aims to make it easier for printing companies to certify their products as environmentally friendly printed matter (DE-UZ 195).
This ecolabel is used to certify printing inks, dyes and toners that stand out above all due to the following health and environmental protection criteria:
- low level of harmful materials
- supports the high-quality recycling of paper
Extending the ecolabel for resource and energy-efficient software products (DE-UZ 215)
Software is an important driver of energy and resource consumption by digital infrastructure. The use of digital technology controlled by software results in the purchase of digital end devices, the continual expansion of data center capacities and places an ever increasing load on communication networks. Increasingly sophisticated software also quickly makes functioning hardware obsolete and means it has to be replaced early. The Blue Angel for software aims to reduce the environmental impact of software products. In the revision of the ecolabel from 2020, the scope of validity will no longer only focus on software designed for desktop computers but has been extended to include programmes for mobile end devices and server client software.
The criteria for the “Blue Angel for Software” ecolabel also provide useful guidance for identifying possible weaknesses in the software and taking the right measures to reduce the impact on the environment. The Blue Angel requires the transparent documentation of energy consumption and hardware utilisation by the software and stipulates that energy consumption may not increase by more than 10% during the use of the software – even after an update. The ecolabel also requires companies to provide updates for a minimum of 5 years so that hardware can be used for longer. Due to lower performance requirements, the hardware can enjoy a longer operating life. Greater freedom and user friendliness in the use of the software (uninstallability, freedom from advertising, avoidance of tracking, modularity) should provide incentives for low energy usage and data economy. Other requirements are also placed on consumer and data protection.
The following benefits are stated in the explanatory box:
- low energy usage and data economy
- free of advertising and tracking scripts
- backwards compatibility and guaranteed updates
Revision of the ecolabel for computers, keyboards and mice (DE-UZ 78)
This Blue Angel product group has been fundamentally revised to include new requirements with respect to repairability, a minimum warranty period and social requirements. The scope of validity has also been expanded to include mice used on PCs.
Computers should be used for as long as possible to promote a resource efficient circular economy and to achieve the maximum benefits from the raw materials used in them. In future, those computers certified with the ecolabel will fulfil these durability requirements by offering upgradability, repairability and secure data deletion options, using high-quality rechargeable batteries and providing the option of a long guarantee. In addition, computers certified with the ecolabel must comply with requirements placed on their recyclable design and the selection of materials in order to establish good conditions for the efficient recovery of the materials. They will help to conserve natural resources in this way. Furthermore, the products must contain a minimum level of recycled plastic (PCR plastic content). Last but not least, low pollutant materials must be used in the plastic parts of devices that have been awarded the Blue Angel ecolabel to reduce the risks posed to the environment and human health.
Requirements for the due diligence of companies in the sourcing of raw materials and support for local initiatives to promote responsible mining have been included in the Basic Award Criteria for this ecolabel for the first time. In addition, criteria for social sustainability in the manufacturing process have also been added. These criteria are designed to promote compliance with the 8 ILO fundamental labour standards and other ILO standards.
The explanatory box states:
Keyboards and mice
- low level of harmful materials
- durable
- repairable design
Computers
- low energy consumption
- low level of harmful materials
- durable, repairable design
Other revisions - Ecolabel for wallpapers and woodchip wall coverings
The following ecolabels have also been revised and updated:
- Wallpapers and Woodchip Wall Coverings (DE-UZ 35)
- Printed Matter (DE-UZ 195) – extension of the scope of validity to include LED UV web offset printing
The documents with the revised and new criteria will be finalised over the next few weeks and will be made available on our website (Basic Award Criteria). Manufacturers of particularly environmentally friendly products will be able to submit an application for the label.