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Austrian Eco-Label
Link: www.umweltzeichen.at
Target: 
The Austrian Eco-Label provides information on the environmental impact of production, use and waste disposal of products and presents environmentally friendly alternatives. The label should motivate producers and service companies to produce and offer less pollutive products. This should lead to a dynamic process on the market for more environmentally compatible products and services.
Product/service group:
The label is awarded to a variety of product groups (office equipment; household products; renewable energy; building materials, furniture and room set-up and financial investment). The Eco-Label product range comprises, e.g. thermal solar collectors, cleaning agents, wooden furniture, lacquer, compact fluorescent lamps, green electricity and refrigerators. Additionally, the label is given to tourism industry (hotels, restaurants and camp sites), schools and training facilities.
Awarding Institution & criteria:
Issuing body is the National Ministry of Environment. For each product group a list of criteria including environmental, quality and health arguments was set up by a body of experts chaired by the VKI (Austrian consumer association). Criteria are adjusted to the state of the art in regular intervals.
Control mechanisms:
The applicant has to prove that the product, the tourism company or school fulfils the criteria set up for the respective sector. This is done by a certificate issued by a professional testing laboratory. The certificate is then verified by the Ministry of Environment or the VKI. The label can be used for a maximum of four years, after that an application for extension has to be made.
Charges:
Companies have to pay an annual fee for the use of the label which depends on the turnover of the respective company (see table below). Additionally, for the first application a handling fee of about 25 % of the annual fee has to be paid.
|
Annual turn over [€] |
Annual fee [€] |
|
< 200,000 > 200,000 – 750,000 > 750,000 – 2,200,000 > 2,200,000 – 3,600,000 > 3,600,000 |
200 700 1,400 1,800 2,200 |
Relevance on the market:
Since the market introduction in 1990, the label is very well-established on the market and it is the most relevant eco-label in Austria. So far, more than 50 lists of criteria have been issued and 380 products have been labelled. Additionally, about 200 tourism companies and over 30 schools were awarded the label.
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