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Home Self-Declared Environmental Claim Requirements For Self-Declared Environmental Claims under ISO 14021

This page offers more detailed information on the requirements that a self-declared environmental claim should meet. With respect to the large extent of the standard itself, only the most relevant and significant information has been selected. Thus, the following information is not comprehensive.

A Self-Declared Environmental Claim Shall Be:

• accurate and not misleading;
• substantiated and verified;
• relevant to that particular product, and used only in an appropriate context or setting;
• presented in a manner that clearly indicates whether the claim applies to the complete product, or only to a component part or packaging, or to an element of a service;
  For example, consider information about a product’s packaging such as the percentage of recycled material used. It would be misleading to create the impression that the entire product is recycled, unless it really is.

• specific as to the environmental aspect or environmental improvement which is claimed;
  An environmental claim that is vague or non-specific or which broadly implies that a product is environmentally beneficial or environmentally benign shall not be used. It is therefore not possible to use terms like environmentally safe, environmentally friendly, non-polluting, green, nature friendly or ozone friendly.

• presented in a manner which does not imply that the product is endorsed or certified by an independent third-party organization when it is not;
  Certificates or officially looking symbols should be accompanied by information indicating on which standards they are based, who issued them and what certification procedure was used. This also applies to symbols of organisations which have received financial or other support from the producer; for example on the packaging of the products.

• related to an environmental aspect that either exists or is likely to exist during the life of the product;
  For example, a correct claim may be information that this paper is produced from 75% recycled raw-materials. On the contrary, it would be misleading to claim that no wood from hard tropical tree species was used in its production, since such wood is never used in paper production.

• presented in a manner that clearly indicates that the environmental claim and possible explanatory statement (supplementary information for the correct understanding of the claim) should be understood together;
• relevant to the area where the product’s corresponding environmental impact occurs;
• accurate and shall contain a basis for comparison – if it is based on comparison with other products.
  It would be for example wrong to claim that a product is now environmentally friendlier or more energy efficient with no further specification. However, it would be acceptable to state that the product’s energy consumption is 20% lower than that of its previous model.

A Self-Declared Environmental Claim Shall Not…

• be restated using different terminology to imply multiple benefits of a product’s single aspect related to its environmental impact;
• result in misinterpretation (including unintentional): the standard specifies the requirements pertaining to the use of the following most commonly used terms:
  • compostable
  • degradable
  • designed for disassembly
  • extended life product
  • recovered energy
  • recyclable
  • recycled content
  • pre-consumer material
  • post-consumer material
  • recycled material
  • recovered (reclaimed) material
  • reduced energy consumption
  • reduced resource use
  • reduced water consumption
  • reusable
  • refillable
  • waste reduction.

For example, a compostable claim may only be made if the product does not release substances in concentrations harmful to the environment at any point during decomposition or subsequent use.

Other Criteria

• A claim shall not, directly or indirectly, imply non-existent improvement related to environmental impact. Neither shall it exaggerate the significance of the product’s environmental aspect, to which the claim is related.
  It is for example misleading to claim that it contains twice as much recycled material as before, if the original recycled content was very low. The difference should be given in absolute numbers, i.e. for an increase from 15% to 20% as an increase of 5%, and not a 50% increase.
• A claim shall not be declared if it could be misunderstood or is misleading on grounds of the omission of substantial information (even though the claim may be formally true).
• Environmental claims should not be declared if based on the absence of ingredients or properties that are not associated with the relevant product category at all.
  It would be for example misleading to state that the given product does not contain a certain substance if it is also obvious that the substance is not present in any other product within the same category.
• An environmental claim of ... free (e.g. chlorine free, no chlorine etc.) shall only be made when the level of the specified substance is no more than that which would be found as an acknowledged trace contaminant or background level.

The Use of Symbols

• The use of symbols is optional.
• Symbols should be simple, easily reproducible and sized to suit the product.
• Symbols should be easily distinguishable from other symbols, including symbols for other environmental claims.
• A symbol used to express implementation of an environmental management system shall not be used in such a way that it could be misunderstood as an environmental symbol indicating the environmental aspects of a product.
• Natural objects (trees, flowers, butterflies, the globe…) shall be used only if there is a direct and verifiable link between the object and the benefit claimed.
• The Mobius loop shall be used for claims of recycled content, as described in the standard.

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