Examples of Environmental Labeling Programs
Germany: Blue Angel Label
The Blue Angel ecolabel was adopted from the UNEP logo in 1972. It shows a female figure with her arms spread. “This Symbol—a human being in an aspired environment permitting a life in dignity—seems to be particularly suited to point to the main task of environmental policy, namely the preservation and shaping of an environment fit for human habitation.”
When the Federal Minister of the Interior and the Ministers of the Environment of the Federal States first introduced the “Blue Angel,” back in 1977, Germany became the first country in the world to use an ecolabel. The primary goals of the Blue Angel program are
- guiding the consumer in purchasing quality products with fewer adverse impacts;
- encouraging manufacturers to develop and supply environmentally sound products; and
- using the ecolabel as a market-oriented instrument of environmental policy.
Today, about 3,700 products and services of some 800 manufacturers at home and abroad have the right to bear Germany’s ecolabel—the Blue Angel. For more information on the criteria used to evaluate different product categories, see the Blue Angel’s website.
