The government’s eco-mark scheme, meant to encourage companies to come up with more environment-friendly products, has failed to take off even 20 years after its launch.
Till date, only 20 licences have been granted to 15 companies across four product categories — paper, wood substitutes, finished leather and electrical/electronic goods. Under the scheme, 16 product categories had been notified.
“The last licence was given in 2008. Companies are not coming forward,” said M Q Ansari, senior scientist at the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
Eco-mark is a voluntary non-binding scheme that labels consumer products as environment-friendly, based on certain environmental as well as quality parameters. The scheme was launched for easy identification of environment-friendly products. An eco-marked product is given the eco-mark logo —a matka or an earthen pot.
Some companies and products that were granted the eco-mark licence are Century Pulps and Paper for writing and printing paper, Ecoboard Industries for its wood particle board, Tamil Nadu Newsprints and Papers for its plain copier paper, Kutty Flush Doors and Furniture for wooden flush door shutters and Gandhimathi Appliances for its domestic gas stove for use with liquefied petroleum gas, among others.
However, the scheme was unable to draw a larger number due to several reasons. Experts said, in a market like India, predictably, the consumer pull for environment-friendly products was missing. The government did not help either. Awareness remained poor and bureaucratic delays only added to the problems.
“The scheme has a very wide scope and it expects companies to meet many requirements. This makes it difficult for companies to go for it. Moreover, it is not a graded scheme like the star ratings. So either you have an eco-marked product or you don’t,” said Seema Arora, principal counsellor and head, CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development, while commenting on the procedural problems.
The market itself was not demanding these products. Arvind Mahajan, executive director at global advisory firm KPMG said: “In the West, customers want eco-friendly products because of the hygiene factor or because these products are different from others. Here, the consumer sees no difference.”
In addition, stakeholders that drive the companies to undertake eco-labelling, need an organised retail environment to take advantage of such schemes. “Organised retail is very small in India,” he said.
