Green labelling gets red light
A plan to alert consumers to ecofriendly products has ended with the closure of a government agency, writes Fiona Macleod.
Government attempts to set up a green labelling system to guide consumers and businesses to ecofriendly products were scuppered this week with the announcement that the national environmental agency Indalo Yethu would be dissolved.
Launched in 2006 by then-environment minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk, Indalo Yethu’s main aims were to raise environmental awareness and set up an eco-endorsement system. Its operational costs so far total R36.5-million.
In recent years the environment department assigned the agency other projects, which have been given six months to be wrapped up. These include the R390-million EcoÂtowns programme, which has Âcreated more than 3200 jobs around South Africa.
One of the government officials involved in setting up Indalo Yethu, who did not want to be named, said it was the leading legacy project of the World Summit on Sustainable Development hosted in Johannesburg in 2002. Its original budget was R20-million and more than two years of research into ecoÂlabelling had preceded its launch.
via Green labelling gets red light | News | National | Mail & Guardian.
20 Jul 2012 08:40 – Fiona Macleod
