Governance of Integrated Product Policy

In Search of Sustainable Production and Consumption

Edited by Dirk Scheer and Frieder Rubik

10% discount on this title

February 2006 377 pp 234 x 156 mm

hardback ISBN 978-1-874719-32-8 £35.00

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This book presents a plethora of perspectives from policy-makers, researchers and consultancies, representatives from business, environmental and consumer associations on how to effectively conceptualise, institutionalise and implement integrated product policy (IPP).

DESCRIPTION

European policy patterns are in a state of transformation. New governance models are shifting power away from states and toward the involvement of all stakeholders and the idea of shared responsibility. It's a move from command and control to push and pull.

What's in this new approach for the environment? This book provides a detailed analysis of the example of integrated product policy (IPP) which aims to improve the environmental performance of products and services through their life-cycle. All products cause environmental degradation in some way, whether from their manufacturing, use or disposal. The life-cycle of a product is often long and complicated. It covers all the areas from the extraction of natural resources, through their design, manufacture, assembly, marketing, distribution, sale and use to their eventual disposal as waste. At the same time it also involves many different actors such as designers, manufacturers, marketers, retailers and consumers. IPP attempts to systematically stimulate each phase of this complicated chain to improve its environmental performance. With the involvement of so many different products and actors there cannot be one simple policy measure for everything. Instead, IPP employs a whole variety of tools - both voluntary and mandatory - which are used to achieve identified objectives. These include economic instruments, the phase-out of dangerous materials, voluntary agreements, eco-labelling and product design guidelines.

IPP is still in relative infancy and can be seen as an ongoing process hugely dependent on effective governance measures to ensure its continued success. This book presents a plethora of perspectives from policy-makers, researchers and consultancies, representatives from business, environmental and consumer associations on how to effectively conceptualise, institutionalise and implement IPP.

The book is divided into four parts. First, the approach to the governance of IPP is examined in relation to other approaches to sustainable production and consumption. Second, the widely differing approaches to environmental product policy in practice at national, supranational and global level are analysed. Third, the book explores the challenge of designing a coherent policy mix to support the integration of sustainable consumption and production patterns by sector and theme. Finally, the book concentrates on the key issue of how to involve stakeholders in IPP in order to encourage continuous innovations for sustainability throughout the value chain.

Governance of Integrated Product Policy aims to fill a clear gap in work to date on sustainable production and consumption by providing researchers and practitioners from politics, business and civil society new insights into modern environmental governance in practice.

REVIEWS

Just as many more cars are shown at auto shows than ever reach the marketplace, so many more environmental concepts are introduced than are implemented. Implementation faces challenges such as pricing, infrastructure, regulations and long term commitment. A new book called Governance of Integrated Product Policy from Greenleaf Publishing provides an excellent overview of why transformation from idea to government policy for the marketplace is complicated and requires new governance models.

Traditional regulations control the process of specific sectors and try to reduce specific emissions at the end-of-pipe (or stack). However, increased consumption means that while individual factory emissions are controlled, total emissions increase beyond that which the ecosystem can absorb. Products use resources, emit pollution and form an increasing part of the waste stream. The book shows a graph of municipal waste in the US in 1906 and in 2001. In 1906, the total waste per person per year was 425 kg ash, 82 kg biodegradables and only 42 kg products. In 2001, the total waste per person per year was 11 kg ash, 173 kg. biodegradable and 546 kg product.

Integrated Product Policy seeks to improve the environmental performance of products and services from design, manufacture, transport, use and disposal. Because products are part of a long chain from raw material provider, industry, consumers and government over many geographical areas and over time, the governance model has to include not only 'the state' but other stakeholders and move from command and control to push-pull. Environmental problems have become more global and persistent: climate change, acid rain, loss of biodiversity, ozone depletion, soil erosion, threats to health, unsustainable use of resources and waste management issues.

Comprehensive product orientated environmental policy is seen as essential because so much of the environmental effect of products (80%) is determined at the product development stage, for example, electronics are made with toxic substances which persist in the environment when the product is disposed. For some products, environmental problems may not be identified for decades after the product is made e.g. commercial chillers with ozone depleting substances last 45-50 years. Services are included because the line between products and services is along a continuum e.g. lawn maintenance services use equipment such as mowers and leaf blowers, chemicals and vehicles.

This book is a great overview of the variety of product policy approaches such as the European Union IPP plan and the United Nations Environment Program's Sustainable Consumption and Production initiative and individual country programs. The Dutch government is credited with producing the first policy document called Policy Document on Products and the Environment in 1994. The Swiss are seen as doing the best job of integrating IPP into its sustainablity strategy which means that product policy is leading to changes in other policy areas as existing laws are changed.

The book is also invaluable for setting policy development within a larger framework and identifying policy mixes which haven't worked. Sustainable Development books can tend towards the messianic so GL appreciates this book for its reality check. Strong lobbies, opposition from industry and trade-off with political objectives interfere with developing a coherent policy. Sector specific interests tend to result in policies which fail to address the linkages between sectors such as transport, energy, construction and agriculture.

The book discusses as an example the end-of-life waste management polices in Canada. Extended Producer Responsibility EPR in all ten provinces minimizes government intervention in Canada while in the US, local governments provide collection, recycling and disposal as a public service. EPR is seen as a driver for product improvement. In 2004, 32 programmes were supported by regulation, 12 were voluntary producer programs and four were in development. All are at the provincial level and create a patchwork which needs to be addressed by a more national approach. Duncan Bury, Head of Product Policy at Environment Canada is quoted as saying, 'In Canada, we are past the point of discussing whether EPR is a good policy approach. There is enough of a track record of these operating programmes that there really isn't any question whether this is an appropriate kind of policy. We're now on the point of discussing how to make it more effective.'
Gallon Environmental Letter Vol. 11 No. 5 (21 April 2006)

Foreword

Jürgen Trittin, Bundesminister für Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit (German Federal Minister of Environmental Protection, Conservation and Nuclear Safety)

Introduction. Governance towards sustainability: meeting the unsustainable production and consumption challenge

Dirk Scheer, Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW), Germany, and Frieder Rubik, Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW), Germany

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Part I. The governance approach of integrated product policy

1. From government to governance: political steering in modern societies

Renate Mayntz, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Germany

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2. Patterns and key issues of environmental governance: what’s new?

Andrea Lenschow, University of Osnabrück, Germany

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3. Environmental governance and integrated product policy

Dirk Scheer, Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW), Germany

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Part II. Integrated product policy in practice: varieties of multi-level governance

4. The European Commission’s Communication ‘Integrated Product Policy: Building on Environmental Life-Cycle Thinking’

Klaus Kögler and Robert Goodchild, European Commission, Belgium

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5. Promoting sustainable consumption and production at the international level: taking a life-cycle approach

Guido Sonnemann, Adriana Zacarias and Bas de Leeuw, United Nations Environment Programme, France

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6. Integrated product policy in Sweden

Ylva Reinhard, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency

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7. Integrated product policy in Denmark: new patterns of environmental governance?

Arne Remmen, Department of Development and Planning, Aalborg University, Denmark

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8. Integrated product policy: the product-related part of the Swiss government’s strategy for sustainable development

Christoph Rentsch, Swiss Agency for the Environment, Forests and Landscape (BUWAL)

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9. Integrated product policy as a tool in environmental protection: the Bavarian perspective

Hans-Christian Steinmetzer and Uwe Furnier, Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection, Germany

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10. The IPP concept: some thoughts and comments

Eckart Meyer-Rutz, Federal Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Germany

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11. Integrated product policy: practices in Europe

Frieder Rubik, Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW), Germany

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Part III. Shaping a policy mix: understanding the challenge

12. Integrated product policy and governance: a necessary symbiosis

Robert Nuij, Environmental Resources Management (ERM), Italy

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13. Integrated product policy in the paper chain

Ellen Frings, IFOK, Institute for Organisational Communication, Germany

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14. Extended producer responsibility policies in the United States and Canada: history and status

Bill Sheehan, Product Policy Project, USA, and Helen Spiegelman, Product Policy Project, Canada

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15. Extended producer responsibility as a driver for product chain improvement

Naoko Tojo, Thomas Lindhqvist and Carl Dalhammar, International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics at Lund University, Sweden

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16. The implementation of integrated product policy in southern Italy: the role of community structural funds

Ivana Capozza, Orsola Mautone and Maria Angela Sorce, Italian Ministry of the Environment and Territory, Italy

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Part IV. Getting stakeholders involved: product innovation along the value chain

17. Complexity management with interpretive schemes: the contribution of integrated chain management to integrated product policy

Uwe Schneidewind, Maria Goldbach and Stefan Seuring, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Germany

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18. Multi-stakeholder approaches to product development

Esther Hoffmann, Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW), Germany

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19. The determinants and effects of environmental product innovations

Katharina-Maria Rehfeld, German Chamber of Commerce, China

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20. Integrated product policy: an integral part of corporate practice

Claudia Wöhler, Federation of German Industries (BDI), Germany

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21. Small and medium-sized enterprises and integrated product policy: attitudes and barriers

Paolo Masoni and Roberto Buonamici, Italian National Agency for New Technology, Energy and the Environment (ENEA), Italy

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22. Notion marketing and praxis transfer: how to bring IPP into reality or how to bring reality into IPP

Siegfried Kreibe and Michael Schneider, Bavarian Institute of Applied Environmental Research and Technology (BIfA), Germany

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ABOUT THE EDITORS

Dirk Scheer studied political science and literature in Heidelberg, Germany, and Seville, Spain. In 2001 he joined the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW) to work as a research associate in the IÖW department for Ecological Product Policy in the Heidelberg office. He has carried out several inter- and transdisciplinary research projects covering both conceptual and applied research issues. His area of research interest is environmental governance, integrated product policy, sustainability impact assessment and service engineering.

Frieder Rubik studied national economics at the University of Heidelberg. He has worked for several environmental economics research institutes since 1982. He is currently senior researcher at the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW) and head of the Ecological Product Policy department. His key publications deal with product information schemes/eco-labelling, integrated product policy and life-cycle assessment (LCA). His publications include Integrierte Produktpolitik (Metropolis, 2002), Life Cycle Assessment in Business and Industry: Adoption Patterns, Applications and Implications (with P. Frankl; Springer, 1999) and Product Policy in Europe: New Environmental Perspectives (with F. Oosterhuis and G. Scholl; Kluwer, 1996).

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