Integrated product policy
The Integrated Product Policy (IPP) aims to record and minimize the environmental impact of a product in all phases of its life, from development through extraction of raw materials to disposal. This is to prevent environmental measures at one point in the life cycle of a product only leading to a shift in negative environmental impacts to another phase.
In addition to the recording of all phases in the life of a product, an essential component of the IPP is the consideration of the impact on the totality of the environmental media soil, water and air. To this end, all actors involved in a product's value chain should cooperate and assume their respective responsibility for their phase of the product life cycle . The focus here is on agreeing on voluntary and economic instruments, regulatory measures are only a supplement. Consumer information is also of particular importance. B. through environmental labels such as the Blue Angel . Ultimately, the IPP also pursues the goal of not pursuing pure environmental policy across all political fields , but rather the measures taken against the background of the IPP with e.g. B. to coordinate the fields of health policy , economic policy or financial policy .
A long-term improvement of the environmental impact of the entire activity of an economy is expected from a consistent application of the IPP for all products.
Integrated product policy in the European Union
On February 7, 2001 , the European Commission presented its Green Paper on Integrated Product Policy. In this, the Commission emphasizes the ecological design of the products in principle and the particular importance of pricing and the critical choice of consumers. With regard to pricing, the Commission notes that all market prices for products should correspond to real environmental costs and therefore proposes differentiated tax rates according to the ecological characteristics of the products. Regarding the critical choice of the consumer, the Commission assumes "that the education of consumers (including children) and businesses is an important means to increase the demand for green products and to ensure greener consumption." how the European eco-label or the exemplary application of the eco-audit also contribute to the public level.
On June 18, 2003 , the European Commission presented a white paper based on the Green Paper “Integrated Product Policy - Building on the ecological life cycle approach” ([COM (2003) 302 final.)], In which it sets out instruments and measures for the implementation of the IPP represents.
Criticism of the measures of the IPP by the European Commission on the part of the environmental movement aims above all at the lack of any concrete definition of which environmental goals should be achieved by the IPP by what point in time. The Federation of German Industries , on the other hand, criticizes the lack of consideration of already practiced IPP in companies and warns against a "shift of state and social responsibility solely to the producers"
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- ^ Ministry of the Environment Baden-Württemberg: What is IPP? ( Memento of the original from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (May 1, 2006).
- ↑ a b European Commission: Integrated Product Policy. Green Paper of 7 February 2001 on Integrated Product Policy ( presented by the Commission) , [COM (2001) 68 final - not published in the Official Journal], SCADPlus (1 May 2006) ( Memento of 5 January 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Melissa Shinn: Integrated Product Policy , in: European Environmental Bureau: EU Environmental Policy Handbook. A Critical Analysis of EU Environmental Legislation, Brussels: September 2005, ISBN 90-5727-055-2
- ^ Federal Association of German Industry: Integrated Product Policy (IPP) ( Memento from September 5, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) (May 1, 2006).
