IIM-Ahmedabad comes up with India's first Eco-label

AHMEDABAD: Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) today launched India's first Eco-label - The Green Signal - which certifies environmental preferences adopted during the manufacturing of a product or a service.

"Our Eco-label shall give a big push to the industry and service sector on being more green. The availability of such a label in India will benefit both the conscious buyers and progressive sellers," IIM-A Associate Professor Amit Garg told PTI. Garg is a co-promoter of this initiative.

"The broader parameters for assessing a product or service will be energy consumption, carbon footprints, water consumption, waste generation and management, and CSR committments of the entity," he said.

Eco-labelling, a concept largely prevalent in developed countries, is a voluntary environment performance certification. It labels products, on the lines to BEE's energy star rating and certain organic food certifications.

The inaugural meeting of the steering committee to validate India's first Eco-label was held today at IIM-A. The label is being launched under the aegis of Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE), IIM-A; in collaboration with CII.

"With advertisements of firms claiming products to be eco-friendly becoming a rage, it has been an overdue need in the Indian market to have a certification body that assesses them on overall environmental preferences," a committee member said.