Detergents obtained from vegetables (how many components are obtained from vegetables? all, some, or the packaging?); windmill blades that promise a better performance than competitors (in which operative range? the performance is achievable even in off-shore conditions?): many are the doubts that arise in a consumer’s mind (especially in B2B relationships) when a product or a technology declares some environmental benefits. In-house testing is perceived as unreliable due to a certain lack of independence; recently the case of a German car company brought doubts even on mandatory standardized test. With increasing skepticism, what kind of tools are available to companies to communicate rigorous environmental benefits derived from a specific performance of a product or a technology?
An answer comes from the European Commission that launched EU ETV scheme (Environmental Technology Verification) a voluntary tool to verify the claims associated to a product/technology using a third party verification. This scheme adopts the approaches of similar schemes already developed (USA, Canada, Japan, etc); at a global level there is the resolute objective to reach the implementation of a international standard (ISO 14034) that harmonizes all international active ETV schemes. With this tool the proposer asks for a third party verification on the declared innovative performance; conducting tests or analyzing existing data from previous tests, the Verification Body is able to assess if the proposed claim is supported by test results, and to prepare a technical document that describes performances and operative conditions. A claim based on a solid technical and methodological base has a crucial value in some activities: searching for investors to help the scale-up of the technology (very important to start-up companies); obtaining the consensus of
institutions and stakeholders; prove to the market the benefits of a existing technology in unexplored applications. Furthermore EU ETV is a tool to support SMEs, that may overcome access barriers to specific markets such as environmental technologies market; with this tool a SME can bring more value to the technology performance than to the budget for marketing activities. Certiquality, the first Verification Body that obtained the Italian accreditation to conduct ETV verification at a european level, has completed the first verification: the high level of biodegradation in marine conditions of a new bioplastic manufactured by Novamont has been verified and validated. The statement of verification describes this innovative environmental performance and methodologies to conduct tests that gave results that underpin the claim; Novamont can use the statement in B2B relationships to explore new markets, i.e. game and commercial fishing, aquaculture,etc where in the background there is a spotlight on plastic litter in seas and oceans and on consequential environmental damages.
In a recent proposal submitted to the European Commission, Green Energy Storage has adopted Certiquality’s methodology to verify the environment compliance for the organic flow battery that it is developing.
