Recommended Reading | Exploring the Implementation Effectiveness of Green Product Certification from a Product Realization Perspective

　　Green low-carbon transformation is the practical foundation for optimizing and upgrading industrial structure and building a resource-saving and environmentally friendly society. It is a realistic demand to meet the people's needs for a better life. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has achieved historic and significant accomplishments in green low-carbon transformation development. The concept that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" has deeply rooted in people's hearts, and a simple, moderate, green, low-carbon, civilized, and healthy lifestyle is becoming the conscious choice of more people.

　　Green products are an important output of the social practice of green low-carbon transformation and a key aspect of meeting people's green living needs in the new era. According to the General Rules for Green Product Evaluation (GB/T 33761-2017), green products refer to products that meet environmental protection requirements throughout their life cycle, are harmless or minimally harmful to human health, consume fewer resources and energy, and have high quality. Green products, with their distinctive "green attributes," permeate many links such as production, circulation, and consumption. Green product certification comprehensively considers the organic connection between ecological environmental protection and high quality of products, promotes the construction of an evaluation system integrating green attributes into product quality characteristics, reasonably assesses the effectiveness of green product certification implementation, and uses certification tools to promote the development of green undertakings. This will strongly advance the construction of a national green low-carbon society and effectively reflect the value of certification.

1. Integration of product quality characteristics with green attributes

• 　　Embedding green attribute elements in product quality planning

　　The establishment of product green attributes requires consideration of environmental management related to each stage of product realization. From the perspective of achieving environmental objectives in the Environmental Management System Standard (GB/T 24001—2016), "using a life cycle perspective to control and influence the design, manufacture, delivery, consumption, and disposal of an organization's products and services to prevent environmental impacts from being unintentionally transferred to other life cycle stages" is an important management approach that aligns with the environmental management requirements of green products.

　　Product realization planning is the first stage to explore the green attributes of products. Product design and development is the primary link in product realization planning and the foundation for environmental management from a life cycle perspective. Product design and development originate from product input requirements, generally including the physical and chemical technical characteristics of the product itself, appearance and other product presentation forms, and quality certification requirements for entering specific markets. The green attributes of products need to be clearly defined in the product input requirements in a certain form. Product realization must reflect green quality characteristics while meeting quality characteristic requirements. Taking the Green Product Evaluation—Detergents (GB/T 39020—2020) as an example, in product realization planning, the use of alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEO) as raw materials is prohibited, which is an important technical basis for achieving green attributes. Alkylphenol ethoxylates are important nonionic surfactants of the polyoxyethylene type, characterized by stability, acid and alkali resistance, and low cost, widely used in producing high-performance detergents. However, these chemicals impact the ecological environment, mainly including safety and biodegradability. Their extensive use and disposal pose risks, such as negative effects on aquatic toxicity at certain life cycle stages and biodegradability issues that significantly affect the ecological environment. Therefore, during product design and development, fully considering the implementation of green quality characteristic requirements, excluding components with significant environmental impacts on product realization, and making full use of available conditions, green raw materials applicability, and technological innovation to obtain green attributes associated with high quality is the foundation of green product realization.

• 　　Enhancing environmental management effectiveness during product operation to support green product realization

　　According to the economic definition of product output, Y represents product output, L represents labor resource input, K represents capital input, and A represents the coefficient of technological level's impact on output. The production function can be abstracted as: Y = A·F(K,L), meaning output can be considered as continuous input of labor (L) and capital (K) under certain technological conditions (A). Product production results in pollutant emissions. Under extensive production conditions, with backward production technology and environmental management, relying solely on resource and labor input to expand production volume (Y) leads to obvious ecological and environmental problems, such as high pollution, high energy consumption, excessive resource and energy input, and high waste disposal costs at product end-of-life stages, significantly affecting sustainable development. The broad quality characteristics of products include not only the narrow quality characteristics covered by product inspection requirements but also the resource and energy utilization efficiency per unit product under production conditions and the green standard requirements of products at certain social development stages. Therefore, establishing environmental protection technologies and environmental management applications that meet green product requirements and improving the environmental management level of the technological impact coefficient A in the production function to release environmental management effectiveness is of great significance for green product production.

　　The implementation background of the Environmental Management System Standard (GB/T 24001—2016) is to balance the environment, society, and economy, ensuring that the product production process meets both the high-quality requirements under existing production technology conditions and the rationality requirements of ecological environmental carrying capacity. Green product production needs to consider the compliance and rationality of environmental management. From the product production stage, by continuously and effectively promoting environmental impact assessment, identifying environmental factors in each production process, and implementing production process improvements, while enhancing product quality and controlled process stability, an appropriate environmental management model is established to reasonably reduce pollutant emissions and resource and energy consumption per unit product, thereby continuously achieving green product manufacturing and presenting green development effects while producing high-quality development.

• 　　In the implementation of green product certification, conveying trust and assisting value realization

　　The implementation of green product certification is an important means to help realize the value of green products. The country has established a unified green product certification system, which systematically arranges the quality requirements of green products, operational requirements for producing green products, access requirements for certification bodies, and certification evaluation procedures and conclusions. Through green product certification, it is proven that relevant production enterprises have made reasonable planning in resource and energy consumption, environmental management, and quality requirements, adapting to the production requirements of green products.

　　The application of green product labels has strict access requirements. Through compliant certification evaluation, green trust is effectively conveyed to society and consumers. Green products are practical carriers promoting energy conservation, emission reduction, and green low-carbon transformation. They integrate technical and management applications in quality and environmental protection dimensions. From a practical perspective, reductions in resource and energy consumption per unit product and lower pollution disposal costs at product end-of-life stages are leading environmental indicators that effectively reduce comprehensive product costs and improve the profitability of corresponding enterprises. Products with corresponding green labels are more likely to gain the trust of demand-side parties in the market, promoting product value realization. Additionally, according to documents such as the "Notice on Adjusting and Optimizing the Government Procurement Implementation Mechanism for Energy-saving Products and Environmental Label Products" issued by the Ministry of Finance and other ministries, green products have priority procurement orientation in government procurement and other fields, providing more favorable market conditions for the realization of green product value.

2. Expansion of the effectiveness of green product certification implementation

　　The unified implementation of the green product certification system integrates previously existing product confirmation systems with green attribute evaluation requirements in various fields, such as energy-saving products and environmental label products. Unified supervision and management of green product certification helps maintain the authority of the green product certification system. By setting lists to clarify the types of products that can be certified and corresponding requirements, the effectiveness of green product certification implementation is further standardized.

• 　　Strict compliance with environmental protection laws and standards, integrating improvements in environmental performance, energy performance, and quality performance

　　According to the principles for selecting evaluation indicators in the General Rules for Green Product Evaluation (GB/T 33761—2017), following the principle of "green high-end leadership" is an important evaluation requirement. The proportion of leading products that meet green product evaluation requirements should not exceed 5% of comparable products in the same category. This requirement provides clear guidance for designing indicators to achieve the goal of leading similar products in implementing green transformation.

　　Green high-end products must first ensure that the production process is "green," with pollutant emissions and environmental management complying with national and local environmental protection laws and standards, and effectively converted into product operation processes. Resource attributes and raw material environmental attributes should be clarified through the establishment of a negative list; from the perspective of energy and environmental attributes, through technological innovation and management innovation in environmental management, the comprehensive energy consumption per unit product should be effectively reduced, and pollutant emissions per unit product (such as COD, wastewater, etc.) should perform better than similar products; from the quality attribute perspective, key quality characteristic indicators of the product should meet corresponding inspection standards, and some quality characteristics related to environmental protection should be superior to similar products, thereby further releasing green efficiency and achieving a leading effect in green high-end products.

• 　　Implement green product certification to help green product manufacturing enterprises optimize production management processes.

　　The implementation of green product certification involves third-party evaluation agencies using standards and evaluation specifications to assess whether products meet green product certification requirements. Green product certification focuses on green attributes, covering many aspects such as management system operation, pollutant reduction and consumption reduction, and the use of green materials in products. Through the tool transmission effect of certification implementation, it promotes enterprises to advance green transformation. Based on this, production process planning guided by green concepts has emerged, integrating green attributes of process control, green attributes of management operation, and green attributes of corporate culture, which can strongly promote orderly production of green products, thereby driving related industries to optimize and upgrade. Therefore, green product certification plays an important demonstrative role in the implementation of green production.

　　The implementation of certification relies on standards, which should closely align with national ecological environment management requirements, guided by energy saving, emission reduction, and comprehensive utilization of resources and energy. It optimizes the green product indicator evaluation system. Through the implementation of green product certification, it promotes the evaluated entities to demonstrate green evaluation effects, transmitting the effectiveness of green product certification among similar product manufacturing enterprises, and promoting the construction of a resource-saving and environmentally friendly society.

III. Policy Recommendations for the Implementation of Green Product Certification

　　The implementation and development of the green product certification system directly start from the main body of product manufacturing, conveying trust through the China Green Product Label, forming a green information flow based on the product lifecycle from design and development, production, inspection, circulation, to consumption. This plays an important demonstrative role in promoting the formation of green and low-carbon production and lifestyle, energy saving and emission reduction, and improving resource and energy utilization efficiency.

• 　　Promote the construction of quality and technical infrastructure to serve the development of green product quality.

　　Quality and technical infrastructure covers professional technical conditions such as metrology, standardization, and conformity assessment. The realization of green products depends on specific standards; the effective supply and technical level of standards determine the composition of green products. Conformity assessment is an important means to evaluate green products and a medium to convey the product's "green label," playing a crucial role in realizing green products. The comprehensive application of metrology technology evaluates the energy and resource consumption, environmental protection characteristics, and quantitative characteristics of product green attributes; it also supports standard formulation and conformity assessment implementation. The construction of quality and technical infrastructure is closely linked to the development of green product quality. Improving the construction of quality and technical infrastructure, coordinating technical resources in quality, standardization, metrology, and conformity assessment, and implementing targeted "green supply" can effectively promote the improvement of green product quality and expand the effectiveness of green product quality certification from a macro perspective.

• 　　Increase policy support for green product operators, providing comprehensive support in scientific and technological resources, finance, and taxation.

　　Green product operators provide high-quality green products by implementing quality and environmental management systems, involving significant investments in updating production and operation methods, including comprehensive application of environmental protection technologies, updating and maintenance of environmental protection facilities, and planning and operation of environmental management. Although the government has introduced policies such as preferential government procurement to support green products, during the initial cultivation stage and the planning stage of updating green management, more policy support measures need to be formulated by relevant government departments, such as special scientific and technological resource support for the application of new environmental protection technologies and financial and tax policy support for green product research, development, and sales.

• 　　Increase financial resource support to assist in deepening green actions.

　　The implementation of green products needs to align with national ecological environment standards and environmental protection requirements within product quality composition. Policy changes and standard updates require a developmental perspective to understand the meaning of green and to deeply implement green actions from a sustainable progressive viewpoint. Therefore, for operators who have obtained green product certification, consideration can be given to increasing financial resource support appropriately, reducing financing costs for green product operators, introducing more financial resources to assist operator development, encouraging operators to implement continuous green actions, thereby generating demonstration effects, guiding more entities to engage in green actions, highlighting the value of China's green product certification, and supporting the implementation of the country's green and low-carbon transition.

　　The establishment and development of the green product certification system serve ecological environment construction and integrate quality and environmental benefits. It is an important measure to serve the national system construction of a green and low-carbon society. Green products connect a large number of product manufacturing operators on one hand and a broad range of product consumers and demanders on the other, conveying authoritative green trust in market transactions. In the new development pattern where domestic and international dual circulation promote each other, it presents important technical support attributes. Therefore, studying the implementation of the green product certification system, analyzing the realistic needs of green product manufacturing entities, evaluating certification effectiveness from a sustainable development perspective, and coordinating government policy support, enterprise green production, and technical institution support jointly help green product certification to be stable and long-lasting, further expanding the effectiveness of green product certification.

　　Source: "China Certification & Accreditation" Magazine, 2023 Issue 5

　　 Introduction to United Intelligence Certification Company's Green Product Certification Services

　　►►► Green Product Certification

　　Green product certification is a voluntary product certification system promoted by the state based on the "Overall Plan for Ecological Civilization System Reform by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council" and the "Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Establishing a Unified System of Green Product Standards, Certification, and Labeling." The state integrates products such as environmental protection, energy saving, water saving, recycling, low carbon, renewable, and organic into green products according to unified catalogs, standards, evaluations, and labeling policies.

　　Scope of green product certification:

　　Insulation materials, textiles, solar water heating systems, artificial boards and wooden flooring, coatings, sanitary ceramics, ceramic tiles (slabs), waterproof and sealing materials.

　　Benefits to enterprises:

　　Ø Enhance the core competitiveness of enterprises, encourage enterprises to strengthen green product quality management, and improve the quality level of green products;

　　Ø Improve consumers' sense of gain, truly helping consumers easily choose green products that can be used with confidence and peace of mind.

　　►►► Green Building Material Product Certification

　　Green building material product certification is a graded certification system jointly launched by the State Administration for Market Regulation, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. On April 8, 2021, Beijing United Intelligence Certification Co., Ltd., after being approved as a Chinese green product certification body, was also successfully approved as a green building material product certification body.

　　Scope of green building material product certification:

　　Prefabricated components, steel components for steel-structured houses, modern wood structural materials, masonry materials, insulation system materials, ready-mixed concrete, ready-mixed mortar, concrete admixtures and water reducers, doors, windows, curtain walls and decoration, waterproof sealing and architectural coatings, water supply and drainage and water treatment equipment.

　　Benefits to enterprises:

　　Enterprises certified for green building materials products are permitted to use or display the green building materials product logo on the certified product itself, nameplate, packaging, accompanying documents (such as manuals, certificates of conformity, etc.), operating systems, electronic sales platforms, and other locations. Certified products are also allowed to be registered on the "Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development Green Building Materials Procurement and Application Database" platform for selection by purchasers.

　　Recently, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development jointly issued a notice stating that green building materials will be a substantive condition for government procurement. Certified products will be given priority in government investment projects, green buildings, prefabricated buildings, and other construction projects.