National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of EN ISO 14020:2023. It is identical to ISO 14020:2022. It supersedes BS EN ISO 14020:2001, which is withdrawn.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee SES/1/2, Environmental Management - Environmental performance evaluation, environmental auditing, reporting, environmental labelling and related environmental investigations.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 31 January 2023.

Foreword

ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work. ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of electrotechnical standardization.

The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the different types of ISO documents should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights. Details of any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the Introduction and/or on the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www.iso.org/patents).

Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not constitute an endorsement.

For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO’s adherence to the World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), see www.iso.org/iso/foreword.html.

This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 207, Environmental management, Subcommittee SC 3, Environmental labelling, in collaboration with the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) Technical Committee CEN/SS S26, Environmental management, in accordance with the Agreement on technical cooperation between ISO and CEN (Vienna Agreement).

This third edition cancels and replaces the second edition (ISO 14020:2000), which has been technically revised.

The main changes are as follows:

two new concepts and terms have been added: “environmental statement” and “environmental statement programme”;
terms and definitions have been added that are generic to all types of environmental statement programmes and environmental statements;
the principles applicable for environmental statements that were previously given in the ISO 14020 family of standards have been consolidated and updated, and the requirements that were previously included within those principles have been placed into separate requirement clauses within this document;
general requirements applicable to all types of environmental statement programmes and environmental statements have been added.

Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A complete listing of these bodies can be found at www.iso.org/members.html.

Introduction

Communicating the environmental aspects and potential environmental impacts of products assists intended audiences (e.g. investors, purchasers, consumers) to make decisions on the selection and use of those products. The overall objective of providing information about the environmental aspects and environmental impacts of products (i.e. environmental statements) is to encourage the selection, purchase and use of those products that have the least adverse potential or actual environmental impact.

Suppliers that communicate the environmental aspects and environmental impacts of their products via environmental statements hope to influence the market in favour of their products. If the communication has this effect, the market share of those products can increase, and it is possible that other suppliers will respond by improving the environmental performance of their products. Ultimately this results in reduced environmental impact from that product category.

Suppliers that communicate the environmental aspects of their products via environmental statements also benefit at different levels within their organizations, both in the development of their products as well as in their environmental management and improvement of environmental performance.

The ISO 14020 family of standards provide principles and requirements for communicating environmental aspects and environmental impacts of products through environmental statements (e.g. self-declared environmental claims (see ISO 14021), ecolabels (see ISO 14024), environmental product declarations (EPDs) (see ISO 14025) and footprint communications (see ISO 14026)). This document is the core document in the ISO 14020 family of standards.

The intended structure of the ISO 14020 family of standards is illustrated in Figure 1 and summarized as follows:

ISO 14020: common terms and definitions, principles and general requirements for all environmental statements (e.g. self-declared environmental claims, ecolabels, EPDs and footprint communications) and associated programmes that enable the communication of environmental aspects and environmental impacts of products.
ISO 14021: requirements for environmental statements in the form of self-declared environmental claims.
ISO 14024: requirements for environmental statements in the form of environmental labels known as ecolabels.
ISO 14025: requirements for environmental statements in the form of EPDs.
ISO 14026: requirements for environmental statements in the form of footprint communications.
ISO/TS 14027: requirements for product category rules (PCR) that support the use of life cycle assessment (LCA) as a method to compile and evaluate information that is used as a basis for making environmental statements.
ISO/TS 14029: requirements for the mutual recognition of EPDs, footprint communications and associated programmes.

Further explanation on the types of environmental statement is given in Clause 5.

Fundamental to the communication of the environmental aspects or environmental impacts of products through the use of the ISO 14020 family of standards are the following understandings:

that an environmental statement is prepared or made about environmental aspect(s) or environmental impact(s) of a product by an identifiable responsible party;
that, in future, all environmental statements (including self-declared environmental claims) will be made within the context of an environmental statement programme (see Annex A as an example of a simple type of environmental statement programme for a self-declared environmental claim);
that an environmental statement programme is established by an identifiable programme owner or operator who:
1. specifies the type of the environmental statement(s) (e.g. self-declared environmental claim, ecolabel, EPD, footprint communication) included in the environmental statement programme;
2. specifies the requirements, criteria and methodology associated with the environmental statement programme and the environmental statement;
3. where relevant, identifies how and by whom the environmental statement is to be assessed (e.g. through methods such as auditing, evaluation, examination, inspection, testing, validation or verification; and whether these assessment techniques result in the environmental statement being self-declared by the first party, or whether a second- or third-party assessment activity is required);
4. confirms the format, media and type of information that is to be communicated with the environmental statement to the intended audiences (e.g. investors, purchasers, consumers);
5. establishes the validity period of environmental statement(s) and any ongoing assessment requirements.

This document aims to ensure that, in future, environmental statements will be made within the context of an environmental statement programme or scheme. Environmental statement programmes can vary in complexity depending on the type of environmental statement being made (in some cases a simple internal process or procedure, in other cases an extensive set of programme rules).

All programmes specify:

the product or the family of products that are to be covered;
the specified requirements and criteria that must be demonstrated to support the environmental statement;
the determination methodology to undertake the demonstration, including any necessary information, competencies and use of conformity assessment (e.g. testing, inspection, verification or certification activities).

This European Standard was approved by CEN on 21 July 2022.

CEN members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration. Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CEN member.

This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by translation under the responsibility of a CEN member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and United Kingdom.

European foreword

This document (EN ISO 14020:2023) has been prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 207 "Environmental management" in collaboration with CCMC.

This European Standard shall be given the status of a national standard, either by publication of an identical text or by endorsement, at the latest by July 2023, and conflicting national standards shall be withdrawn at the latest by July 2023.

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. CEN shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

This document supersedes EN ISO 14020:2001.

This document has been prepared under a Standardization Request given to CEN by the European Commission and the European Free Trade Association.

Any feedback and questions on this document should be directed to the users’ national standards body/national committee. A complete listing of these bodies can be found on the CEN website.

According to the CEN-CENELEC Internal Regulations, the national standards organizations of the following countries are bound to implement this European Standard: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and the United Kingdom.

Endorsement notice

The text of ISO 14020:2022 has been approved by CEN as EN ISO 14020:2023 without any modification.

1 Scope

This document establishes principles and specifies general requirements that are applicable to all types of product-related environmental statements and environmental statement programmes. Environmental statements result from environmental statement programmes and include self-declared environmental claims, ecolabels, environmental product declarations (EPDs) and footprint communications.

This document is intended to be used in conjunction with other standards in the ISO 14020 family.

NOTE Those other standards contain additional terms and definitions, principles and requirements that are relevant to their specific scopes.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

3.1 Terms related to the environment

3.2 Terms related to environmental statements

3.3 Terms related to programmes

3.4 Terms related to life cycle

3.5 Terms related to conformity assessment of environmental statements

4 Principles

4.1 General

4.2 Credibility

4.3 Evidence-based methodology

4.4 Transparency and availability

4.5 Confidentiality

4.6 Life cycle perspective

4.7 Environmental performance improvement and innovation

4.8 Accessibility and avoidance of unnecessary information and administrative demands

4.9 Interested parties and consultation

4.10 Voluntary

4.11 Regionality

5 Types of environmental statements

5.1 General

5.2 Self-declared environmental claim

5.3 Ecolabel

5.4 Environmental product declaration

5.5 Footprint communication

5.6 Other types of environmental statement

6 General requirements for environmental statement programmes

6.1 Environmental statement programme

6.2 Environmental statement programme owner and operator

6.3 Involvement of interested parties

6.4 Scope of programme, responsible parties and intended audiences

6.5 Specified requirements and criteria

6.6 Quantification methodologies, data quality and reporting

6.7 Conformity assessment

6.8 Format of environmental statements, reporting and publication

6.9 Changes or revisions to environmental statement programmes, specified requirements and criteria and environmental statements

7 General requirements for environmental statements

7.1 General

7.2 Vague or non-specific statements

7.3 Statements of sustainability

7.4 Comparative environmental statements

7.5 Use of supporting information

7.6 Use of symbols and graphics in environmental statements

7.7 Other information or statements

Bibliography

BS EN ISO 14020:2023

Environmental statements and programmes for products. Principles and general requirements

Current

Published:

31 Jan 2023