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The Law and Economics of Eco-Labels Law and Economics van Eco-Labels Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam op gezag van de rector magnificus Prof.dr. H.G. Schmidt en volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties De openbare verdediging zal plaatsvinden op donderdag 25 april 2013 om 15.30 uur door Alejandra Martínez Gándara geboren te Mexico City, Mexico Promotiecommissie Promotors: Prof.dr. M.G. Faure LL.M. Prof.dr. M. Lamandini Overige leden: Dr. A.M.I.B. Vandenberghe Prof.drs.ing. S.C. de Hoo Prof.mr. M.W. Scheltema This thesis was drafted within the framework of the European Doctorate in Law and Economics A collaboration between ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS If twenty years ago someone would have told me that I was going to be struggling to word the acknowledgements for my PhD dissertation I would not have believed them, no one would. As a little girl I swore I was never going to study, and even less a PhD! But as we say in Mexico: Mas rapido cae un cojo que un hablador! (a talker falls faster than a lame). Somehow I ended up here, a PhD Candidate finishing up her thesis. Now I’m looking into the last years of my life trying to figure out how to express my gratitude to all the people that helped me to get here. First of all I wholeheartedly want to thank Professor Michael Faure, who took an interest into my topic and ‘adopted’ me as his student. For that I am very grateful. Also, I very much appreciate the honesty and clarity of his comments, which really guided me through out the different stages of my PhD. In addition, I also want to thank Professor Marco Lamandini, who guided me through my first year in Bologna, by reminding me that being a Lawyer is not a disability in the Law and Economics arena. I also want to thank the all the RILE faculty members who helped me when I needed clarity or guidance. Anne Sophie, Louis, Klaus, Alessio, Alessandra and all those visiting scholars with whom I coincided: thank you for all your comments and support! I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Mexican Science and Technology Council for funding this thesis. As well as being a constant motivator to advance on the research, as the threat of not advancing within their time frame was the freezing of the funds. Thankfully that never happened. General thanks go to all the people that were always there to help with the administrative issues, in specific to Adelio Garcia-Alfisi and Lisa Vernetti who helped me so much in Bologna. In particular I would like to thank the personnel from the Biblioteca di Scienze Giuridiche e Aziendali, who were extremely patient and helpful. From Rotterdam I will like to express my gratitude to Wicher Schreuders and Marianne Breijer, as I am sure that with out their help and support I would not be writing this. Thank you so much for your patience and kindness. To my EDLE classmates, Gossia, Meltem, Vaia, Firat and Wei Quiang: thank you for being there and allowing me to distract you from your work. To all my EDLE collegues with whom I I coincided, thank you so much for making this PhD experience fun and worth while. Special thanks to my Mexican friends living in Europe, it was always nice to have a taste from home. To all the amazing people outside EDLE that I met on the way, thank you for your friendship I will always cherish it. To all my family and friends in Mexico, thank you for being there for me, even if many times you had no idea what I was talking about. But special thanks go to my Dad and Pablo. Dad thank you so much for everything. I have no words to tell you how much I appreciate all the help you gave me when I was writing my thesis. Your motivation and insights really helped me get through this process. Last but not least, Pablo, words cannot express my gratitude. I know today you might think anyone in a PhD is crazy, which might not be entirely wrong, you should know. You stood beside me since the moment I said “I have to be in Bologna in two weeks” right until “my thesis was approved”. I don’t know how I would have made it without you. And finally, I would like to give a special mention to my mom. Even if she is not here I always had her present with me. I constantly found myself asking how would she deal with this or even how DID she deal with this! This experience has led me to understand a bit more of her life and her views, and my admiration towards her has grown deeper. Mexico City, February 2013 II TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1. Background .........................................................................................................1 2. Research Relevance ............................................................................................4 3. General Scope of Research .................................................................................5 4. Boundaries and limitations ...................................................................................6 5. Structure of Research ..........................................................................................7 CHAPTER I Defining Eco-labels and Eco-certification 1. Introduction ..........................................................................................................13 2. Development of Environmental Labelling ............................................................13 2.1 The First Earth Summit and the Seventies ...............................................14 2.2 The Blue Angel and the following years ....................................................15 2.3 The Rio Earth Summit and Agenda 21 ......................................................16 2.4 World Summit on Sustainable Development ............................................18 2.5 Towards Rio+20 ........................................................................................19 2.6 The earth summits role in the evolution of eco-labels. .............................19 3. Defining Environmental labelling and Eco-labels .................................................22 3.1 The Early Definitions of Eco-labels ...........................................................23 3.2 Eco-labelling and eco-labels .....................................................................24 4. The goals of eco-labels ........................................................................................25 4.1 Defining the eco-label’s impact .................................................................27 4.2 Eco-labels impact: marginal environmental effects ...................................27 4.3 Eco-labels impact: rate of adoption ..........................................................29 5. Eco-labelling criteria: their determination and content ........................................30 5.1 Criteria selected for specific environmental problems ...............................30 5.2 Life Cycle Assessment as a way to determine the criteria ........................31 5.3 The content of the criteria: process or performance based .......................32 5.4 Ratcheting up the criteria: the eco-label’s ever raising bar ......................33 6. Classification Of Eco-labels .................................................................................34 6.1 The classic classification ...........................................................................34 6.1.1 Single-issue (single-standard) mandatory labels .........................35 6.1.2 Single-issue voluntary labels ......................................................36 III 6.1.3 Multi-criteria and life-cycle labels (eco-labels) ............................37 6.2 The ISO classification: Types I, II, III .........................................................39 6.2.1 The ISO-14020 series .................................................................40 6.2.2 Type I Eco-labels .........................................................................41 6.2.3 Type II Eco-labels ........................................................................42 6.2.4 Type III Eco-labels .......................................................................43 6.2.5 The ISO classification in reality ....................................................43 6.3 Categories of eco-labels ...........................................................................44 6.3.1 Targeted at individual consumers, industrial customers, investors, governments or others ...............................................44 6.3.2 Single-issue or multiple-issue .....................................................45 6.3.3 Awarded due to consumption effects, production impacts or the product’s complete life cycle .............................................45 6.3.4 Single or multiple sectors ............................................................45 6.3.5 Criteria or scope defined locally, regionally or internationally .....46 6.3.6 Second or third party certifications, or self declarations of conformity ................................................................................46 6.3.7 Impacts of a single product, a range of activities or a defined manufacturing site ..........................................................46 6.3.8 Initiatives are environmental, social or economic, or a combination of these ...................................................................47 6.3.9 Type of organisation sponsoring the eco-label .............................47 7. Environmental Certification .................................................................................49 7.1 Reliance of eco-labels on third party certification