Environmental Management
The Environmental product labeling
Aims to mitigate the negative impacts of consumption and production on the environment by promoting and prioritising products and services with lower negative environmental impacts. In Slovakia, environmental labeling has been implemented since 1997 through the national eco-label scheme "Environmentally Friendly Product". Currently it is possible to obtain the label in 15 product categories.
The register of products with the brand “Environmentally Friendly Product
Since 2004, with the accession of the Slovak Republic to the European Union, it is possible to obtain also the European Ecolabel "EU Ecolabel".
The Scheme for Environmental Management and Audit (EMAS)
The scheme is designed for organizations of all size categories in the industrial sectors but also in the field of the public administration and administrative activities. It proposes the rules for introducing of environmental management system in order to evaluate, report, and improve their environmental performance.
Green Public Procurement (GPP)
Green Public Procurement (GPP) is an important tool to achieve environmental policy goals relating to climate change, resource use and sustainable consumption and production – especially given the importance of public sector spending on goods, services and works. GPP is a process whereby public authorities seek to procure goods, services and works with a reduced environmental impact throughout their life-cycle when compared to goods, services and works with the same primary function that would otherwise be procured.
The aim of the Strategy of the Environmental Policy of the Slovak Republic until 2030 (Greener Slovakia) is that Slovakia will use green public procurement at least in 70% of the total value of the public procurement until 2030.
The inclusion of green requirements in public tender documents is based on the EU GPP criteria.
In 2016 the Slovak Government adopted the 3rd National Action Plan for GPP for years 2016-2020.
The Institute for Environmental Policy prepared an analysis about green procurement of specific product groups. It has showed that the overall costs of procurement of environmentally friendly paper or cars need not to be necessarily higher. The Institute for Environmental Policy prepared a commentary aiming on the topic of advantages of electric cars in terms of their long-term operating costs which also contains the calculator to compare the cost of conventional cars and electric cars as well.
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