Eco-Label Era Begins in Turkey

The Closing Conference of the project titled “Establishment of the National Environmental Label System in Turkey”, co-financed by the European Union and the Republic of Turkey and implemented by the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization with the technical assistance of WYG Turkey, was held on 11 January 2018 at the Hilton Ankara Hotel, Kavaklıdere.

The project, which began in June 2017 and spanned a six-month implementation period, focused on key activities such as building capacity on the eco-label system, providing training on EU Eco-label legislation and practices, aligning the national eco-label legislation with the EU framework in cooperation with stakeholders, conducting a gap analysis to assess the readiness of three selected sectors for eco-labelling, and preparing the draft national eco-label legislation.

Under the project implementation, for the first time in Turkey, the Environmental Label was applied to products from three sectors: textile, ceramics, and paper. A total of seven companies received eco-labels for their products — three from the textile sector, two from the paper sector, and three from the ceramics sector.

During the conference, awards were also presented to the winners of the National Eco-Label Logo Competition organized under the slogan “Turkey is Looking for Its Eco-Label”.

The event was attended by senior representatives from the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, the Delegation of the European Union to Turkey, the Central Finance and Contracts Unit (CFCU), as well as representatives from various civil society organizations and private sector companies.