China Updates ‘General Principles for Green Product Assessment’

On October 18, 2023, the National Environmental Management Standardization Technical Committee issued a public call for comments on the revised “General principles for green product assessment,” with a deadline set for feedback on December 18, 2023.

This standard plays a pivotal role in China’s green product assessment scheme. It was initiated in 2016 with the issuance of the “Opinions on Establishing a Unified System for Green Product Standards, Certification, and Labeling” by the State Council. This initiative aimed to integrate China’s green product standards, certification, and labeling. Specifically, it proposed a unified system for green products based on “one category, one standard, one list, one certification, and one label”. In response, the Standardization Administration of China (SAC) established the National Green Product Evaluation Standardization Group in 2016 to coordinate and advance the standardization of green products.

Consequently, in 2017, the national standard “GB/T 33761-2017 General principles for green product assessment” was finalized. It unified the concept of green products and establishing standardized assessment methods and criteria. The standard also underscored the adherence of green products to the entire life cycle principle and green leadership, solidifying the standard’s leading position in the industry. The standard stipulated that the proportion of green products should generally not exceed 5% of comparable products. Green products were required to meet both the basic requirements set by the standard and the assessment criteria for the four major attributes: resources, energy, environment, and quality.

The recent introduction of China’s national Carbon Peak and Neutrality strategy has put forth new and higher requirements for the standardization work of green product assessment, along with other policies such as the “National Standardization Development Outline” and the “Implementation Plan for Promoting Green Consumption.” Therefore, GB/T 33761-2017 needs to be revised to align with the new requirements. It aims to do so by enhancing the consideration of low-carbon attributes in the standard, fulfilling the demands for expanding the supply of green products, and improving the standard based on the development of green product assessment standards for specific product categories, thereby enhancing the scientific and guiding nature of the standard.

Compared to the old version of the standard currently in force, the proposed revised text of GB/T 33761-2017 incorporates “Low Carbon Attribute Indicators” and relevant requirements, “Encouraging Requirements” indicators and relevant requirements, “Product Carbon Reduction Report Framework and Requirements,” as well as “Product Carbon Footprint Quantification Method and Declaration Report Framework.”

The standard text (in Chinese) can be downloaded here.