Eco Mark Program (Japan Environment Association (JEA))

The Eco Mark program is a program implemented by the Japan Environment Association in 1989.

The Eco Mark is an ecolabel that helps consumers make environmentally conscious products choices. Eco Mark is attached to various products and services with a low environmental impact throughout the product’s lifecycle from “production” to “end of life” and support environmental conservation.

We currently have over 70 criteria with more than 45,000 certified products/services of 1,300 licensees as of March 2022. Eco Mark criteria are based on lifecycle thinking and four priority areas such as resource-saving and recycling, prevention of global warming, restriction and control of hazardous substances, and biodiversity conservation.

Of those, the Eco Mark program is most proud of resource-saving and recycling areas. Circularity is one of the keywords in the world right now, but a requirement about recycled contents has been the centre of the Eco Mark program since 1989.

In recent years, Eco Mark has been focusing on the service sector, with the number of certified facilities reaching approximately 4,000. The fields range from hotels and restaurants to sharing services, electricity plans, and so on. There are more opportunities for consumers to see Eco Mark in everyday life.

Eco Mark is widely used as a reference to comply with the criteria of Green Public Procurement, known as evaluation criteria, by procurers nationwide. Eco Mark criteria cover more environmental aspects of products/services and set up more strict requirements than evaluation criteria.