Brazil launches Green Seal Program to standardize and certify sustainable products and services

On Tuesday (18), Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva established the country’s Green Seal Program (Programa Selo Verde Brasil) by means of Decree 12,063. The new strategy standardizes and certifies Brazilian products and services that meet strict sustainability criteria.

The program will be coordinated by Brazil’s Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services (Ministério do Desenvolvimento, Indústria, Comércio e Serviços/MDIC), and will promote improvements in the quality of Brazilian products and services; increase sustainability in their production chains; and leverage the competitiveness of these products in Brazil and abroad.

Within the national market, a seal identifying sustainable products and services is expected to promote national neo-industrialization; to encourage the growth of the green economy and the sustainable product market in Brazil, promoting innovation; and to leverage a national circular economy.

Brazil’s Green Seal will be voluntary and granted to products that meet the socio-environmental criteria that will be defined by the Brazilian Association of Technical Standards (Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas/ABNT). These criteria may refer to production traceability, carbon footprint, solid waste and energy efficiency, for instance. The Green Seal will be granted by certifiers that will be accredited by the National Institute of Metrology, Quality and Technology (Instituto Nacional de Metrologia, Qualidade e Tecnologia/Inmetro).

The Seal will also help reduce production costs and diminish—or maybe even eliminate—multiple certifications.

The Program will include technical assistance and training for participating companies to help them adapt their production to the new criteria. The Brazilian Industrial Development Agency (Agência Brasileira de Desenvolvimento Industrial/ABDI) and the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Serviço Brasileiro de Apoio às Micro e Pequenas Empresas/Sebrae) will be the main partners. Small and micro-businesses will be covered by the Program.

“This initiative follows a global trend: to qualify products and services according to social and environmental criteria. We are reiterating our commitment to a green economy, one of the pillars of New Industry Brazil (Nova Indústria Brasil/NIB)”, said Brazil’s vice-president and MDIC minister Geraldo Alckmin. “We must prepare our market, nationally and internationally, for the demands of ecological transformation, working to consolidate the culture of consumption of sustainable products and services,” he added.

According to MDIC secretary of Green Economy, Decarbonization and Bioindustry Rodrigo Rollemberg, this is much more than just a labeling program. “It is a national strategy for the development and growth of the productive sector in a sustainable way,” he said. To Rollemberg, product certification will afford Brazil competitiveness, elevating it to the status of global green economy leader.

STANDARDS - Brazil’s Green Seal will be created in line with national and international standards, ensuring reciprocity, regulatory cooperation and mutual recognition with other countries. It will also be compatible with other instruments that promote national energy, ecological transition and sustainable economy—such as the New Industry Brazil and the Ecological Transformation Plan (Plano de Transformação Ecológica), to name a few.

An Ordinance of MDIC will establish the Program’s Steering and Advisory committees. The Steering Committee will be responsible for implementing the Program, while the Advisory Committee will be the space for dialogue between the public and private sectors towards concrete action. The committees will prepare the guidelines, as well as establish the Program's priority products and services, and forward them to ABNT. The first standards are expected to be issued by the first half of 2025.