With enhancing the value of the GECA ecolabel in mind, our chair, Gordon Renouf, attended the Global Ecolabelling Network (GEN) Annual General Meeting and conference week in Hong Kong during November 2015. This was a great opportunity for GECA to make better connections with other ecolabels around the world and to explore recent developments with labelling schemes, particularly in regards to managing our carbon footprint.
New leadership, a growing membership, and development of a visionary strategy marked a buoyant mood at the annual general meeting of GEN, an organisation that represents almost 60 countries and territories. Members voted in Björn- Erik Lönn from The Nordic Swan ecolabel as the network’s new chair, established working groups to measure the impact of sustainability globally, and worked on a new five-year strategic plan.
“The five-year strategy resulting from our working group discussions will bring us to a more visionary position,” says Björn-Erik Lönn. Citing the success of the network’s formal member peer review process, known as GENICES, he says the organisation is poised to broaden its outreach, having strengthened its internal relationships. “Most members have been through the peer review, and we have now grown from being an organisation of exchange-of-experiences to one of greater trust and confidence in each other. That means we can now focus more on external relationships.”
