Among the various globally important topics, one finds the Integrated Product Policy (IPP), which represents a further step towards recognizing the importance of the environmental qualities of products and services.
The concept of Integrated Product Policy is based on the Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) approach and finds in the LCA its main analytical tool. This concept first emerged around the year 2000 through a series of initiatives, the main ones being (source: Schmidt, 2000):
- the informal meeting of the Ministers of the Environment of the European Union held in Weimar in May 1999;
- some workshops on the topic held in Brussels in December 1998, Berlin in February 2000, and Stockholm also in February 2000;
- the "IPP Greenbook" of the European Commission distributed in December 2000;
- the study on the perspectives of implementing IPP in Italy and the development of an applicative model carried out by ANPA.
Integrated Product Policies can be defined as "an integrated approach to environmental policies aimed at the continuous improvement of the environmental performance of products (and services) in the context of the entire life cycle". Specifically, they are characterized by:
- emphasis on the product and its environmental performance in the context of the entire life cycle (extraction, production, use, and end of life) and across thematic areas (air, water, soil pollution, etc.);
- integrated and coordinated interventions throughout the product life cycle carried out through both coordinating and enhancing existing interventions and identifying new opportunities.
IPP are not new environmental policies but a new modus operandi, aimed at analyzing and linking existing policies and actions carried out through the intervention tools commonly used: eco-labels, incentives, tax breaks, voluntary agreements, sustainable procurement procedures, etc. The goal is to evaluate their effectiveness considering the entire life cycle of the product and/or service.
The concept of IPP includes two main types of integration:
analytical, which aims at analyzing policies throughout the product life cycle and considering their impacts on all relevant environmental sectors;
implementative, which aims at both integrating the various tools available to the decision maker in their interventions along the life cycle, and at integrating the various actors involved in the interventions (Public Administration, industry, consumers, other NGOs...)
In the implementation of IPP, there are therefore many ways to see all environmental initiatives applied in an integrated manner that can be applied along the life cycle of a product and/or service, with the clear intention of directly involving consumers and all stakeholders.
