THE CE MARKING

CE

In my last post I ended by saying that I would pen the next post on yet another green label. In my last post I dealt with the energy rating label. The energy rating label indicates, by number of stars, the energy efficiency level of a product. There are many who do not know that there are green labels on the products they buy, let alone find out their implications and apply them. The green labels contain symbols that give simple guidelines as to how those products could be dispose of in an environmentally friendly manner. Taking note of the green labels and following the guidelines they bear may give you a new positive attitude towards the environmental cleanliness and balance in a sustainable way. The subject of this post is the green label with the mark CE.

CONFORMITY

The green label with the marking CE must be of a minimum size of 5mm. The CE marking is an acronym meaning European Conformity, originally speaking it is Conformité Européenne. A product with the CE mark indicates that the product could be traded on the European Union market. The product can be manufactured outside the European Union and still have access to the European Union market. Products with the CE mark manufactured in the European Union trade on markets outside the European Union. The CE mark on a product shows that the product meets the health, safety and environmental standards (among others) of the European Union.

The concern of the European Union regarding the natural environment is sustainable energy and climate action, a concern mainstreamed from the United Nations SDG Agenda 2030. Let me proceed to take sustainable energy and climate action one by one and analyze them to clarify the link between the CE mark and the European Union environmental standards, and for that their fulfilment. These two standards bring out the significance of the CE mark on products because the manufacturers are conforming to standards that contribute to inducing a natural environment that can be used and reused sustainably from generation to generation.

SUSTAINABLE ENERGY

Sustainable energy is also called renewable energy. A sustainable energy is an energy whose source cannot be exhausted. An example of such energy is solar energy, derived from the sun. Harnessing of such energy does not cause harm to the natural environment. Unlike the extraction and use of oil which result in oil spill into oceans and emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The spill of oil into oceans because of oil extraction kills some aquatic life forms and disrupts ecosystems. The emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere because of the combustion of fuel in automobiles, for example, contributes to the notorious global warming. The significance of the CE mark or brand on a product is that the manufacturer of that product is using or progressively using natural resources from the natural environment in a way that the natural environment remains intact for future generations to benefit from it too. The trend for manufacturers is to be steadily and progressively shifting from depletable and GHG emitting natural resources to sustainable resources.

CLIMATE ACTION    

Climate Action is about fighting climate change. Climate change is unusual changes in the climate attributed to unprecedented and unbridled rise in global mean temperature. The rise in global mean temperature is as a result of the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere due to human activities here on planet Earth. Many experts agree to that thought, others do not. Reversing that trend, and restoring the natural environment to its balance, perhaps, atom for atom- possibly nanometrically, is to my mind, climate action. A product with the CE marking on it shows that the manufacturer of that product is conforming to climate action standard. Take a refrigerator or air conditioner for example. Some refrigerators emit chlorofluorocarbon, a greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere thus contributing to global warming. A CE mark on a refrigerator should tell you that it is a refrigerator that does not release chlorofluorocarbon into the atmosphere. If you bought such refrigerator, as we should all do, you should be contributing your quota to climate action.

PARTING SHOT

If for nothing at all, these four or so posts I have been penning should tell you that manufacturers are required to paste green labels on products they manufacture, which they do do. Please discriminate against those who don’t do so, and patronize those who do it. Remember that we as earthlings have so exploited the natural resources in the natural environment that the natural environment is now in a state of imbalance as evidenced in loss of species, loss of ecosystems, rising levels of the oceans, drought, high temperatures etc. The least you can do as a consumer, and also as a concerned earthling, is to be informed that products which bear green labels and marks are to be patronized. These brands indicate that the products that bear them were manufactured bearing in mind sustainability of the natural environment. The Huawei modem I use in connecting with the internet to research my posts was made in China, bearing the CE mark, yet I bought it in Ghana, West Africa. In buying the Huawei modem with the CE mark, I am contributing to a sustainable natural environment. Also, by that same modem, I am able to publish my green ideas to the world through the internet. Why not join the green wagon?