Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva launched the country’s Green Seal Program (Programa Selo Verde Brasil). The program 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, 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. 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.
The Seal will also help reduce production costs and diminish—or maybe even eliminate—multiple certifications.
“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, 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.
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.
The first standards are expected to be issued by the first half of 2025.
Source: Gov.br