Chantal Line

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Chantal Line Carpentier,
Ph.D. Head, Environment, Economy,
Trade Commission for Environmental Cooperation
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Three Countries.
One Environment.
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In North America

• 400 million people
• Shared ecosystem
• Transboundary flow of air, water, species
• 11 trillion goods/services
• NAFTA doubled trade since 1993
• 1-3 trillion in procurement

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Outline

• The CEC
• Greening Trade in North America
• Approaches
• NAGPI
• Office Supplies
• Cleaning products

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Commission for Environmental Cooperation

• Canada, Mexico, United States created CEC to
  better protect our shared environment
• NAAEC parallel agreement to NAFTA

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CEC Mission

• Cooperation, public participation to foster
  conservation, protection, and enhancement of the
  environment

In the context of increasing economic and trade
links
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CEC Structure
Council
JPAC
Secretariat
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CEC Structure
Council
JPAC
Secretariat
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Greening Trade in North America WTO opportunity

• Environmental assessment and environmental
  markets
• Measuring consumer (including industry and
  institutional demand when appropriate) interest
  in environmental markets
• Understanding producer challenges
• Community partnerships
• Intermediaries
• Transparency and market information tools
• Financing of environmental goods and services
• The role of public policy
• Green purchasing

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NAGPIs mission is to improve, promote, and
facilitate the development of green purchasing
tools and activities across North America to
create markets for environmentally preferable
products and services from sustainably managed
companies, thereby producing tangible economic,
social, and environmental benefits.
NAGPIs Mission?
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NAGPIs Role

• Work with information multipliers,
  manufacturers, and purchasers across North
  America to facilitate necessary consensus and
  channel the innovative nature of the market
  economy towards a more productive, effective, and
  sustainable future.

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Challenges

• Learn to speak with one voice while continuing
  to value diverse opinions
• Disseminate available environmental information
• Prioritize environmental considerations to be
  incorporated into purchasing decisions
• Cleaning products, office supplies, renewable
  energy

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NAGPI Activities

• Compile and maintain list of green purchasing
  efforts

• Create a unified voice to engage manufacturers,
  purchasers, governments, the media the general
  public

• Facilitate development of common marketing
  language beneficial to all

• Develop and maintain a database of supporting
  tools and procurement policies used across North
  America

• Identify research funding and needs (e.g., the
  need to better quantify environmental benefits)

• Launch coordinated campaigns to improve the
  performance of specific commodity areas

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Example Cleaning products

• Pilot in Mexico (start from 0)
• review products currently used
• identifying an appropriate standard for green
  cleaners
• buying locally available products meeting the
  standard
• training the janitorial workers
• tracking product effectiveness
• calculating the environmental and other
  associated benefits

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US/Canada cleaning product plan

• consensus-based green cleaning standards through
  the Green Seal and Environmental Choice programs
• than 80 certified products
• Slow recognition, through extensive pilot
  testing, that the products are effective,
  affordable, and safer
• Constraint Awareness
• Must with very limited budget, reach large of
  institutional consumers strong ties to federal,
  provincial, state, and local governments
• NAGPI-approved green cleaning fact sheet
• web-page on the NAGPI site devoted to green
  cleaners
• press release and conference calls

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Archies questions

• What is the CEC up to
• How relates to our members
• Environmental attributes sought by NAFTA market
• What to look for in the future