Promoting factors and early indicators of a successful product panel

Product panels are presented as a promising method to find solutions for environmental problems arising from specific product groups. These panels consist of representatives of manufacturers, retail, research, environmental and consumer administration, recycling, and various other stakeholders who work together in the panel to draft plans of action aiming at improvements in the environmental characteristics of products and services, and promotion for environmentally sound products and services in the various markets.The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that promote successful panel work as based on the experiences from the Danish and Finnish product panels. In addition, we aim at finding several indicators in panel work that can help lead to successful results already in the early phase and, on the other hand, help to recognize panels that will be ineffective from the viewpoint of environmental policy. We also describe how the findings from the Danish and Finnish textile panels were applied to a new product panel in Finland dealing with furniture and how this panel has started its work.The paper is based on existing material about the three panels, including reports and websites of the Danish product panels and the Finnish Furniture panel. In addition, unpublished memos of the meetings of the three panels have been studied. An evaluation report of the Danish panels was very useful for the discussion of the findings. The authors have also participated in the furniture panel as a member and a secretary.Experiences from the Danish textile panel and some early results of the Finnish furniture panel indicate that, under the right conditions, gathering stakeholders from the whole product chain and administration into a panel can be an efficient way to promote the market for greener products and thus, can serve as a tool for integrated product policy. Key success factors include the basic idea, committed people and openness of the product panels. It is also important that the initiator give some guidance in the form of schedule, action plan and some preset objectives.