Scholarly record

ENVIROMENTAL TECHNOLOGY VERIFICATION: THE EUROPEAN SCHEME AS A NEW QUALITY IN VALIDATING THE PERFORMANCE OF ECOINNOVATION

PhD. Eng. Michal Molenda, MSc. Izabela Ratman-Klosinska, PhD. Erika Sujova

Abstract

Environmental technology verification (ETV) may be defined as the establishment or validation of environmental technology performance by qualified third parties based on test data generated through testing using established procedures or specific requirements. The paper present a characteristics of the ETV established by the European Commission as a voluntary scheme with an overall objective to increase the marketability of environmental technologies and raise confidence in ecoinnovations by providing independent and credible information on the performance of environmental technologies. The scheme was launched on an experimental basis in 2011 as a pilot programme of the European Union (EU ETV). The objective of the study was to analyse the organisational framework and the performance of the verification process of the EU ETV scheme from the viewpoint of the quality assurance which is a critical factor is achieving the objectives set up for ETV including the European scheme. The organisational framework of the EU ETV, the entities involved and the verification process and their roles were analysed from the viewpoint of the verification process requirements, its performance and outputs. The analysis was based on documents establishing the EU ETV scheme and the verification process as well as guidance documents detailing the implementation of some of the verification procedures or their parts. The analysis showed that the EU ETV operates based on: a) a highly formalised organisational framework, b) restrictive quality requirements based on ISO standards that ensure quality independent test data and professional judgement, c) robust verification procedures. These provide for the capacities and credibility of the system to meet the objectives of the ETV and in that sense make ETV a useful tool for industry to address environmental challenges efficiently, effectively and economically.

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