Newsletter 5 Implementation of Environmental Management

Systems (EMS) and eco-labelling schemes in the

SMEs of the leather sector in Bangladesh

This project is funded by

The European Union June 2017

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EcoLeBan

The ECOLEBAN Project, funded by the European Commission under the Switch Asia Programme, has an

overall duration of 48 months (from March 2014 to February 2018).

The main objective of the ECOLEBAN Project is to enhance the resource efficiency and sustainability of the

leather sector in Bangladesh throughout the whole value chain of the leather related products such as foot-

wear and other leather goods.

Welcome to ECOLEBAN´s fifth newsletter

NEWSLETTER 3 - June 2016 2

NEWSLETTER 5 - June 2017

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The following picture shows the expected results of the action as well as the activities scheduled to achieve them.

IMPLEMENTATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL

MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS AND

ECO-LABELLING SCHEMES IN THE SMES

OF THE LEATHER SECTOR IN BANGLADESH

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NEWSLETTER 5 - June 2017

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Eco-Labelling IMPLEMENTATION

IMPLEMENTATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL

MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS AND

ECO-LABELLING SCHEMES IN THE SMES

OF THE LEATHER SECTOR IN BANGLADESH

In order to ensure that the

SMEs selected to participate in

the ecolabeling pilot program

a cq u i r e t h e n e c e s s a r y

knowledge to carry out the

implementation of the recently

created ECOLEBAN Footwear

Ecolabel, the first Training on

Ecolabeling for Environmental

Management Representatives

(EMR) has been conducted in

the ECOLEBAN Project office

on 15th February.

The training was aimed to

show the progresses regarding

Ecolabelling. Mr. Sanjoy Kumar

went into details about the

Ecolabelling criteria for Bangla-

deshi footwear. He has ex-

plained about six criteria which

have been described in user

manual for Ecolabelling criteria

designed by ECOLEBAN Pro-

ject. The presentation was con-

ducted along with some partici-

patory discussion among all the

participants. Mr. Sanjoy has also

explained about all kinds of

questions and clarification re-

garding criteria. Moreover,

roles and responsibilities of the

selected representatives of the

Ecolabelling Implemented SMEs

has been discussed precisely.

In addition they also were ex-

plained the direct environmen-

tal benefits that can be gained

by using an eco-labeled product

instead of a typically performed

ones which can be quantified in

terms of a lower consumption

of energy, water and raw mate-

rials as well as the minimization

of air emissions during produc-

tion and use.

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SCP Policies POLICYMAKING

IMPLEMENTATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL

MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS AND

ECO-LABELLING SCHEMES IN THE SMES

OF THE LEATHER SECTOR IN BANGLADESH

At the beginning of the year

(January 14th), the ECOLEBAN

Project organized a roundtable

at the BSCIC facilities with the

main players involved in new

Savar's Tannery Station indus-

trialization (BSCIC, BFLLFEA,

BTA, LETSB and some tannery

owners) on "the Role of Gov-

ernment Institutions on the

SCP Policies and Strategies for

the Leather industries of Bang-

ladesh”.

The idea of this meeting was to

transfer the Government

(BSCIC) the problems and diffi-

culties that the companies are

having in their shifting to Savar

and how ECOLEBAN Project

can help solving them with the

SCP practices implementation.

Afterwards, listening the opin-

ions of the different actors, Mr

S a n j o y K u m a r T h a k u r

(ECOLEBAN Local Project

Manager) concluded the pro-

gram addressing some key

points discussed in the

roundtable. He addressed that

SMEs of leather sector need to

implement SCP and ISO 14001

certification in order to im-

prove the overall situation of

Bangladesh Leather Sector.

ECOLEBAN Project can help

leather sector SMEs imple-

menting SCP practices and EMS

which have been a burning is-

sue for the business develop-

ment at a larger scale. Finally,

he thanked Tecnalia as Project

Lead Partner and other nation-

al partners BTA, BFLLFEA &

LFMEAB and also all the related

Ministries of Bangladesh Gov-

ernment, BSCIC Tannery In-

dustrial Estate Project for the

contribution in the develop-

ment of the Leather Industries

in Bangladesh.

At the end of the event, some

commitments were reached

with BSCIC to support and

collaborate in the correct relo-

cation of the tanneries in Savar.

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SCP Policies POLICYMAKING

IMPLEMENTATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL

MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS AND

ECO-LABELLING SCHEMES IN THE SMES

OF THE LEATHER SECTOR IN BANGLADESH

Within the objective, not only

to increase the awareness and

commitment of governmental

institutions in SCP practices

but also to strengthen the

institutional structure at poli-

cy level, two capacity building

were carried out in the past

month of March, first in 6th

and the second in 9th. These

two capacity buildings have

been the second and third of a

training program aimed to

t r a i n p o l i c y m a k e r s

(governmental officials) on

SCP practices and show them

how the Governmental Insti-

tutions can start thinking in

their inclusion at national poli-

cy level.

The training on 6th March was

about Life Cycle Assessment

(LCA) and Eco labe l in g

Schemes and it was intended

to let policymakers know how

these kind of approaches can

help developing the polluting

leather sector.

This capacity building was

exclusively designed for Bang-

ladesh Standards and Testing

Institutions (BSTI), under Min-

istry of Industry and that is

why it took place in BSTI

Conference Room.

We had the honor of having

the presence of BSTI top

management as for example

Mr. Saiful Hasib, BSTI General

Director, among other BSTI

departmental government

officials (in total eleven).

Ministry of Industry

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SCP Policies POLICYMAKING

IMPLEMENTATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL

MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS AND

ECO-LABELLING SCHEMES IN THE SMES

OF THE LEATHER SECTOR IN BANGLADESH

Ministry of Industry

Bangladesh Small & Cottage

Industries Corporation

(BSCIC)

On the other hand, the training

on 9th March was about the Im-

plementation of Sustainable

Consumption and Production

(SCP) in Leather Industries of

Bangladesh and it was intended

to let policymakers know how

these kind of practices and poli-

cies can help the Government

leading the new challenges and

developments of the leather

sector.

This capacity building was ex-

clusively designed for Bangla-

desh Small & Cottage Indus-

tries Corporation (BSCIC), un-

der Ministry of Industry and that

is why it took place in BSCIC

Conference Room, Administra-

tion Building, Tannery Industrial

Estate, Savar.

We had the honour of having

the presence of BSCIC top

management as for example

Mr. Mustak Hossain Md. Iftek-

har, BSCIC Chairman among

other BSCIC departmental gov-

ernment officials (in total 7).

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Networking

STAKEHOLDERS

IMPLEMENTATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL

MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS AND

ECO-LABELLING SCHEMES IN THE SMES

OF THE LEATHER SECTOR IN BANGLADESH

The ECOLEBAN Project cele-

brated International Women's

Day on March 8th by organizing

a rally at the Tannery Workers’

Union office to celebrate the

contribution of women to the

sustainability of value chains

and promote their safety and

rights.

The rally was attended by fe-

male workers and tannery

owners and was followed by

group discussions. Project team

members from ECOLEBAN,

SNV Bangladesh and Oxfam

Bangladesh were present at this

event emphasizing the im-

portance of women’s involve-

ment for the sustainable con-

sumption and production of

resources in Bangladesh.

Some of the women workers

expressed their present prob-

lems and shared their experi-

ence at the leather sector. The

speakers were responded on

their queries and at the same

time were motivated to contin-

ue focusing in their objectives

and responsibilities.

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Networking STAKEHOLDERS

IMPLEMENTATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL

MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS AND

ECO-LABELLING SCHEMES IN THE SMES

OF THE LEATHER SECTOR IN BANGLADESH

The 29th March, ECOLEBAN

Project was invited by the Hon-

ourable Ambassador of Bangla-

desh in Spain Mr. Hassan

Mahmood Khandker BPM,

PPM, ndc, to the celebration of

the 46th Anniversary of Inde-

pendence and National Day of

Bangladesh. The event took

place in Intercontinental Hotel,

Madrid.

Representing ECOLEBAN Pro-

ject, Mr. Mikel Perez Maiz Tech-

nical & Implementation Manager

attended. At the event, in addi-

tion to various institutional rep-

resentations from other coun-

tries, several representatives of

companies with investments or

potential interest in doing busi-

ness in Bangladesh attended.

Mr. Mikel Perez, in addition to

interacting with different mem-

bers of the Government of

Bangladesh, also had the op-

portunity to share project ac-

tions with companies and finan-

cial institutions that could collab-

orate or be interested in co-

working with the project objec-

tives. The Ambassador of Bang-

ladesh personally congratulated

TECNALIA on the work has

been carrying out in last 3 years

in Bangladesh and he desired

the best of luck to ECOLEBAN

Project.

This was a very good opportuni-

ty to share and disseminate the

benefits of the project between

Bangladeshi Government insti-

tutions and networking with

companies interested in partici-

pating in the project objectives.

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Networking STAKEHOLDERS

IMPLEMENTATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL

MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS AND

ECO-LABELLING SCHEMES IN THE SMES

OF THE LEATHER SECTOR IN BANGLADESH

Between 15-17th May 2017, the

SWITCH-Asia Network Facility

organised a set of events to

streamline the impact reporting

of SWITCH-Asia projects, facili-

tate the aggregation of their

results at the Programme level

and support the long-term sus-

tainability of individual actions

via access to innovative finance

mechanisms such as blended

finance.

Held in Bangkok, the events

brought together 80 profession-

als from DG DEVCO headquar-

ters, eight EU Delegations in

Asia and most of the teams that

implement SWITCH-Asia grant

projects.

The Ecoleban Project was pre-

sent with the assistance of Mr.

Javier Del Pozo, ECOLEBAN

Project Director and Mr. Mikel

Perez Maiz, Technical & Imple-

mentation Project Coordinator.

A lively dialogue between grant

projects and their respective EU

-Delegations helped to develop

a better understanding of devel-

oping the project's Log Frame

and result indicators.

The first and second day of

seminar focussed on monitoring

and reporting, while the third

day addressed access to fi-

nance via Blending mechanisms

to contribute to the financial

sustainability of SWITCH-Asia

projects.

Monitoring and reporting was in

focus during the first two days,

when the first draft of a newly

developed conceptual frame-

work and comprehensive indica-

tor scheme was introduced.

During the lively panel discus-

sion that took part in the second

part of the seminar, SWITCH-

Asia Programme representa-

tives further discussed these

themes with experts from finan-

cial institutions and the SWITCH

-Asia project teams, with a par-

ticular eye on the needs and

constraints of micro and small

companies.

You can read more at SwitchA-

sia website.

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Networking STAKEHOLDERS

IMPLEMENTATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL

MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS AND

ECO-LABELLING SCHEMES IN THE SMES

OF THE LEATHER SECTOR IN BANGLADESH

World Environment Day

2017 was jointly celebrated

on 5th June 2017 by the Eu-

ropean Union (EU) partners

in Bangladesh under

its Switch-Asia Programme.

The event was celebrated

with its global theme for this

year - ‘Connecting People

with Nature’.

Bangladesh Youth Environ-

mental Initiative (BYEI),

Oxfam and its partner Bang-

ladesh Environmental Law-

yer’s Association (BELA) led

the celebration as other Euro-

pean Union (EU) partners in

Bangladesh such as ECOLE-

BAN, SNV and Care partici-

pated in the joint event.

BYEI organized a Vision

Sharing Contest for the youth

as the applicants were invited

to come up with creative and

sustainable solutions on how

to ensure sustainable envi-

ronment in the urban cities.

Around 175 submissions

were received as students

from different universities of

Bangladesh as well as

abroad entered the competi-

tion.

Alongside the competition, a

grand rally was organized in

Dhaka on 5th June where

participants from BYEI,

BELA, Oxfam, ECOLEBAN,

SNV and Care alongside

other participants in general.

The rally started from Dhaka

University

campus

and ended at Dhaka Press

Club where the selected top

entries for the Vision Sharing

Contest were given an oppor-

tunity to make a presentation.

Dr. Md. Khalid Hossain from

Oxfam, Mahbub Ullah from

SNV, Sanjoy Kumar Thakur

from ECOLEBAN, Md. Elias

from Care Bangladesh and

Mohammad Arju from Save

Our Sea initiative were pre-

sent as panel judges to select

the 03 winners from the final-

ists. They also spoke on the

occasion on how they are

implementing their individual

projects under the EU funded

SWITCH-Asia Programme

collaboratively working to-

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Networking STAKEHOLDERS

IMPLEMENTATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL

MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS AND

ECO-LABELLING SCHEMES IN THE SMES

OF THE LEATHER SECTOR IN BANGLADESH

Taking advantage of the celebration

of the international day of the envi-

ronment, the project published a new

on ecolabeling to enhance the de-

mand of eco-labeled footwear goods,

by sensitizing consumers on the im-

portance of choosing environmental-

ly-friendly products. In order to

achieve that aim, the project selected

chose Bangladesh's most widely

read newspaper; The Daily Star.

MONDAY, “June 5, 2017”

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This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The contents of this document

are the sole responsibility of the consortium and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of

the European Union.

Learn more about our project visiting our website

www.ecoleban.com