UN supports ’Green Lead’ project

Archiv – The Steering Committee of the ’Green Lead’ project, a lead industry product stewardship initiative, has received financial support from the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) for its development workshop in London on April 27-28.
An inter-governmental financial institution established by the United Nations, CFC’s main objective is to assist developing nations which are dependent on the production and export of primary commodities. The main target groups are commodity producers in least-developed countries and the poorer strata of population in other developing countries.The Steering Committee of the ’Green Lead’ project, a lead industry product stewardship initiative, has received financial support from the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) for its development workshop in London on April 27-28.
An inter-governmental financial institution established by the United Nations, CFC’s main objective is to assist developing nations which are dependent on the production and export of primary commodities. The main target groups are commodity producers in least-developed countries and the poorer strata of population in other developing countries.
The ’Green Lead’ project is aimed at defining a standard and audit system for third-party certification of companies in the lead-acid battery life-cycle so as to provide assurance that production, use and recycling of lead used in batteries can be achieved while ensuring the highest levels of human and environmental safety.
The life-cycle of batteries has been targeted because this application now constitutes approximately 80% of global lead use. According to Dr David Wilson MBE, Director of the London-based Lead Development Association, this initiative represents ’the first full-blown attempt to promote a rigorous worldwide certification system based on the well-accepted principles of product stewardship’.
Brian Wilson, Program Manager for the North Carolina-based International Lead Management Center and also a member of the ’Green Lead’ Steering Committee, has welcomed the CFC grant. ’The lead battery life-cycle is a truly global one and we cannot hope to develop a workable certification system unless it is practical in all parts of the lead cycle and in all parts of the world,’ he says. ’With this grant, we will now involve producers and consumers from El Salvador, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Philippines in the London workshop.’
The event, which is open to all interested parties, is set to attract representatives from companies with lead interests, environmental NGOs, lead industry associations and governments. A draft standard and audit system is expected to be adopted for pilot-phase testing over the next two years.