Environmental Sustainability
In late 2007, ACCORD's board of directors signed off on the following aspirational goal for 2008-10:'Social contribution & environmental sustainability: A responsible industry playing its part to meet social, health and environmental challenges of importance to the overall wellbeing of the community.'
The association has commenced work on new projects and improvements to existing activities in support of this goal.
Codes supporting safe and sustainable use
ACCORD has developed the following industry guidelines to promote effective and sustainable self regulation in the following areas:
Guideline for Cleaners and Sanitisers that may have Incidental Contact with Food
Code of Practice for Household & Commercial Cleaning Products Claiming Antibacterial Action
Scheme for Phosphorus Content and Labelling of Laundry Detergents
Industry and institutional products focus on quality
| The Industry Quality Commitment is a clear statement of the customer focused values of ACCORD members. The Commitment focuses on the following four key quality areas: |  |
- Public and Occupational Health and Safety
Ensuring products are designed to be appropriate for their intended use, and minimise risks to people and the environment.
- Environmental Values
Meeting consumers' needs in an environmentally responsible manner, and make packaging compatible with waste handling systems, including supporting recycling where it exists. - Compliance and Continuous Improvement
Ensuring industry complies with all requirements, and support responsible self-regulation to complement existing laws. - Business Ethics/Commercial Practices
Conducting business affairs ethically and fairly.
Underpinning industry's performance in implementing the Quality Commitment are four specific issue guidelines developed by ACCORD as self regulation tools.
Sustainable use of laundry products with Washwise
As a new sustainability project, we're helping to make sure our products are used correctly.
 | For example, we've developed a public information website, WashWise, to give consumers advice on household laundry product sustainability. WashWise informs consumers about environmentally responsible laundry practices: how to maximise wash quality while ensuring that their use of energy and water and management of waste water is sustainable. See www.washwise.org.au, or click the WashWise logo. |
Ingredient Disclosure Initiative for Household Cleaning Products
This is a new voluntary industry initiative developed by ACCORD to provide consumers with more information about the ingredients in household cleaning products. This will help to aid consumer choice.The initiative covers the following categories of household products:
- air care products
- automotive products
- cleaning products
- floor maintenance products
- laundry products