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OAS and Panama’s Public and Private Sectors Agree to Foster Production Processes in Harmony with the Environment

The Organization of American States (OAS) and a group of public and private enterprises of Panama today agreed to promote the "Green Panama Seal," an initiative aimed to develop manufacturing processes in harmony with the environment.

The agreement was reached during the 9th International Symposium on cleaner production, which took place from Wednesday, March 19, to Thursday, March 20, in Panama City. The OAS participates in the initiative through its Department of Sustainable Development, while Panama’s public and private sectors are represented by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Union of Industrialists of Panama (SIP), and the National Environmental Authority of Panama (ANAM).

The objective of the initiative is to present the viability and applicability of the manufacturing design and methodologies of Closed Cycle Production within the production sector of the Americas as an innovative development tool for improving energy efficiency and environmental performance in the industry sector in order to increase productivity, competitiveness and, at the same time, the sustainability of businesses.

The President of the SIP, Michelle Ureña Maduro, said the initiative is carried out "in order to provide the consumer with quality products manufactured under the best practices."

The "Green Panama Seal" will lead Panamanian companies to implement sustainable production processes that take into account human health and environmental protection. Through the “Cradle to Cradle” international certification, experts will evaluate the toxicity of the ingredients and materials used in products and will define a way to improve product design and manufacturing processes. Implementing the Closed Cycle Production in local companies implies an industrial development in which the materials used in a product become nutrients after having completed their cycle of use. This concept encourages nations such as Panama to reduce their dependence on non-renewable resources and continuous extraction.

The "Green Panama Seal” initiative follows the line established by the Ministers and High-Level Authorities on Sustainable Development of the Americas at their meeting held in the Dominican Republic in 2010, during which they adopted the Declaration of Santo Domingo, which recognizes that the unsustainable patterns of production and consumption are a complex challenge to the well-being of communities . Furthermore, they indicated that the deterioration of goods and services provided by ecosystems impacts the economies and the livelihoods of communities that depend on them and affects their resilience capacity. In this regard, they made ​​a commitment to foster improving the environmental performance of the countries of the Hemisphere’s production sectors by promoting sustainable patterns of production and consumption.

Meanwhile, the OAS pledged to work towards increasing awareness and support by stakeholders in Panama (government, national companies, among others) of the relevance and viability of innovative methods and Closed Cycle Production certification in order to fulfill the Declaration of Santo Domingo’s commitment to promote sustainable consumption and production in harmony with the environment.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-099/14