Latest News

 Scheme | Why? | Approach | Values | Development | Timeline | Progress | Product Issues | Questionnaire

The broad approach that we are taking towards the development of the LOFAmark scheme

The achievement of the various benefits that we have set for the LOFAmark scheme will not be easy to achieve.  There are already many schemes in existence, not all of which have been unmitigated successes.  Having reviewed the experience of other schemes, we have set some principles that will be used to guide the development of the scheme. 

These are as follows.

Our aim is to develop and implement a series of initiatives that will cause the impact of our activities to be less harmful and more beneficial to the environment and communities than it otherwise would be.

The scale and complexity of the manufacturing and sourcing situations of our products are such that we cannot address them all at once.  So we will launch the scheme in phases – each one making a progressively greater difference to our environmental and ethical impact.

We will aim to make a specific, tangible and straightforward claim for each product, that consumers will be able to understand and relate to.  Because of the variety of types of products that LOFA members supply, using different materials, sources and production processes, this means that the specific claim made will vary between different types of product.  We believe that this will be more effective than more general, abstract’ claims of ‘environmental goodness’.

Given the number of accreditation schemes that already exist, where ever possible, practical and appropriate, we will seek to adopt or fall in line with existing schemes.

We recognise that many, if not most, decisions about what is environmental acceptable, or superior, are inherently judgemental.  Accordingly the scheme must develop the ability to take such judgemental decisions that are not only balanced, but are also seen to be balanced.