In order to promote the spread of the eco-design guidelines and support softwares to the industries in Korea, the Ministry of Environment announced that beginning on Jan. 13, 2003, it will begin to administer eco-design education programs.

The education programs will be divided into the general sessions and the in-depth sessions. General sessions will be conducted for the purpose of spreading the general understanding of the eco-design guidelines for the research institutes, enterprises and academic institutions. In-depth sessions will consist of a practical training of the eco-design on site for a certain product, as well as constructing a software appropriate for that product. The in-depth sessions will provide more detailed and practical education for the big enterprises and their supply companies.

Eco-design is an environmentally friendly design technique which considers the factors such as a reduction of the harmful substances and pollutant emissions, increase of the recycling ability, and promotion of energy efficiency, from the preliminary stages of a product or building development.

The need to introduce the eco-design guidelines was emphasized recently, since the European Union strengthened measures on the environment by prohibiting the use of harmful substances and heavy metals and making the mandatory measures for the collection and recycling of certain products.

Through these educational programs, eco-design guidelines and support softwares will be spread widely into the industries, and raise the public eco-design awareness. Also, many industries are expected to actually apply the eco-design guidelines in their product development.

The Ministry of Environment will continuously work on measures to spread the eco-design guidelines, promote the purchase of environmentally friendly products, and implement more measures to strengthen the competitiveness in the global market.