Documents required for eco-friendly product certification cut from 20 to 12

The number of documents companies must submit to obtain an environmental label certifying a product as eco-friendly will be reduced from 20 to 12.

The Ministry of Climate, Environment and Energy unveiled the plan to redesign administrative paperwork for energy and environment startups at the second plenary session of the Regulatory Rationalization Committee, held at Cheong Wa Dae on Friday.

Under the plan, the ministry will abolish or consolidate documents deemed unnecessary or duplicative among those required for environmental label applications. Items targeted include product specification sheets and product catalogs, as well as self-inspection checklists for regulatory compliance and advertising compliance confirmation forms.

Documents containing reusable information — such as company details — but currently requiring resubmission each time a company applies for a label for a different product will be handled through an upgraded online system that draws on previously submitted data.

In addition to cutting environmental label application documents from 20 to 12, the ministry will reduce paperwork related to the circular economy regulatory sandbox from 10 to four items.

For documents with no page limit — which companies have found burdensome to prepare — the ministry will introduce standard templates with set length restrictions.

Documents previously required to apply for the small and medium-sized environmental enterprise commercialization support project will also be cut from 15 to five through the shared use of administrative data.

The ministry earlier this month revised its system for onshore wind power project permit applications, allowing companies to submit simulated wind-field data from the Korea Meteorological Administration's renewable energy weather information platform instead of wind condition measurements collected over at least one year. The change is expected to save companies one year of preparation time and about 250 million won ($189,000) in costs, based on a facility capacity of 30 megawatts.