Licences and labelling

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Licences and labelling
To ensure your business and the environment is protected, you need to know if your business activities fall under environmental legislation, licensing and labelling requirements.

Environmental legislation
All Australian businesses can play a part in environmental management, but whether environmental laws will affect your business directly will depend on your business activities.
Licences & permits
Approvals for environmental licences and permits can be obtained from federal, state and local environmental agencies, and the type of approval you need will depend on the jurisdiction and type of your business activity.
Standards and labelling
Certain goods or appliances manufactured or imported into Australia may need to comply with environmental standards before they can be sold. Each standard sets out a rating and labelling system to inform consumers on how efficiently a product uses an environmental resource, and has the added benefit of promoting suppliers with high rating products.
- Energy rating
  The energy rating standard is a joint initiative of Commonwealth, state and territory government agencies.
- Energy star
  The energy star is a voluntary standard for electronic equipment that has an energy-efficient "sleep" or power down function enabled.
- Fuel consumption
  The Motor Vehicle Standards Act 1989 covers national safety and environmental requirements for all vehicles manufactured in Australia. Under the Act, manufacturers and importers must also comply with the Australian Design Rules (ADRs) that cover fuel consumption labelling requirements.
- Greenhouse gas emissions
  Find out what greenhouse initiatives are available to recognise your business as environmentally friendly.
- Water efficiency
  The mandatory Water Efficiency Labelling and Standards (WELS) Scheme was introduced to help the environment by reducing water consumption.