The Nordic Ecolabel will help to guide Nordic consumers and purchasers so that they have a real possibility of buying green and thus contributing to improving the environment. At the same time there is a desire to encourage producers to manufacture environmentally-friendly products. Today there are more than 60 criteria and the number of licenses is increasing greatly all the time. About 2010 licenses have been issued which include more than 6000 products.

In November 2010 the Nordic Ministers for the Environment adopted a vision for the Nordic Label 2015:
It is envisioned that the Nordic Ecolabel, by offering a reliable tool for consumers who want to consume eco-friendly, will be recognised as one of the most effective voluntary consumer policy instruments for the environment by 2015. The Nordic Ecolabel holds a strong position through its high credibility and market penetration and leads other brands pro-actively in terms of its stringent criteria. Companies see the Nordic Ecolable as an attractive and credible way to use the environment as a competitive edge and it is an obvious choice for consumers who place high demands on the environment and on quality. Consumers are aware that high demands on climate issues are part of the criteria for the Nordic Ecolabel. Sustainability criteria, in addition to those of the environment, are gradually being added to the Nordic Ecolabel.

The work is co-ordinated by the Nordic Ecolabelling Board (NMN), which decides which product groups will be covered by the Nordic Ecolabel and the requirements that must be met. Nordic expert groups draw up proposals for the criteria and the different countries' ecolabelling secretariats process the licence applications and issue the licences. In Denmark and Iceland the Nordic Ecolabel comes under the environment sector while in the other Nordic countries it falls under the consumer sector.

All national ecolabelling secretariats work in parallel with the Nordic Ecolabel and the European EU Ecolabel. Ecolabelling in the Nordic countries has a turnover today of about DKK 90 million and employs about 100 people More than 2/3 of the income comes from license charges and application fees from businesses. The Nordic Ecolabel is responsible for more than 95% of these incomes while the rest comes from Nordic producers with the EU Ecolabel.

The Nordic Ecolabel was established in 1989 by the consumer sector of the Nordic Council of Ministers, but it has been the responsibility of the environmental sector since 2006. Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden were party to the Nordic Ecolabel co-operation from the start, while Denmark joined in 1998. The annual grant from the Nordic Council of Ministers to NMN in 2011 is about DKK 4 million.

See http://www.nordic-ecolabel.org/ for more information about the Nordic Ecolabel.