A book is now available that tells the story of how TCO labelling of computer displays became a global standard. The author is Per Erik Boivie. He explains the motives behind and the content of TCO labelling. Read more...

The concept of sustainable development received international recognition at the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, popularly known as "the World Summit". This adopted an action programme that emphasised the need for sustainable development, involving not just ecological but also social and economic factors.

In practice, however, efforts to achieve sustainable development in working life have in most cases been limited to "ecologically sustainable development". Some initiatives have nevertheless tried to use a much wider generalised view as a basis.

In the spirit of the Rio conference the TCO's Development Manager at the time, Per Erik Boivie, took the initiative by developing a model for integrated environmental work at the workplace, called 6E, along with initiating TCO certification of IT equipment. TCO labelling of computer displays has since then made a global impact. Now there are more than 500 million computer users all over the world who are benefiting from the TCO quality and environmental labelling schemes.

TCO stands for "Tjänstemännens Centralorganisation" which in plain English is "The Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees", an umbrella organisation for various white-collar Swedish trade unions.

TCO has developed over many years a quality and environmental labelling scheme, which is an example of the ability to push development forward at a product level, with users having an important degree of input.

Click on the different keywords inside the logos to discover more. A version of this text suitable for printout is also available.