The objective of ECOS is essentially of a non-profit-making, scientific nature. It is to promote the protection of the environment while standards and product specifications are developed at international, European Union, European Free Trade Association and Member States level, so that these bodies can actively contribute to the sustainability of the economy. More specifically, the objective of ECOS is:

• to represent European and national environmental NGOs at technical and decision-making level within the standardisation processes and stakeholder consultations on product specifications;
• to co-operate with the European Commission and other stakeholders in the relevant bodies;
• to co-ordinate the environmental associations' contribution to the enhancement of environmental and ecodesign aspects in legilsation and voluntary approaches;
• to assess the quality of these processes and discuss with the European Commission, the European Parliament and national governments on the basis of these assessments;
• to contribute to the improvement of consumer choice and consumer education by providing more visible markets to sustainable products;
• to disseminate information about relevant standardisation and ecodesign processes among environmental organisations;
• to promote the active involvement of environmental organisations in standardisation matters at national level.