Dr. Anastasia O’Rourke will moderate a panel on ‘’The Vast Ecosystem of Eco-labels”  with Corey Brinkema, President of the Forest Stewardship Council, Dr. Arthur Weissman, CEO of Green Seal, and Sujeesh Krishnan, Head of Carbon Foot-printing for the Carbon Trust. We will be discussing the growing number of eco-labels and the confusing and fragmented marketplace that results.

The format of the conference allows attendees an extended period to question the panelists following a moderated discussion. We look forward to the dialogue and encourage anyone interested in this rapidly evolving field to join.

On 31-March the forum released a proposed Preferred Practices for Organizational Credibility guide (PDF) for public comment. When completed, the guide will provide a simple road-map on how to safely make green claims. Interested parties can submit comments online here. The Roundtable intends to release a final version in December. The ecolabels section is divided into three categories, some of the key best-practices for each are:

1. Creating standards (development of criteria behind eco-labels)

a. Follow standard-setting codes (e.g. ISO, ANSI and ISEAL);
b. consider the life cycle impacts of products in creating criteria;
c. specify and control the ways that the labels and standards can be used; and
d. avoid developing duplicative standards to what already exists.

2. Issuing ecolabels (for programme managers who run the ecolabel every day)

a. Provide independent verification processes;
b. periodically conduct program performance measurement and program evaluation; and
c. regularly publish the governance system and list of certified entities in an accessible format.

3. Certifiers (for companies that certify entities have met a given ecolabel)

a. Be independent of categories 1 and 2;
b. have the technical ability to perform the verification;
c. be accredited by a relevant certifying standard;
d. monitor entities’ compliance with the standard over time; and
e. have dispute resolution mechanisms in place.

The guide also covers best practices for other relevant stakeholders including governments, retailers, product manufacturers, institutional and commercial buyers, NGOs and other interested stakeholders.

The 11-page report is easily digestible and worth a read. It sets out a context, then examines trends and challenges facing ecolabels. We liked how the report integrates the broader sustainability supply chain and communications field, setting ecolabels up as a ‘keystone species’ within that space.

SustainAbility intends to examine some of the hard to crack issues ecolabels face including consumer trust and ecolabel performance.

We would be interested to understand, in particular, the trust issue within the context of institutional consumers (governments, companies, producers, etc.). Our experience is that ecolabels are increasingly used by professional purchasers at these institutions to ease friction around sustainability purchasing at scale. This in turn is driving spikes in demand for certified product, but also for transparency and accountability, as these purchasers are much more likely to dive deeper into a ecolabel’s operations than an individual consumer.

This links to the ecolabel performance issue, which as our feedback from ecolabels for our Global Ecolabel Monitor last year noted, is certainly a function of the operational capacity of the ecolabels themselves. We are interested to continue to explore ways that the broader community can work with ecolabels to enhance and diversify sources of funding, operational capacity improvements, and other things on their ‘wish-lists’ as part of seizing this opportunity to grow.

Source: Signed, Sealed… Delivered? Phase One | SustainAbility.

GreenGuard are respected experts on indoor air quality, which can be complex to measure and certify given how many different sources contribute to a room’s overall air quality. The acquisition includes both GreenGuard (who run the standard and label) and the associated testing labs of Air Quality Sciences, Inc. (AQS) who have the testing labs.

Greenguard has two widely recognized product certifications relevant in the building industry: the basic Greenguard Indoor Air Quality, and more rigorous Greenguard Children and Schools. According to a press release from GreenGuard, the program has more than 10,000 certified products.

Clearly this is a valuable addition to the growing portfolio of UL Environment, and it will be interesting to follow how the brands and testing methods of each are aligned. We also wonder for both Ecologo and GreenGuard if their logos will show the UL stamp or if they will remain, on the surface at least, independent.

The founders – BDIH (Germany), BIOFORUM (Belgium), COSMEBIO & ECOCERT (France), ICEA (Italy) and SOIL ASSOCIATION (UK) – have determined the requirements and common definitions for a common organic and/or natural cosmetics label in Euope “COSMOS”.

The principles that the new standard is based upon are:

1. Promoting the use of products from organic agriculture and respecting biodiversity;
2. Using natural resources responsibly and respecting the environment;
3. Manufacturing processes that are  clean and respectful of human health and environment;
4. Integrating the concept of “Green Chemistry”.

They furthermore seem to be taking an overarching life cycle and precautionary approach and state from the get-go that animal testing is out.

A schedule of commonly defined terms has been created and the criteria for five key ingredients found in most cosmetics have been set (you can download the full standard here). The final result will be two labels – COSMOS- ORGANIC and COSMOS-NATURAL.  The founding organisations have until Dec 31, 2014 to implement the standard.

Over 400 organisations are being approached to complete one of the most comprehensive surveys of ecolabels ever undertaken.

“This is truly a global effort. Industry, policy, academic and non-profit thought leaders from around the world came together to help develop this survey.” Said Dr. Anastasia O’Rourke, Co-founder of Big Room, “We are delighted to see it launched and are looking forward to the results.”

Ecolabels are logos that signify a product or service offers an added environmental or social benefit. As demand for eco-friendly products and services has skyrocketed in recent years, so have concerns about the quality and impact of ecolabels. Terrachoice, author of ‘The Seven Sins of Greenwashing’ identified two of these: the ‘sin of worshipping false labels’ and the ‘sin of fibbing’.

“Our aim is to create an open, harmonized index of all ecolabels in the world,” said Big Room Co-founder Jacob Malthouse “this is the first, and therefore hardest, effort. Over time, we expect this survey will regularly deliver reliable information on the ecolabel universe for anyone who wants to use them to make sustainable purchasing decisions.”

The results will be publicly released in the first quarter of 2010 and presented to the Keystone Centre’s Green Products Roundtable, a group of key green purchasing stakeholders in the US.

Big Room (the creators of ecolabelling.org) has joined the “Green Products Roundtable” being moderated by the Keystone Center. This is a forum balanced by different stakeholders interested in the continuous stock-taking of the eco-labeling landscape; the question of what makes a good ecolabel and a credible environmental claim; and ultimately, the development of consensus-based guidance on green product marketing and principles for eco-labeling.

Anastasia presented to the Green Products Roundtable meeting in DC on October 16 some of the latest data and assessment from ecolabelling.org. Issues discussed at the event included the problem of defining actually what counts as an eco-label with the profusion of online tags, logos, links, directories, memberships and private labels now proliferating.

The scale and relative market share of ecolabelled goods and services was discussed in light of growing demand for such goods from some very large retailers and purchasers. Is the ecolabelling world ready for the big gorillas?

Various efforts to harmonize and rationalize the ecolabelling space were bandied about, with all the pro’s and con’s that such efforts imply.

Clearly this is a dynamic space, and Big Room is excited to be part of the conversation and problem-solving.

The workshop aimed to help participants navigate through the maze of options companies seemingly have in making green claims – from “does not include PVC” type claims, to third-party certified life-cycle based ecolabels, and everything in between.

Guidance was given on how to assess the credibility and relevance of a label, and some of the costs and benefits associated with different types of labels currently on the market. Anastasia provided participants some conceptual tools, checklists, and information sources (such as ecolabelling.org) to help assess how and when an ecolabel will help them to gain a market edge from being green.

The workshop participants ranged from retailers like Green Depot, to specifiers, to New York based SMEs with building products such as wood panels, architectural moldings and lighting solutions.

A key question that was raised by SME participants was how to get their own suppliers to change their practices in order that they meet a label’s standard. As small players, many SMEs have a difficult time influencing suppliers’ to change their practices (such as switching processing methods, or materials). And they are not always able to pay more to change to those suppliers who are able to help them.

Various suggestions were given, such as taking a collaborative approach with suppliers and other stakeholders, providing them a business-case for making any changes; and talking to other companies using the same suppliers to also exert some pressure.

What is clear is that getting certified is not a one-off activity, but rather one step in a company’s longer-term effort to become more sustainable and offer green-er products.

Quality existing standards, like the best ones with the best metrics here at Ecolabelling.org, are going to be critical to .eco’s success in delivering sustainable outcomes for the planet.

That’s a key reason why we built Ecolabelling.org, and why we’ve worked so hard to communicate with and learn about this community. We hope you’ll be as enthusiastic about .eco as we are!