As consumers and businesses have begun to seek green products in recent years, environmental certification has become an increasingly crowded — and contested — field.
About 600 labels worldwide — 80 in the United States — are issued by companies and nonprofit organizations that offer a promise of environmentally friendly qualities, according to a new survey by the World Resources Institute, Duke University and the environmental analyst Big Room Inc. They cover almost every category imaginable — from textiles to tea and tourism, from forest products to food.
The labels say whether shade-grown organic coffee is "Bird Friendly" (courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution's Migratory Bird Center) or Gibson guitars were made without harming tropical forests (thanks to the Rainforest Alliance).
But because certification is a self-regulated industry, the integrity of these labels varies wildly. The best certification systems have brought increased accountability to markets that used to be largely unregulated. Many others make environmental claims that cannot be proved, prompting the Federal Trade Commission to file charges against some manufacturers.
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