Is Eco-certification a Carrot - or Killer - for Innovation?

Google eco-certification. I dare you.

Yes, there are over 1,050,000 entries. If that makes your eyes glaze over, you’re not alone.

Eco-certification and eco-labelling are hot – and hotly disputed – topics in business today.

On the one hand, they can provide benchmark criteria to guide effective greening. As Trevor Bowden of Ecolabelling.org confirms, “good, independent eco-certifications enable companies to create meaningful sustainability initiatives without starting from zero.”

They can also provide a framework for innovation by providing a filter through which every innovative idea or program must pass before being implemented.

But the overabundance of third party certification programs have sown confusion among companies and consumers alike. There are literally thousands of certifications to choose from. Adding to the confusion, seemingly similar certifications like the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Sustainable Forest Initiative (SFI) are at odds with one another. In this atmosphere of confusion, finding a certification to build product innovation on would seem daunting at best.

Guidance, or mis-guidance?

Despite this, consumers continue to look to eco-labels to provide guidance. Truth is, most consumers recognize only a few labels (quick, name three – Energy Star, USDA Organic and…?). Even so, the mere presence of a certification logo provides comfort, and can steer purchase.

This eco-label allure, combined with the internecine confusion of the authentic certification programs, has created a dangerous new trend…self-certification. From Procter’s ‘Future Friendly’ to Subaru’s PZEV, these certifications share two attributes: 1) they’re slickly marketed, and 2) they have no credibility. As Environmental Leader writes, “Green labels mean nothing if they are not independently monitored with third party evaluation, Standing up and saying ‘I'm green because I say so’ doesn't cut it anymore.”

Obvious but absent?

Wood Turner of Climate Counts provides two areas ripe for exploration – educating consumers, and providing them with certifications they can derive personal benefit from.

“The first problem with eco-certification is that the certified brands treat the certification logos as nothing more than little graphics on their packaging” says Turner. “You see gluten free on bread. Why can’t the bread brand explain to me what all the wonderful benefits of gluten free are?” In Turner’s view, educating consumers on eco-labels would build trust, and differentiate the brand.

To Turner’s second point, eco-certification programs need to update their own image – a process that brands can help with. “Consumers need to get a halo from an eco-label and feel the emotional connection – they have earned it with their purchase.”  Ecolabelling.org’s Bowden confirms that certifiers are now having to develop or import expertise in new areas like marketing and communications. Some, like the Marine Stewardship Council, are even getting facelifts from ad agencies to help enhance their messaging and impact. 

The accredited advantage…

So where is the opportunity for green innovation through eco-certification?

Savvy brands take the opportunity to work more closely with good certification programs – first reaping the maximum benefit from third party certification, then helping the certifier create a label program that attracts more consumers.

Look at companies that work innovatively with eco-certifiers, like Seventh Generation, Stonyfield Farms and Patagonia, and you see companies with a new perspective on conscious capitalism.

These are companies that are applying the green innovation lens to their entire business, not just bolting it on. As Jeffrey Hollender, co-founder of Seventh Generation, writes in his new book, “It’s about re-imagining companies from within: innovating new ways of working, instilling a new logic of competing, identifying new possibilities for leading, and redefining the very purpose of business.”

Perhaps it’s time more corporations looked past the little logo on the package, and started treating certification as a keystone to successful green innovation.

Marc Stoiber is VP Green Innovation at Maddock Douglas, a leading innovation agency based in Chicago. Stoiber and his green innovation team work out of Vancouver.