Decoding Green Certifications: Choosing the Right Ecolabel
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Staying ahead means more than just crafting quality products these days — it means navigating the labyrinth of certifications that show your commitment to sustainability and responsible manufacturing.
With dozens of ‘green certifications’ available, how do you know which one to choose?
It’s completely understandable if you get to a point where you don’t even have time to look into it — you either randomly choose one or never end up choosing a certification or ecolabel at all.
We’re here to answer your burning questions about ecolabels and green certifications.
In this post we’re providing some clarity around the types of certifications and how to strategically plan where you should focus your attention and how we help you get there by crafting a sustainability roadmap.
Breaking down the types of Ecolabel Certifications
Certifications can be sorted into four categories: single attribute, multi-attribute, transparency tools, and certifying labels.
Single-Attribute Standards
Exactly as the name sounds, single-attribute standards tell us about one single aspect of a product’s sustainability. Types of single-attribute standards include:
Indoor Air Quality certifications
Recycled content certifications
FSC certification
Let’s look at an example: You buy a brand new conference table. On the bottom of the table, you see an FSC-certified label. What does it mean?
The FSC label can tell us:
The wood came from a responsibly managed forest
It was turned into lumber in a responsible way
Restoration is at the heart of the certification
The FSC label can not tell us:
Who made the table
What chemicals were used to turn it into a table (varnish, paint, etc.)
How much energy was used to make the table
Single-attribute standards focus on a single lifecycle stage (or use phase) of a single environmental issue. For a more comprehensive view of a product, we want to look for multi-attribute standards.2. Multi-Attribute Standards
Unlike single-attribute standards which cover one environmental issue, multi-attribute standards can cover many such as energy use, recyclability, and even the entire lifecycle of a product.
You might have seen some of these multi-attribute standards around:
LEVEL™ for commercial furniture
NSF/ANSI 342 for commercial wallcovering
NSF/ANSI 140 for commercial carpets
facts™ for commercial furnishings fabric
AFFIRM™ for resilient flooring
ASSURE CERTIFIED™ for rigid core flooring
Cradle to Cradle™ for consumer and commercial products
Each of these standards certifies a different commercial interiors product by the product itself, its manufacturing process, and the organization that calls the shots.
The most reputable multi-attribute standards are developed using a consensus-based process including a variety of industry professionals and stakeholders such as businesses, government agencies, industry organizations, manufacturers, consumers, professionals, trade associations, and academia. When standards are developed using this method, the certification remains objective and impartial.
Where single-attribute standards are identified by a stamp of approval (like FSC Certified), multi-attribute standards are often awarded using a range of scores, i.e., silver, gold, and platinum.
Because points can be earned across various areas of the standard, this ‘scoring’ method helps to establish a path of entry into sustainability and help identify future opportunities for progress. For example, in evaluating your supply chain, you might find you’re working with a brand new, state-of-the-art, most-sustainable-technology-to-date-facility at one end of your supply chain and an antiquated one at the other end. This analysis can highlight areas for potential improvement.
The good news is that there are ranges of points that you can earn, so you don’t need to score all the points to earn the certification. You can start with the points that are most suited to your product, process, or organization and then follow a roadmap to improving your score during the next recertification year.
3. Transparency & disclosure
The third type of category for ecolabels and certifications is transparency and disclosure. These tell the specifier detailed information about your product.
A transparency label can tell us a lot:
The ingredients that go into a product
How much electricity was used to create a product
How many emissions were generated during production
If harmful or toxic chemicals are part of the makeup
An example of a transparency ecolabel is an HPD (Health Product Declaration). It identifies the ingredients of the ingredients in your product (no, that’s not a typo). This information can be gathered and uploaded to the HPD website on your own for very little money. You can then work with a 3rd party lab to verify the accuracy of your claim.
Easy enough, however, what gets done with that information is more complicated.
We have yet to meet a designer who moonlights as a chemist and because of that, an HPD can’t communicate to an interior designer or architect what that information means for their end user. However, many times we see designers looking simply to choose products that have an associated HPD when selecting products for their current projects.
Taking the extra step to get an HPD can set you apart from others.
4. Certifying Labels
Certifying labels give additional credibility to your transparency & disclosure labels.
Certifying bodies include:
NSF
SCS
UL
Green Circle
These labels don’t necessarily give you a list of parameters for you to check off and meet to earn the certification. Rather, you submit your product and they test or verify the accuracy of your claims. They can certify anything from a single attribute all the way through to a 360 degree, comprehensive, multi-attribute standard.
Whew! That was a lot of information crammed into four short paragraphs. While each one of these is full of ifs, ands, and buts, this is a basic level explanation of the categories of ecolabels and green certifications. Most certifications, old and new, will fall into one of these four. The good news is there aren’t likely to be any more categories to add to this any time soon, but don’t hold us to it, we’re not fortune tellers.
So how do you take this information and apply it to your business and your long-term goals?
Aligning Ecolabels with Your Sustainability & Business Goals
We get asked this question a lot. Some organizations are familiar with the different kinds of ecolabels and just don’t know where to focus their attention for their own business. We get it, the world of standards and certifications is murky at best. It may seem easiest to choose an ecolabel just because your sales team keeps asking you for it.
Sometimes that can be the right choice, however, it is always in your best interest to make sustainability decisions based on strategic factors and critical thinking. And if we work together, you will have an experienced guide through that critical thinking part.
Ask yourself if your ecolabel aligns with your products, your clients, and your financial goals.
The best place to start is at a ten-thousand-foot view of what you’re selling and who you’re selling it to. What should you be looking at?
Your products
The ecolabel or green certification should enhance your products’ strengths and selling points. Not every ecolabel will do this for you and going after all of them would be kind of pricey.
Existing and targeted clients
Who are you trying to appeal to? What do they find important? Is your inbox full of requests from firms for you to fill out forms identifying attributes about your product to make sure they measure up to their self-identified standards? These firms are requiring you meet their established thresholds to even place sampling in their libraries. The proper certifications show these firms how you can support their goals and be useful on their projects
The project sector
Whether you want to take on more government jobs, work on projects in healthcare, or woo that hospitality specifier, you need to understand what their specific priorities are and which ecolabels can get you in the door. Each of these industries is flying through a progression of sustainability initiatives and if you want to get in, you want to be speaking their language.
The project location
Standards and values vary at different points throughout the country and world. A project in the Pacific Northwest will likely have different needs than a project in the American Southeast.
Financial considerations
Face it. Ecolabels cost money. And they take time on top of your already huge workload. But sometimes, the best ecolabel is the lowest hanging fruit. Obviously there’s so much more than five criteria to finding the right ecolabels and certifications for you. You may find that working with a sustainability professional will help you cut through the noise and find the quickest, most cost effective, meaningful roadmap for you.
Getting certified shouldn’t be like throwing spaghetti at a wall and going with what sticks, although that sounds like an experimental art project we could be into.
At Juno Solutions Group, helping you is always our end goal. We’re right there with you to identify the right certification, acquire it, train you and your team to talk about it, and when it’s all done - maintain your certifications.
Everything we do is to make your journey seamless, impactful, and fruitful.
