David Baggs LFRAIA
The Role of Ecolabeling in Effective Product Stewardship
Independent assessment, certification and transparency reporting of the health, sustainability and ethical supply chain characteristics of products helps both manufacturers and customers understand market critical aspects of product selection and aid in ensuring ongoing integrity of product stewardship schemes (PSSs) that are critical to the circular economy.
Rating Tool Access and Green Project Procurement: Certification and transparency reporting gives access to projects using a variety of green project rating tools like Green Star®, the International WELL Building Standard (WELL), LEED, the Living Building Challenge, the Infrastructure Sustainability (IS) rating tool and Earthcheck®, amongst others.
Responsible Product Recognition: The value of independent assessment and certification is recognised by these rating tools, their product recognitions systems like the Green Building Council of Australia’s Green Star Responsible Product Framework and it’s scoring methodology that generates Responsible Product Values (RPVs) for use in project ratings.
Supporting Environmental Claims and Eliminating Greenwash: Third party certification is also called up by the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC) in its ‘Making environmental claims: A guide for business’ (2023) as a key means to avoiding greenwash and providing appropriate evidence to support any environmental claims made by companies in relation to their products and services. This is particularly the case with specific certification organisations that undertake active greenwash surveillance of client websites and marketing materials (not all do).
Consumer Product Selection Support: There are numerous market survey reports about the value of ecolabelling for proactive consumers seeking to minimise the harm of products on humans and nature. The science and independence behind ecolabels are perceived by consumers (and professionals alike) as increasing trust in the product and has been proven to dramatically increase their likelihood of buying products when certified.
Professional & Design Specifications Facilitation: For projects not using rating tools, many clients and their architects and designers still seek to mitigate climate, health and environmental impacts. Ecolabels and transparency reporting is a cost, time and risk effective solution for all designers and specifiers and helps communicate outcomes to clients easily and clearly. Clients will always prefer e.g. non-toxic over ‘toxic’ products as demonstrated by e.g. a PlatinumHEALTH rating TAG on a product. Increasingly, industry product databases are integrating ecolabel searches in product databases and including reciprocal certified product recognition within specification and ecolabel portals. There is even a new ‘Library’ model of product sample management including sample recycling and re-use that partnered with an ecolabel program to reciprocally embed program links within each systems product pages.
Building Brand Trust: The end result of all the above is summarised in the experience of many manufacturers as represented in documented client surveys, that certification builds trust in their brand, increases receptibility, makes sales discussions easier (sustainability is an inherently complex issue after all), reduces corporate and professional risk and helps increase sales. That said, to achieve this the certification TAGs need to be prominently and integrally displayed in marketing and on packaging, this is self-evident, and even large household brands recognise it.
Transparency Declarations and Product Stewardship Schemes: Defining the end-of-life-fate of products is heavily dependent on the development and success of PSSs. The success of PSSs is too often limited by lack of transparency of product and ingredient, material or supplier history. This can be remedied with a range of transparency enhancing assessments and reports that include ecolabel certifications, but also include additional detailed information on e.g., ingredients/materials, supply chains, traceability of recycled content etc.
What Ecolabel or Transparency Report do you need? There are many ecolabels, and different certification and transparency report types, from Type 1, (Third Party) Ecolabels, to Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), Product Health Declarations (PHDs), Modern Slavery Declarations (MSDs), Recycled Content and Traceability certification right through to Nature Positive Declarations and even the emerging Digital Product Passports (some years away yet). The one/s that will suit you, will depend on what you are trying to achieve, what you want to say, and what market/s you are looking to address.
David Baggs LFRAIA
CEO, Technical Director and Cofounder
Global GreenTag International Pty Ltd
