News / Business
The Value of Green Certifications
A Review of What really Counts in Green Certification
Certification standards serve a purpose. They are meant to assure the public that the service or product has been independently reviewed and that the public may trust in the quality of the offering is worthy of acceptance. Quality is assured, and public confidence is engendered.
Unfortunately, the rise of Green business certifications has not improved the environmental issue, but serves to confuse the businesses certified and the public thinking that Green certification is as represented.
There is one common factor in nearly all weak Green certifications. They rely upon “Voluntary Compliance” in the form of “self assessments” sometimes mistakenly called “audits.” These programs have accurately been called “Easy Green” programs because the compliance standards are horribly low and the various certifications have no consistent match with other vaunted Green certifications. This begs the question as to the real value of a Green business certification.
Contrasting the Easy Green offering is the fact that mankind teeters on the precipice of worldwide nightmare scenarios. No one needs to be an alarmist, but the alarms are beginning to sound at many levels. With these ugly visions of a neglected tomorrow, we simply cannot lower our standards out of convenience. The blowback for weak Green certifications seems obvious. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) cannot be accomplished through token efforts that do little more than 'encourage Green practices" with online projects.
A person can get a ring from Cracker Jack box or buy from a jewelry store. Both are rings, but which one conveys a lifetime of love? This is a comparable illustration to the various Green certification programs that can be accessed through the Internet and local ad hoc groups. Making the right decision now affects your company and our future!
The Green Business League has prepared a free report addressing Green certifications that is a must read for anyone thinking about pursuing a Green business certification. A Green certification directly impacts the reputation of a company. It seems certain that voluntary certifications will be populated with careless businesses willing to short-circuit the system to capture Green-minded customers that trust in the promises made by a certification.
