UL Environmental Product Certification
Do We Finally Have a Superhero Fighting Greenwashing?
Feb 24, 2009
Green product certifications and labels are everywhere: Greenguard, Green Seal, Energy Star, Green Label Plus, to name just a few. What green certifications are the eco-friendly/eco-conscious consumer to believe? Enter Underwriters Laboratory (UL). Better known for testing product safety, UL launched UL Environment Inc. in response to this increased demand for environmentally sustainable product certification; "UL Environment Inc.'s services will help industries and the public make sense of green claims while helping manufacturers maintain transparency and credibility in the marketplace."
What exactly are they doing and what does it mean?
UL Environment is concentrating on two major area: Environmental Claims Validation (ECV), which will test and assess environmental product claims, and Sustainable Product Certification (SPC), which will certify products to environmental standards.
Environmental Claims ValidationTM Manufacturers may submit their products for UL testing and environmental claims validation. This validation enhances and supports the credibility of sustainability claims, helping to end confusion and giving manufacturers who choose UL validation a competitive edge. The ECV program will look at product attributes such as recycled content, VOC levels and energy efficiency, to name a few.
Sustainable Product CertificationTM As industry sustainability standards evolve, UL will take on a new testing and certification role. This certification will cover green products and the processes and materials used to create them.
This all sounds great and on the surface seems like there finally is someone, or at least some organization, verifying what is "greenwashing" and what is actually sustainable. Since UL Environment's programs have just begun, no one can judge the results yet but there seems to be a few problems or at least a few red flags the consumer needs to be aware of. Is UL simply capitalize on the growing green market and trying to make a buck or will their initiatives make a difference?
Marcello Manca, vice-president for new business development at UL, said the Environmental Claims Validation will be "a classic certification program." The problem is, as with all UL certifications, the ECV program is voluntary. The good news is that according to Manca, "If the customer comes to UL and says, ‘This is what the advertising says about our product,' that is what we'll test."
The Sustainable Product Certification program says it will certify products to "industry-accepted environmental standards." Does the public have confidence in a standard developed by or even accepted by the companies within that industry? Additionally, referring to Federal Trade Commission guidance for environmental marketing claims, Underwriters Laboratory will determine what tests it must perform to validate a given claim and will carry them out. How about relying on a government agency to set the standard or share it's guidance?
In today's regulatory environment, skepticism seems to be running wild, appropriately so. Just look at the track record for the FDA. This leads to the conclusion that there seems to be more questions than answers. A majority in the "green" blogging world are bottom-up proponents and are hopefully, as consumers demand more transparency and validation, manufacturers will have their products UL tested allowing the database to become a true resource for environmentally friendly products.
Stay tuned.
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