Eco-Labels 101

As someone who is extremely neat and organized, the clean and concise manner in which an eco-label delivers an environmental message is attractive to me. This small graphic affixed to product packaging can communicate an immense amount of information to a consumer about the environmental impact of a product in a highly visible way. An eco-label is defined by the Global Ecolabelling Network (GEN) as:

a label which identifies overall environmental preference of a product (i.e.good or service) within a product category based on life cycle considerations. In contrast to a self-styled environmental symbol or claim statement developed by a manufacturer or service provider, an eco-label is awarded by an impartial third party to products that meet established environmental leadership criteria (2004).

Consumer Reports lists 140 eco-labels that are commonly found on U.S. products. Eco-labels are an important consumer education tool because they provide simple information about the environmental attributes of a product at the point of purchase. Recognized labels can communicate to a consumer that a product meets a particular environmental standard in just a glance. Eco-labels are more useful to consumers than lengthy corporate responsibility reports or ratings websites because they are, theoretically, simple to use and require little time, research, and effort.

Eco-labels have the potential to meet three major objectives. Eco-labels are first and foremost a tool for educating consumers and building awareness of sustainable product options. By simply observing an eco-label on a product, consumers are informed of the environmental attributes of the product and can differentiate between brands. The eco-label provides environmental information about a product that consumers cannot reasonably ascertain on their own. Even if consumers are not already concerned about environmental impacts of products, eco-labels can “serve as a communication vehicle for awareness transfer to the market at large” (Bratt et al., 2011, p. 1631).

Secondly, eco-labels offer producers an opportunity to display their environmental accomplishments in a way that is verified by a third party. An eco-label “offer[s] a market incentive to environmentally innovative and progressive businesses” (GEN, 2004). Eco-labels give businesses a leading edge in the market and also explain any price premiums that are often inherent in products that are responsibly produced. Overall, “the label is expected to affect the purchasing decision in favor of the labeled product and thereby be morally as well as economically rewarding for those companies that have been awarded the label” (Bratt et al., 2011, p. 1631).

The final objective of eco-labels is to drive sustainability. Eco-labels are meant to be a market-based instrument for improving environmental conditions. By encouraging innovative businesses and green consumerism, eco-labels can potentially eliminate the need for command and control solutions to environmental problems, or at least set the stage for future legislation.

This all sounds brilliant, right? Unfortunately, however, the eco-label world is not without its problems. In my next few posts, I will highlight the major challenges that eco-labels face in achieving the above objectives and will offer recommendations for improvement. Stay tuned for Challenge #1: Abundance of Labels Creates Confusion and Mistrust.

References:

Bratt, C., Hallstedt, S., Robert, K.H., Broman, G., Olkmark, J. (2011). Assessment of eco-labelling criteria development from a strategic sustainability perspective. Journal of Cleaner Production, 19, 1631-1638.

Global Ecolabelling Network. (2004). Information paper: Introduction to ecolabelling. http://www.globalecolabelling.net/docs/documents/intro_to_ecolabelling.pdf.

Maya Albanese: A Leader in Sustainable Business

Maya Albanese is a young, bright, and influential player in the world of sustainable business.  She is less than five years out of college and has already made quite a name for herself through her various endeavors across the globe.  Maya is currently a part of the Rainforest Alliance team and charged with expanding the portfolio of companies that sustainably and efficiently source, sell, and promote tropical commodities such as coffee and bananas.  She previously worked as an assistant buyer of furniture at Williams-Sonoma Inc  and at the Commercial Service of the U.S. Embassy in Paris, France.  Maya, a self-described “yes-woman”, takes every opportunity she can: she spent seven months backpacking through South America while writing, learning the Spanish language, and doing conservation work.  In her spare time, she writes a column for GreenBiz called “How She Leads”, participates in cause modeling, launches activist campaigns, maintains a well-read travel blog, and serves as a brand ambassador for responsible organizations.  Maya clearly has a wealth of experience in the sustainability space (and beyond), so I sat down to learn more about her and her career thus far.

On her passion for sustainability and her chosen career path:

Maya was brought up in a family in which being a part of the solution was encouraged.  “I’ve always known that I wanted to make change.  I come from a family of activists and from a culture of being politically engaged and not sitting on the sideline.”  Maya’s father is a professor of economics and consumer behavior and her mother is a composer and musician, which, she explains, is probably where she derived her creativity, business sense and ambition.  “I used to be a total nag in terms of getting people to recycle and be responsible about the environment and then when I got to college I realized that was actually something about me that wasn’t just annoying.  It was something I was naturally passionate about and it would be easy for me to work in and it wouldn’t even feel like work.”

“Working with the private sector and working with big business in operations to make positive change appeals to me more than being just an activist”, she states.  Maya has worked in the public and private sector, and currently works in the NGO world at Rainforest Alliance.   “Throughout my entire career it has always been about sustainability and environmental and social change. What I’ve realized is you have to play with the big guys because they are the ones with the influence and the resources.  They’re some of the biggest economies in the world so sitting there pointing your fingers from the sidelines is not being a part of the solution.”

On public, private, and non-profit sectors and her work in each:

“They’re definitely really different and I wouldn’t say I had a preference but I did have a goal upon graduating university that I wanted to try out public, non-profit, and private sectors”.  Maya elaborated: “I wanted to go on the inside of these structures and figure out how they work and which I liked the best because it’s important to have idea of all the full landscape of all the stakeholders involved.  The public, private, and non-profit sectors all have really key roles to play and none are more important or better so I’ve really valued my time working [within each of them] but they’re all really different.” 

Maya had the opportunity to hold a true business role while working in corporate merchandising  at Williams Sonoma.   Her role as sustainability assistant there was something that she did out of passion.   She told me her experience at Williams Sonoma was really interesting because it was very bottom-line driven.  “I got a really good window in on what it’s like to be a sustainability person at a company where sustainability is not really tied to people’s performance reviews.  It was really quite an uphill battle.  At Rainforest Alliance everyone is working there because they’re passionate about its work, not the money.  They are working at it because they like Rainforest Alliance and their morals align with its mission and that’s really cool to see.  Here I don’t have to influence other people because they already get it.  I think another advantage to working at an NGO like Rainforest Alliance is that you have the opportunity to consult with a bunch of companies that want to partner with you versus being confined to the structure and desires of one corporate board or entity."

Maya then provides me with some wise words concerning her experiences: “Public sector, private sector, and non-profit are all huge umbrella terms generalizations and working in a sustainability role at Williams Sonoma is nothing like working in a sustainability role at Nike or Microsoft because they face completely different issues. Companies that are publicly owned can’t make sweeping changes and broad general public statements like a company owned by a family for 200 years can.  So you in deciding your career you have to take each open position as a different animal not by sector necessarily."

On the name she’s made for herself and her advice for other young people interested in this field:

Maya is incredibly humble and thanks me when I mention how impressed I am with how far she’s come in just a few years since she graduated.  “Every day I wished I’ve accomplished so much more.  I guess that’s the unfortunate symptom of being an over achiever and someone who is anxious to make change in the world.”  As for advice, Maya says it’s all about being passionate but rational.   “The number one reason I’ve gotten the jobs I’ve gotten and the exposure I’ve gotten is because I’ve put myself out there and said, “I know I don’t have a graduate degree or an MBA but hey, I’m gonna do a damn good job at this because I’m passionate about it”.  When you put your mind to anything, you can do it well. I think people really want to see confidence and passion and enthusiasm and dedication to the company and the cause.  Nobody is going to succeed in the sustainability world unless they are a cheerleader and a preacher and someone who can really influence the people at the top and the consumers at the bottom.   You have to pair that passion and creativity and idealism with straight business sense.  I’m always going to want to do more than I can do and I have to consider the bottom line because ultimately nothing is going to succeed for you in your career unless you have that rational, practical business-minded sense.   I think that’s why I’ve succeeded. People may be drawn to my energy or passion, but they wouldn’t hire me if they also didn’t think I was knowledgeable and rational about what’s possible and what’s not possible.”

 On commonalities among the women she has interviewed for her How She Leads column:

“I wouldn’t say there is any over-arching theme or trend. I think what is interesting about the column is how varied [the women’s] backgrounds are…the type of woman in the role in terms of experience and passion varies by company and what that company needs to work on the most.”

“To get really down-home gritty about it, women in general see sustainability as an issue affecting generations to come.  As women we have a maternal instinct and a lot of these women [that Maya has interviewed] have children and they want to see that their children’s children have clean drinking water and have fresh air to breath and good food.  Being a mom, or even just being a woman if you haven’t had kids, makes you much more inherently aware and concerned about this issue of sustainability for future generations.  That’s often a response I get when I ask women why they are passionate about [sustainability].”

Voting and Shopping are Separate But Equal: A Response to Sami Grover

This is a response to the blog post on Tree Hugger entitled, 5 Reasons Why Voting and Shopping are Not the Same Thing by Sami Grover.

While I certainly agree with the title statement, shopping and voting (i.e. political activism) are not the same thing, I don't think that the underlying sentiment that political action is somehow superior to conscious consumerism is accurate. The two are separate but equal means to achieving the same end: that is a healthy environment and society.  Ethical consumerism is not seeking to inspire lasting political change, specifically. There is rampant frustration with the political system and many are tired of waiting for regulation to pass that would reform corporate behavior and protect environment and society. Responsible consumers bypass the need for a political middleman to communicate their desires and instead send their message directly to corporations (which have arguably more power and influence than the government anyway).

Canned tuna companies were pressured through consumer boycotts to end fishing practices that endangered dolphins before governmental legislation mandated such. While I certainly agree that systematic and lasting change is necessary, why do we assume that it must originate from governmental legislation?  Why downplay an alternate route to the same kind of social and environmental change? Whatever the vehicle of change you choose, the important thing is that you get behind the wheel and drive!

2/20/12 Update: Sami Grover responded to my response here.

Trending Now: Green Consumer Education Through Smart Phone Apps

Currently, there are no well-known formal consumer education campaigns that provide direct instruction on shopping green, but there are numerous educational tools of the free-choice or self-directed variety. These tools can be split into two categories: pre-purchase, which are tools that must be consulted before a consumer shops, and point-of-purchase, which are tools that can be consulted at the moment a consumer decides to buy a particular product. One recent trend in point-of purchase consumer education is the use of smart phone applications. These types of point-of-purchase tools can be especially effective because they do not require planning and pre-conceived concern about the environment on part of the consumer. The following provides a brief overview of four notable apps that seek to inspire green consumerism.

The Good Guide is perhaps the most developed and advanced of the current offerings (http://www.goodguide.com/about/mobile). The Good Guide uses a cell phone’s camera to scan the bar code of a product and then provides an overall product rating that is comprised of three sub-scores based on health, environment, and society. Users can establish filters that customize ratings based on issues that are most important to them such as climate change or worker’s rights.

The recently launched Ingredients Inside app by Clorox is another tool that allows users to take pictures of barcodes (http://tinyurl.com/6vgzo7e). When consumers scan the bar code of any Clorox product, they are able to “ take a closer look at the fine print on the Clorox family of products”. The company launched the app to provide customers with the information necessary in choosing the cleaning products that are right for their families and homes.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium (http://tinyurl.com/97v83m) and Blue Ocean Institute (http://www.blueocean.org/fishphone) have each developed their own apps that provide sustainable seafood and sushi rankings. The Seafood Watch App by Monterey Bay Aquarium enables GPS so users can share and find restaurants and retailers that sell sustainable seafood near them. Blue Ocean Institute’s app provides “wine pairings and recipes to inspire delicious ways for you to enjoy your ocean-friendly seafood”.

ConsumerReports launched an app last month that allows users to search through a directory of ecolabels (http://tinyurl.com/89gv2f3). The app offers a label “report card,” which provides clear guidance on the meaning and significance of any ecolabel in question. As the number of ecolabels on the market swells above 400 worldwide, this app will certainly prove useful.

These smart phone apps are groundbreaking new platforms for green consumer education, but they do have their limitations. Perhaps the most obvious is that only consumers that own a smart phone can access the tool at the point-of-purchase. This issue of accessibility remains a significant barrier to the wide-spread use of such smart phone applications. Moreover, research on the effectiveness of smart phone applications in promoting green consumerism needs to be done before any claims can be made about their success. How often do consumers use the apps after they are downloaded? How much influence do product scores have on consumers’ purchasing decisions? We will likely see more companies and organizations unveiling similar apps in coming months, despite this lack of data on their effectiveness in driving green consumerism.

What language should we use when speaking about sustainability? Reactions from the NY GreenBiz Forum

At the GreenBiz Forum, one of the most common questions attendees asked was this:

How do I get my CEO or CFO to support environmental and social initiatives that I develop?

This question is certainly legitimate. Those in a CSR function at a company must convince executives of the importance in the strategies they develop, which is not an easy task when the strategies are not directly related to core business function. As challenging as this might seem, the resounding answer to the above question is very simple: show executives how such initiatives will benefit the company. Explain to them how they will result in financial gain and voilà: you will get the attention and support you want.

Demonstrating how CSR strategy produces revenue requires that you can talk the talk. The language you use when speaking to executives cannot be full of scientific jargon and environmental concepts. Indeed, Curtis Ravenel from Bloomberg urged all of us to learn the language of the financial community and use it exclusively. Members of the sustainability community so often want to highlight the importance of working for environmental and social good, but even the most eloquent and perfectly-argued pitch will fall upon deaf ears if it is not in the language its audience knows best.

At first, those who strongly advocate for environmental and social causes might feel like they are “selling out” by resorting to highlighting exclusively financial benefits. The motto that CSR is not about the values, just about the value might leave a bad taste in their mouth. The fact is however, there is no better way to promote environmental and social programs to those in decision-making positions at companies.

As a former educator, I would never teach elementary school students using the same language I use when speaking with my colleagues. If I did, I would lose their interest and understanding within minutes. Encouraging certain behavior and understanding requires a thorough reading of your audience and the finesse to frame your message in a relevant and meaningful way. This strategy is important to consider when communicating with anyone, but is especially applicable when pitching an idea to your CEO!

The Case for Education in Driving Corporate Sustainability and Green Consumerism

Because consumer culture is so deeply engrained within American society, it will probably require a major and rather unlikely paradigm shift before Americans begin to reduce their spending in the name of being more responsible citizens. Therefore, the push should be toward responsible consumer behavior instead of less spending (though this can certainly be debated!). Directing the money consumers spend toward more responsible products and companies is feasible and requires little sacrifice on the part of the consumer. Moreover, harnessing the purchasing power of the millions of consumers in the United States and using it to promote sustainable business practices can have a positive impact on the global environment and society. If consumers’ disposable income was effectively directed toward more sustainable producers, distributors, and retailers, a clear message could be sent to the rest of corporate America regarding the importance of conducting business in a responsible manner. Best practice would need to become common practice in order for companies to stay afloat in such a consumer-driven climate.

In order for this to be effective, companies that lead the way in terms of their environmental performance need to be rewarded with the patronage of concerned consumers. Unfortunately, consumers are confused about which companies are genuine in their efforts to minimize impacts because of the prevalence of greenwashing.

Greenwashing is a major obstacle in driving green consumerism because it makes it difficult for consumers to distinguish between truly responsible products and those that are only responsible at the surface. Companies that are genuine in their corporate responsibility efforts cannot reap the full benefits of consumer preference if there are greenwashed products in competition with them.

Though the FTC Green Guides have certainly helped curbed the prevalence of greenwashing, perhaps the most effective strategy in driving green consumerism is consumer education. Consumers need to be armed with reliable information about products and companies in order to make environmentally responsible choices. Customarily, consumer education has included life skills such as budgeting, balancing a checking account, preparing for a job, and performing price comparisons. However, consumer education has recently evolved to include educating consumers on the environmental qualities of a particular product and the environmental impact of consumerism in general. This will be integral in shifting consumer spending toward greener products and companies.

Indeed, current literature suggests that education positively impacts responsible consumer behavior. A 2010 study evaluated the impact of free-choice environmental education methods such as product labels, packaging, mass media, internet, and attendance of meetings on green consumption behavior (Pearcy). The study analyzed 236 survey responses and found a positive, significant relationship between participation in informal environmental education and green purchasing (Pearcy, 2010). Additionally, an economic study on whether green production can replace public and governmental interventions in the marketplace suggests that increased education of consumers is necessary before this can be achieved (Eriksson, 2004). The study demonstrates that there is a significant need for education about environmental impacts of products and services in order to increase the degree of green consumerism and in turn, decrease the overall environmental impact of the business sector (Eriksson, 2004). In sum, such studies show consumer education is a significant strategy for reforming the consumer product landscape and benefitting the environment and society.

Notes:

Pearcy, D.H. (2010). Understanding the role of free choice environmental education in green consumption behavior. International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development, 9,(1), 123-148.

Eriksson, C. (2004). Can green consumerism replace environmental regulation- A differentiated products example. Resource and Energy Economics, 26, 281–293

Employee Engagement and Awareness

I attended a program through NYU’s Wasserman Center today and had the opportunity to meet and network with employees and recruiters from big name companies like Deloitte, Morgan Stanley, IBM, AOL, Macy’s, Black Rock, and Barclays. Since I am looking to get into the CSR field, I asked them what their respective companies were doing in this space. I was a bit disappointed to find that most of them were unable to speak to anything significant their companies have achieved in terms of CSR. I happen to know that most of these companies are taking sustainability concerns into account to some degree, with the exception of Barclays, who will be receiving a Public Eye ”Award” this month (see http://bit.ly/zQHFDx). Therefore, this lack of awareness points to a significant problem.

There seems to be a major divide between people at a company who work in a CSR capacity and those that work on core business functions. This is a missed opportunity to capitalize on one of the primary internal benefits of CSR: employee retention and productivity. Employees want to work for responsible and forward-thinking companies and are more likely to stay at companies that have values similar to their own. Additionally, certain CSR projects like recycling programs cannot succeed without employee awareness and support. So why are so many employees being kept in the dark about CSR?

I’d venture to say this is not intentional, but simply an overlooked opportunity. To mend this divide, CSR initiatives within a company must be broadcasted to current employees through means beyond easily-neglected internal newsletters. CSR should generate excitement and buzz within and around a company, and achievements in this space should be used to attract potential employees. Furthermore, the CSR division should not be an independent entity within a company: employees should have opportunity for inter-departmental discussion and interaction regarding CSR.

PwC has some incredible employee engagement programs such as Project Belize incorporated into its CSR strategy. Employees cite these types of participatory programs as a source of pride in working for PwC. More companies could stand to benefit from engaging its employees in this way.