Certifiably Sustainable? The Role of Third-Party Certification Systems: Report of a Workshop (2010) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 1-8
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are underpinned by substantial energy consumption, a primary contributor to the current climate crisis. Expanding international trade has led to many economic opportunities, but has also contributed to unfair labor practices and wealth disparities.
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Workshop discussions were focused on four main objectives: • To identify strengths and weaknesses of certification as an approach to encouraging sustainable consumption • To identify problem-driven research topics which might be taken up by academia and the analytical community • To determine whether or not there is an opportunity for a traditional, National Research Council (NRC) consensus study to articulate guiding principles for scientifically reliable certification systems • To highlight what is needed from the various institutional actors to foster improvement in certification systems (i.e., governments and regulatory bodies, businesses, NGOs, research organizations, public-private partnerships, and the academic community)
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The appendices to the report include the workshop agenda; a list of workshop participants; biographical information on the speakers, participants, organizers of the workshop; and working papers presented to workshop participants as background information. PLACING CERTIFICATION IN CONTExT Certification has emerged over the past 15 years as a way to differentiate environmentally or socially preferable products from their conventional alternatives, and it now encompasses numerous complex issues, from labor and production processes to end-use considerations.
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CERTIFICATION AS A TOOL Workshop participants were encouraged to view certification as a tool, or a means to an end. This concept helped frame subsequent discussions about measuring impacts and developing more effective certification schemes.
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The certification system, by contrast, spans the market from producer to end consumer, involves continual interactions among these various stakeholders in the value chain, and entails numerous processes that are not easily communicated by a consumer label. So breaking this system down into its elements is helpful in identifying how a certification program could be strengthened and at which point certain stakeholders could play a role.
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As several workshop participants noted, mature certification programs will likely develop closer relationships to regulatory agencies. Voluntary standards will not always evolve neatly into regulatory requirements, but as the market grows it will become increasingly necessary to cull noncompliant parties (whether through market forces or direct regulation)
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but this does not automatically translate in to demand. Many participants agreed that the end goal of certification schemes is to help transform markets, and so much more knowledge must be generated on how and when certification is the right tool for the job.
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