Certifiably Sustainable? The Role of Third-Party Certification Systems: Report of a Workshop (2010) / Chapter Skim
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Surveying the Landscape: Certification Schemes for Sustainable Products and Services--Derek Vollmer
Surveying the Landscape: Certification Schemes for Sustainable Products and Services--Derek Vollmer
Pages 105-118
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From page 105... ...
Additionally, existing certification schemes are not uniform, nor are they immune to competing and sometimes false claims which, at best, contribute to "green noise" and consumer fatigue, and at worst, undermine the efforts which do contribute to environmental and social improvements. Just as there is no precise technical definition of sustainability, there is no precise set of metrics or immutable standards on which certification schemes might be based.
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From page 106... ...
It may also be a response to highly visible production practices in these sectors -- unsustainable practices can lead to resource depletion as well as spillover effects which negatively impact the surrounding ecosystem. Additionally, these natural resources are primary inputs to manufactured items, from food products to furniture, and so secondary industries and those higher up in the value chain often rely on certificates or labels from their upstream suppliers if they intend to promote their own products as ‘organic' or ‘sustainably sourced.' As the market for green products has grown, and as regulators continue to seek innovative approaches to pollution prevention, voluntary certification standards have appeared in numerous secondary and service industries.
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From page 107... ...
However, as will be explored later, fair trade and environmental standards have taken divergent approaches and each has had mixed results in building market share. While there is no doubt that public pressure from activist campaigns, coupled with the threat of regulation, both influenced private regulatory standards in environmental protection and worker rights (Haufler, 2001)
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From page 108... ...
Industries are able to play an active role in creating voluntary standards and the methods to certify them, but these standards may also be implicitly endorsed by regulating agencies. This has of course been a major criticism of the multistakeholder approach, where industries are accused of becoming unduly influential in setting the global environmental governance agenda (e.g., Pattberg et al., 2007)
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From page 109... ...
If compliance costs are high, in terms of changing production practices to meet a standard, industries must determine how best to invest resources. Managing an R&D portfolio is arguably more art than science, and so it becomes even more complex when voluntary standards are introduced and R&D resources must be divided among regulatory requirements, voluntary standards (there may be several competing standards)
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From page 110... ...
Setting aside the argument that these communities may have different definitions of what ‘sustainability' means, it is important to recognize that diverse ecological and social conditions exist within any given sector. This has arguably been the primary driver behind competing schemes -- rather than large industries, it is producing communities and even developing country governments which have taken steps to establish standards that better reflect local circumstances.
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From page 111... ...
Governments and corporations play an important role in facilitating the market for certified products. In the case of certified wood, they help create markets through their own preferential purchasing, and the South African government has even begun ‘outsourcing' its forest surveillance operations
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From page 112... ...
. Fair Trade products have been marketed differently, and in particular campaigns have targeted household consumers (though they have more recently also targeted large-scale buyers)
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From page 113... ...
While there has been some consideration of a ‘rebound effect'1 undermining efforts to make consumption more sustainable, this argument does not hold up outside of the energy sector. Energy efficiency improvements have enabled households and industry alike to consume increasing amounts of energy and electricity services, e.g., refrigerators have become substantially 1 The rebound effect refers to situations where improved environmental performance leads to increased consumption, thereby offsetting some of the gains.
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From page 114... ...
is a program established in 2001, developed by the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. Although it has become a sort of industry standard for calculating GHG emissions, the ISO announced in late 2008 that they intended to develop a common standard for measure carbon footprints, which would presumably be a competitor to the GHGP.
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From page 115... ...
(2008) describe certification efforts as ‘win-lose situations' in that they require longer to realize economic benefits, but the authors also point out that such win-lose situations deserve more attention because if they emerge as purposeful features of the marketplace, they hold the greatest potential for moving consumption towards sustainability.
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From page 116... ...
? • What are the longer-term environmental outcomes of certification programs, and how might they be measured and demonstrated?
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From page 117... ...
2008. A ‘New' Approach to Global Value Chain Analysis.
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From page 118... ...
8 certIfIaBlY sustaInaBle? Vollmer, D
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