Businesses Doing the Right Thing

I was thinking about certifications and the sheer number of different certifications that exist in the world.  With the global movement of goods and services we import certifications into our markets when goods are imported.
 

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Marketplace Busted segment did a thought provoking piece a little while back that demonstrated how misleading some certifications can be.  An official-looking seal on a popular consumer product claiming that it is the "#1 brand used by Canadian pediatricians at home" and that this claim is "Based on a Canadian National Survey"  was investigated.  Marketplace's investigatin revealed that the Canadian Pediatric Society, which represents Canada's pediatricians don't ever endorse products.  The Marketplace video can be found here.
 

The question is therefore how does the consumer determine which are valid certifications and which are not?

I know of various projects that are operating, or attempting to create, databases of certifications. There are two that I find the most interesting:

1)  greenerchoices.org  : I like that this innitiative is a project of American-based Consumer Reports, in my opinion, that gives it strong credibility, and credibility is, of course, the most important component of a certification. The Quebec equivalent of Consumer Reports is Protegez-vous.ca, an organization with which ethiquette Inc. is pleased to have worked very closely.
 

What I liked most about greenerchoices.org is the framework for evaluating certifications.  Their approach is a simple yes/no to whether or not the certification is meaningful and verifiable, consistent and clear, transparent, independent and conflict free, and whether it integrated a public consultation.  A more thorough discussion of these criteria is found at here.
 

2) ecolabelling.org : This site was created by Big Room Inc., a Vancouver, Canada based “for-benefit“ company (another way of saying for profit & social good). They are attempting to reference all global labels.
 

At ethiquette Inc. , we take our crebility very seriously so if you have comments – good or bad – about the use of our logos or the criteria behind our sites please don’t hesitate to let us know.

I think certifications will become a discussion series, as there is too much to cover in a single blog entry.