making sense of symbols pt 1.
what’s in it for you?
• You will get a clear definition of ecologos and ecolabels
• Gain perspective of ecologo stakeholders
• Understand the ins and outs of certification criteria7-9 minute read
Humans have taken on various levels of environmental responsibility and stewardship throughout their existence [2]. However, since the industrial revolution there have been new causes for concern. According to the Corpus of Historical American English, “environmentally conscious” appears as early as 1950 [4], and ‘environmentalism’ takes off in the late 60s and continues into the 70s [6]. In each successive decade, there are moments when the environment becomes the focus of public attention.
Ecologos are a minuscule component of the behemoth that is the global environmental movement, but they are an important entrance point which can help catalyze further activity. The first segment of this three-part article will initially define ecologos/ecolabels, then discuss their mechanics, and finally review a cautionary tale of another eco-icon. In the next article we will trace the history of ecologos and reveal their interesting origins. Finally, the third article will analyze the market, review the effectiveness of ecologos, and ponder their future potential. But first, let’s begin by defining them.
labels or logos?
Ecologos, ecolabels, and environmental seals are all icons which denote that a specific product, production procedure, or corporation is in compliance with environmentally cognizant criteria. In general, these descriptors and names are used interchangeably. They do not mean that a product is inherently good for the environment nor that it improves the environment.
To avoid confusion, be aware that if you search “ecologo,” you may get information for a non-profit called “ecologo” which recently came under the umbrella of UL Solutions, formerly Underwriter Laboratories [9].
Fig 1. Left: Rainforest Alliance logo. Right: USDA Organic logo. We have no affiliation with either institution and are using these on a strictly educational basis.
Such a mark can be managed by either governments or non-profit organizations. In Fig. 1, the 2021 re-design of the Rainforest Alliance is on the left. Rainforest Alliance is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1987 in the United States. On the right is the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Organic certification and logo. The USDA certifies many items for varying levels of organic quality, from food, to cosmetics, and even clothing. Here we can also distinguish intranational/intraregional certifications for products destined for use primarily within their country or region (USDA Organic), or international (Rainforest Alliance) for products and companies that may exist all over the world. Regardless of the scale, legitimate certifications are issued by either government or non-government organizations (NGOs).
An important distinction here is that nonprofits such as the Rainforest Alliance have fewer mechanisms to leverage in the face of non-compliance. Regulations they have crafted are not always backed by legislation, whereas the USDA can fine producers in violation of their certification for thousands of dollars per violation [7].
passing the test, getting the crest
Now that we have established that there are ecolabels awarded by both governments and private organizations, it is time to examine how. First, a set of standards must be developed. When an organization develops criteria they take a variety of methods into consideration, including Life Cycle Accounting (LCA), which is an attempt at holistic data-driven calculation of a product’s entire impact. They may also consider more targeted industry analysis which reveals category specific criteria and guidelines. Each organization has its own methodologies and they greatly affect the potential scope and efficacy of a certification. This is one of the major hurdles for consumers to understand as they try to grapple with the complex methodology of just one organization. This also does not consider the impossibility of comparing methods across multiple ecologo programs. We recommend looking at them on an individual basis to prevent confusion.
Next, a prospective candidate (corporation) must voluntarily submit their product or process for testing or auditing. In the case of auditing, the Rainforest Alliance or USDA may send pre-approved certifying agents to inspect a farm which has applied to the program. Other ecolabels may require that a product is tested to prove that it does not contain environmentally disastrous chemicals. Often, testing agencies are separate entities from the organization that drafted the standards. Once the results of the test or audit are confirmed, they are sent to a certifying body (CB), a separate organization that validates test results.
Each ecolabel program has a different scope, so a company may submit their products, production procedures, or their entire corporation to scrutiny. Certifying bodies are third-party institutions relative to the manufacturer/other corporate stakeholders, and sometimes even separate from the organization which developed the evaluation standards. These degrees of separation between standards organization, testing agency, and certifying body help insulate against corruption, but scandals and controversy still exist.
Fig 2. This is one possible arrangement of the path to certification of an ecologo.
In an ideal world, ecologos have the potential to be a win-win for consumers and corporations alike. By displaying an ecologo or set of ecologos, innovative manufacturers could reduce their impact on the environment and offset development costs with extra sales. In practice though, it is a bit different, a topic that will be discussed more in the third article.
To recap briefly, there are two main types of ecolabels, maintained either by governments or non-profits. The head organization will develop evaluation criteria with the help of industry experts. Corporations can then voluntarily submit their products or processes for review by a testing agency. A certifying body affirms their adherence to the standards and drafts a contract that allows the corporation to license the ecolabel over a set period of time for a fee.
Overall, it seems like a vast and intricate system to simply put a small mark on the packaging of a company's product packaging, so why do these programs exist?
From a government standpoint, having a standard and symbol which ensures quality is one of its most basic functions as a societal pillar. Like currency, a government’s logo ideally gives you a sense of assurance and reliability.
Non-profits often seek to educate consumers. At the moment of purchase, you see a new green symbol on the back of a product. Their hope is that you will seek out the origins of this mark and thus learn about the environmental issue they are championing. A third function is to encourage corporations who may otherwise not seek to audit their environmental impact. It is a stretch to say that ecolabels can act as an effective check on corporations, however, due to their existence as a voluntary mechanism instead of a compulsory one (eg. legislation).
Are there any ecologos you look to as a sense of reassurance when you shop? Why not go to their website and see if you can identify the following five key details:
1) are they a government or nonprofit?
2) can you identify the head organization that sets the standards and their methodologies?
3) what is the scope of industries that they write those standards for
4) what are their auditing and/or testing requirements?
5) who is their certifying body, and is it a separate organization?
It can be a challenge to find all of this information, even for established ecolabels, but it is important to do due diligence and not assume goodness of these little green marks.
the fall of an icon
Possibly the most famous “eco-icon”—technically not an ecolabel because it does not require testing/auditing or certification as we have detailed—is the recycling symbol, a cautionary tale of how something so ubiquitous can be easily misunderstood and misused. In the US and EU the recycling symbol consists of 3 arrows in a triangular shape pointing clockwise with a number on the inside. This number is a resin identification code and dictates the main type of plastic from which a container is made. It does not confer that the item is recyclable. In fact, only number one and number two are recyclable in the US, whereas in Japan only number 1 plastics are recyclable.
Fig 3. Common recycling cheat sheet. According to the US Department of Energy, generally, the higher the resin identification code, the more difficult an item is to recycle [3].
Interestingly, the story of the recycling symbol has finally come full circle, with states in the US trying to pass laws which ban the use of numbers 3-7 as it is too confusing for American consumers, who generally believe that any number deems an item as recyclable. This is a widespread common misconception that results in a lot of wasted effort. For example, one of the largest US recycling companies reported that over one-fifth of the items they process are non-recyclable [8].
From the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) own data, they note that only 8.66% of US plastics in 2018 were recycled, with the rest either being burned or landfilled [11]. When China stopped accepting the world’s waste in 2018, the United States had to consider real change to its recycling system. Fast forward to 2021: California politicians were the first to pass the aforementioned recycling legislation, aiming to bring clarity to the recycling system [5].
Due to their scale, governments and corporations have the largest potential impact on the climate. According to the US EPA, the United States is the largest spender in the world, putting out $630 billion dollars annually. While researching for this article, we discovered that the EPA has its own class of government-suggested ecolabels which it uses to try and guide US government purchases to be more environmentally conscious [10].
In this article we have defined ecolabels, detailed their stakeholders, and explained their general operations. Ultimately, the purpose of this article is to bring a bit of transparency to this topic so people can understand what kind of impact their actions have. Ecologos are a great concept, but are not without their vulnerabilities. Many ecologos are operated by nonprofit organizations which simply do not have the same authority or resources to enforce compliance on the scale of a government [6]. By evaluating and understanding the different ecolabels you reference, you can have a realistic perspective on their impact.
our two cents
An ecolabel is a tool for either enforcement or education. It ideally provides an assurance that your intended purchase has passed some extra layer of scrutiny. Unlike a good screwdriver, which may be made of steel, the building blocks of ecolabels are their methodologies/standards, audits/tests, and certifying agents/bodies. While it may be relatively easy to compare two screwdrivers, the same cannot be said for ecologos. This is a weakness which has existed since their inception and one that can be easily exploited. Ecologo organizations should continue to make efforts to maximize their transparency.-
[1] Alliance, Rainforest. “Using Our Logo and Seal.” Rainforest Alliance, October 14, 2022. https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/business/marketing-sustainability/using-our-logo-and-seal/.
[2] Davies, Anna. “Environmentalism.” In Elsevier EBooks, 259–64, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-08-102295-5.10791-7.
[3] Energy.gov. “Consumer Guide to Recycling Codes Fact Sheet,” n.d. https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/consumer-guide-recycling-codes-fact-sheet.
[4] “English-Corpora: COHA,” n.d. https://www.english-corpora.org/coha/
[5] Ivanova, Irina. “States Take Aim at Ubiquitous ‘Chasing Arrow’ Symbol on Products That Aren’t Recycled.” CBS News, September 15, 2021. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/recycling-symbol-false-advertising-california-oregon-new-york/.
[6] “THE EMPEROR’S NEW ECO-LOGOS?: A CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE SCIENTIFIC CERTIFICATION SYSTEMS ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT CARD AND THE GREEN SEAL CERTIFICATION MARK PROGRAMS on JSTOR,” n.d. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24782340.
[7] “The Organic Seal | Agricultural Marketing Service,” n.d. https://www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/organic/organic-seal.
[8] Tabuchi, Hiroko, and Winston Choi-Schagrin. “California Aims to Ban Recycling Symbols on Things That Aren’t Recyclable.” The New York Times, September 10, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/08/climate/recycling-california.html.
[9] UL Solutions. “ECOLOGO® Certification Program | UL Solutions,” n.d. https://www.ul.com/resources/ecologo-certification-program.
[10] US EPA. “Recommendations of Specifications, Standards, and Ecolabels for Federal Purchasing | US EPA,” April 14, 2023. https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2023-02/epa-recommendations-specs-standards-ecolabels.pdf.
[11] US EPA. “Plastics: Material-Specific Data | US EPA,” April 21, 2023. https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/plastics-material-specific-data.
