What's missing in ecolabels?

Ecolabels don’t yet truly address sustainability. And that’s coming from someone who makes her living working for a company that certifies products and businesses for ecolabels. For the most part, ecolabels miss out on social responsibility, a key piece of the triple bottom line of people, planet and profit.

Can an ecolabel truly claim to support sustainability if it doesn’t help ensure that workers are safe and communities are supported?  After all, no matter what we do to the planet, it will survive. It’s the people that really need protection. In an effort to address the people part of the triple bottom line, a few ecolabeling programs are starting to make progress toward addressing social aspects of sustainability, signaling a much needed evolution from ecolabels to sustainability labels. 

Environmentally focused ecolabels only get part of the job done some of the time—they improve environmental performance which can create incidental social benefits. Organic certification for example, prohibits pesticide use which helps agricultural workers by reducing their exposure to toxins.  Indoor air quality certifications for building products can have similar benefits for workers and the occupants of buildings. If an ecolabel does not require that companies adhere to labor standards, however, the benefits are not guaranteed.  It is entirely possible that the organic cotton jeans you see touted as “green” in the shop window were made with child labor.

Labels like Fair Trade and Fair Labor Practices address potential trade-offs by specifically addressing worker conditions and ensuring economic benefits for their communities. These two labels rely on detailed, rigorous standards for labor conditions and include audits of workplaces. Detailed audits give companies greater transparency of their supply chains, improving their ability to identify and address worker issues.  For example, during our Fair Labor Practices audits of clothing company Maggie’s Organics, we found opportunities for improving work conditions at some of their suppliers’ facilities. Maggie's then worked with each of its suppliers to help make adjustments where needed—so their customers didn’t get any surprises, such as a pair of organic jeans made with child labor.  After improving practices at these supply companies, each of the businesses is prepared for Fair Labor Practices certification in other supply chains.

While their labor standards are similar, Fair Trade and Fair Labor Practices take different approaches to the economic benefits they provide for communities. Fair Trade puts a price premium on products, a portion of which goes toward supporting development and community projects. Some funding goes toward spreading awareness of the program in marketing campaigns—which has resulted in Fair Trade being one of the most recognized ecolabels in the United States.  Fair Labor Practices, on the other hand, requires that employers work toward paying a wage that is higher than the industry standard directly to workers with the intention that wages then stay within the community.  Both models are effective; the wide array of industries with labor issues creates a demand for different models for helping worker communities.

Certain industries are taking their own approach to addressing social responsibility by integrating their detailed knowledge into sector specific ecolabels.  The levelTM certification for sustainable furniture has a “Social Responsibility” component that awards credits for having a social responsibility policy, transparent reporting, engaging in community outreach and more.  The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) committee that developed levelTM created a very stringent environmental audit process and agreed that in order to be truly sustainable the label had to include a section on social responsibility.  The committee sees the current Social Responsibility section of levelTM as a first step—future iterations of the standard will include more criteria. Industry specific schemes like level™ avoid the difficult issue of how to include vastly different industries under one label. 

One model that does try to do that and is addressing social responsibility is the B Corporation certification. Leading green companies such as Seventh Generation and New Leaf Paper have already earned it. This approach requires companies to adapt their policies to include a set of social and environmental standards. Companies must also amend corporate governing documents to incorporate the interests of employees, community and the environment. By institutionalizing social and environmental values, B Lab, the nonprofit that administers the “B Corp” program, hopes to increase the likelihood that those values will survive new investors, new management and new owners.  

While the approaches detailed above are effective, there are still some major challenges to successfully addressing social responsibility in ecolabels. For one, measuring progress in social responsibility can be more challenging than tracking environmental performance. While greenhouse gas emissions, energy use reductions and percent recycled content are relatively easy to quantify and monetize, social benefits are less concrete. True sustainability labels need to have measurable impacts for communities and employees, but how do we decide if communities benefit more from the Fair Trade model or the Fair Labor Practices model?  It depends on the industry, the community and the way benefits are measured.

The big picture challenge is deciding who should be responsible for providing public goods and services. This was one of the underlying issues in the recent debate over a federal health care policy.  In the United States, we have been operating under a tacit assumption that in addition to being economic engines, private companies are responsible for supporting their workers by providing health care benefits. But who is best equipped to provide social services?  One of the benefits of voluntary labeling programs is that they allow consumers to tell the market what has value.  When customers are willing to pay extra for environmental benefits, such as in the case of voluntary carbon offsets, regulation often follows suit.  In the social responsibility realm, programs like Fair Labor Practices offer consumers an opportunity to support better labor practices in businesses around the world that governments are not yet regulating.

Social responsibility has been mostly overlooked in the initial rush toward ecolabeling. But like other issues that were initially disregarded—climate change, for example—social responsibility could quickly become the focus of attention.  As advertising the green benefits of products becomes commonplace, demonstrating a strong commitment to social responsibility is an excellent way for companies to stand out and pursue the third bottom line—profit.  Sustainability labels can give businesses a strategic advantage so they can continue to create revenue and wages that support the communities in which they operate. Companies that get onboard early will be able to show their customers that they take care of people as well as the planet and they'll be able to keep doing so for a long time.

Ashley Foster is the Sustainability Manager at Scientific Certification Systems.  She works with organizations to strategically address environmental impacts throughout their supply chains. She can be reached at

afoster@scscertified.com.