Can company certifications save eco-labels?

Burgerville strives to reduce waste, courtesy Burgerville

Madison-based Leonardo Academy is trying to bring some order to the chaotic world of eco-labels by developing a suite of ANSI-accredited sustainability standards. Most recently, it announced its intention to develop a Standard for Sustainable Organizations (LEO-1000).

The standard would define what makes a company or organization sustainable and how to measure and document the level of sustainability achieved, according to Leonardo Academy. “Providing a third-party metric for measuring sustainability achievements … will generate competition just as the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Rating System has energized competition among companies and organizations on the relative levels of sustainability of their buildings,” says Michael Arny, President,Leonardo Academy.

Demand for business certification in addition to or in lieu of product certification seems to exist among triple-bottom-line companies. Twice as many companies became certified B Corporations in the first half of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009, according to Jay Coen Gilbert, co-founder of Pennsylvania-based B Lab, which oversees the certification. There are currently 325 certified B Corporations across 60 industries. (Sustainable Industries is a certified B Corporation). “Consumer research says better companies are more compelling than just good products,” says Gilbert.

Not all companies working to meet triple-bottom-line goals are convinced, however. Portland-based Burgerville, a regional fast-food chain with approximately $70 million in 2009 sales, prides itself on a commitment to buying local ingredients, serving seasonal fare, reducing waste, using renewable energy and treating its employees fairly. With such a wide range of commitments, the company would seem to be an excellent candidate for certification as a B Corporation or under a future Sustainable Organization standard. But such a general approach isn’t inherently attractive to the company, says Alison Dennis, director of sustainable programs for Burgerville.

“At Burgerville, certifications are most meaningful when they address those aspects which are unique to the production of sustainable food, such as soil health, animal welfare, water and habitat protection and social equity,” Dennis says. “The challenge we see with many emerging sustainable business certifications is that they are too generic to be meaningful.”

For Burgerville to consider any eco-label worthy of the time, effort and money it takes to get certified, it needs to make it easy for values-based consumers to understand the differences between brands and products on the market and make decisions based on what matters to them and work in concert with industry-specific standards, she says.

Other planned and proposed standards in Leonardo Academy’s suite of sustainable standards include a sustainable events, sustainable vehicles and sustainable agriculture standards.