Other Certification Systems and Labels
There are increasingly a number of social and environmental claims in the market place from FAIRTRADE and organic labels to Rainforest Alliance certified as well as corporate initiatives. While more product labels provide consumers with greater choice, the proliferation of certification and labelling systems can make it hard to distinguish credible certification and labelling from initiatives with lower standards.
What is the difference between certification and labelling?
Who runs social and environmental certification and labelling initiatives?
Are there other fair trade certification systems?
Are there other social certification systems?
What about environmental protection?
What is the Rainforest Alliance Certified Program?
What is the difference between fairtrade and organic?
What if I want to buy a product that is both fair trade and environmentally preferable?
How can I tell if a product label is credible?
Global Ecolabelling Network (GEN)
For a recent overview and comparison of coffee environmental and social certification systems, review the following article from the Sustainable Commodity Initiative, a partnership between UNCTAD and IISD: www.iisd.org/pdf/2004/sci_coffee_labelling.pdf
For another comparison, see Consumers International article, called "From Bean to Cup", online at www.consumersinternational.org/Templates/News.asp?NodeID=94997
What is the difference between certification and labelling?
Certification means that a given product or company has been checked by an independent third party for meeting a given set of standards. Many product-based certification systems will also use labelling as a tool to help consumers recognize products that meet certification standards. However, not all eco-labels are supported by credible certification systems.
Most social and environmental certification and labelling initiatives are voluntary programs that are run by non-state organisations, be they NGOs, industry players or multi-stakeholder platforms that ensure balanced participation from all interested parties. The governance structures vary dramatically between initiatives
Fairtrade is the only certification system that ensures that producers in developing countries are paid a fair price that covers the cost of production as well as a premium for social, environmental and economic investment in the local community. A unique feature of Fairtrade is its focus on development; the certification system is specifically designed to facilitate capacity building and empowerment of smallholder producers and disadvantaged workers in developing countries.
One of the emerging certification systems, mostly in Europe at this stage, is Utz Kapeh. Utz Kapeh and Fairtrade have worked together to produce a document that outlines the similarities and differences between the two systems and labels. You can download this comparison document here.
Yes. A number of social certification systems operate around the world mainly focusing on workers rights based on the International Labour Organisation conventions (ILO). Examples of such ethical codes include Social Accountability International and its SA8000 standard, the Clean Clothes Campaign and the Fair Labor Association. Most of these were developed for the footwear and apparel industry and the primary goal is to protect workers rights. While the actual code or standard used is very similar there are a number of differences in their verification rules and procedures.
These systems are generally used by brand name companies to monitor and improve the labour conditions of their supply chain partners. They are generally not used as an end consumer tool and therefore, rarely use product labels.
These systems can be complementary to the Fairtrade certification systems in that there is a common interest in ensuring workers rights. However, Fairtrade also has a developmental and capacity building focus and given this, the entry point into the system may be different from other systems. Fairtrade is also the only social system that includes an in-built mechanism to fund required improvements through the social premium. Given this developmental focus, a producer group could graduate from the Fairtrade system and move into a other social systems.
Some certification and labelling systems only address social justice issues in their standards while others only focus on environmental protection. A few initiatives cover both social and environmental protection. Fairtrade includes generic environmental standards that cover minimum environmental standards based on integrated pest management (IPM) with a view to building capacity in environmental protection over time. Certification standards with a stronger focus on environmental requirements include organic agriculture certification and the Rainforest Alliance Certified program.
The Rainforest Alliance Certified program is a certification and labelling program whose standards include requirements for ecosystem and wildlife conservation, waste management, water conservation, soil conservation, community relations as well as fair treatment and good conditions for workers, including compliance to key ILO conventions and national law. Standards are set by the Sustainable Agriculture Network, a group of environmental organizations in Latin America.
Unlike Fairtrade, there is no economic component to Rainforest Alliance standards so while compliance to minimum wages is required, the standards don't go beyond this to look at a fair price or living wages.
Unlike organic standards where synthetic agrochemicals are prohibited, in SAN standards there is a requirement for integrated crop management that includes a prohibition on certain types of agrochemicals, strict control of those allowed and a commitment to their reduction in use over time.
Read this article from Ethical Corporation on the competition between Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance Certification for coffee, and also see this for an overview of environmental and social certification systems in coffee. Here is a UK Guardian article comparing RA and Fairtrade.
Consumers International has also put out an article, From Bean To Cup, exploring various coffee certifications.
Utz Kapeh is a growing coffee certification program, popular in Europe. It has not really made it to Australia or New Zealand yet.
A joint statement from Fairtrade and Utz Kapeh has been issued to show the differences between the two systems.
You can download it here (75kb, pdf).
What is the difference between fairtrade and organic?
Many Fairtrade certified products in Australia and New Zealand are also organically certified. The Fairtrade certification ensures Fairtrade criteria such as democratic decision making, decent working conditions and a fair price are met while organic certification is a guarantee that the environmental requirements of organic agriculture standards are met. While most people understand organic agriculture as the prohibition of synthetic agrochemicals, there are other key components including nature conservation by prohibiting the clearing of primary ecosystems, biodiversity preservation, soil and water conservation, no GMOs, crop diversity, soil fertility and biological activity among others. Organic certification standards generally do not cover social justice or fair trade issues in any detail.
Many Fairtrade certified producers use the Fairtrade premium to invest in environmental projects, including extension support for organic agriculture. In this way, they use Fairtrade as a capacity building tool to improve environmental performance and gain additional market certifications at the same time. 45% of Fairtrade certified producers are also certified organic and this trend seems to be growing.
What if I want to buy a product that is both fair trade and environmentally preferable?
Fairtrade standards do cover environmental requirements but if you want a stronger demonstration of environmental protection, then one way is to buy products that are certified both for social and for environmental issues. For example, there is a strong market for Fairtrade and organic certified products, such as coffee, tea and chocolate with 70% of Fairtrade sales worldwide also being organically certified. Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance certified is also another possible combination.
A number of credible international certification systems are cooperating to make it easier for producers to gain access to multiple certifications and take advantage of this increasing market opportunity. Some of these activities are being coordinated by the ISEAL Alliance.
How can I tell if a product label is credible?
It can be difficult to tell if a product label is credible. Given that there are a number of different aspects to the credibility of a label, it is important to find out about a given label including getting answers to the following questions:
There are also a number of networks of certification initiatives working to ensure high quality and credible systems.
Global Ecolabelling Network (GEN)
In Australia, a new group has set up an information service on 'greenwashing' which reviews a range of initiatives and how they stack up to their claims. See the Eco-Shout's Greenwashing page here.
The ISEAL Alliance (International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labelling Alliance) was formed in 1999 by leading international social and environmental systems to support members standards and verification systems to attain a high level of quality and to gain public credibility, political recognition and market success (ISEAL 2002). As an example, the ISEAL Alliance has developed a Code of Good Practice for Setting Social and Environmental Standards (link to ISEAL site on this) including requirements for transparency, due process, harmonisation and participation. All members will need to comply with this code in their own standard-setting activities.
The Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO) is a member of the ISEAL Alliance along with other members including:
For more information on the ISEAL Alliance, go to www.isealalliance.org
Global Ecolabelling Network (GEN)
An associate member of the ISEAL Alliance is the Global Ecolabelling Network (GEN) (www.gen.gr.jp ) GEN is a non-profit association of third-party, environmental performance labelling organisations founded in 1994 to improve, promote, and develop the "ecolabelling" of products and services. GEN member product standards are generally based on life cycle considerations. Products certified under these systems tend to be manufactured products such as photocopiers, printers, cleaning products. The Australian and New Zealand members of GEN are the Australian Environmental Labelling Association (AELA) with its Environmental Choice label (www.aela.org.au) and the Environmental Choice New Zealand (www.enviro-choice.org.nz)