Environmental certification

Environmental certification is a form of environmental regulation and development where a company can voluntarily choose to comply with predefined processes or objectives set forth by the certification service. Most certification services have a logo (commonly known as an ecolabel) which can be applied to products certified under their standards. This is seen as a form of corporate social responsibility allowing companies to address their obligation to minimise the harmful impacts to the environment by voluntarily following a set of externally set and measured objectives.

The primary motivations for many companies who choose to implement environmental certification schemes are, to provide an ethical product for the consumers, increase sustainable development, improve the image of the company, gain a better relationship with stakeholders and to make a higher profit.

Many companies believe that the implementation of environmental certification programmes can lead to an improved company image and generate competitive advantage. This is usually achieved through the use of ecolabels which can be used on the company’s products, allowing the product to stand out as being produced in an environmentally sound way. The ecolabels associated with environmental certification inform consumers that the product in question has been verified by a third party auditor as originating from an environmentally well managed company. Therefore, the certificate gives an indication of good practice and provides the company a better image. This approach allows consumers to steer their purchasing behaviour in a more environmentally sound direction. This also means that if environmental marketing strategies such as environmental certification are to work there must be consumers willing to purchase the resulting green products.

There are also ethical motivations for a company to improve its environmental performance and move towards achieving sustainable development. All environmental certification schemes attempt to provide organisations with an effective environmental management system to help them to achieve environmental and economic goals The current high levels of consumption and economic growth often leads to the degradation of land and pollution of the natural environment. The aim of the move towards sustainable development is to ensure the availability of natural resources for future generations. Within environmental certification the life cycle approach is often adopted, where the life cycle of the product from its production to its disposal are followed to ensure that it is produced, used and disposed of in a sustainable and environmentally sound way.

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