As a savvy, smart sustainability professional you already know: Not all certifications are created equal and many can actually be used as a tool to greenwash, something companies need to avoid. Certifications are also indicators of deeper, more meaningful action by companies on the issues that matter. A certification should be a point of external validation that the company has a credible plan in place to address impacts and is making progress. In other words, meeting the requirements of a certification is not the destination but the beginning of a journey.

The most important factor when it comes to choosing a certification should be trust, you want certifications that are going to inspire trust with consumers. To ensure that your certifications build trust they need to be high quality. If they aren’t high quality, they could end up having the opposite effect for your company. Lower-quality certifications can make new or potential customers question their ability to trust your ingredient safety and sustainability efforts.

We’ve spent years working with certifications from every angle. For companies working to obtain them, with NGOs responsible for creating and running them, and with different types of government agencies responsible for assessing and utilizing them in their purchasing decisions. In our experience the certifications that tend to be higher-quality, more trustworthy are:

Independent

The degree to which the organization that administers the certification has real or perceived conflicts of interest with the brands or products it certifies.

Transparent

Providing disclosure and public availability of the methodology, the level of due diligence included in their certification process, their requirements, and costs paid for certification.

Credible

Their standards and requirements have their basis in science with a robust, regular, multi-stakeholder process for setting and updating them.

Leading

The certification includes criteria or requirements that place it at the leading edge of peers while remaining technically feasible.

Verifiable

The certification requires an appropriate level of due diligence, documentation, data, and confirmation.

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The single biggest mistake to avoid when choosing a certification for your company, product, ingredient, or material is to rely on it in isolation. A certification does not replace the need for a comprehensive approach to managing different types of impacts to people or the planet. Your company should also have a relevant policy or standard on the topic (e.g. ingredient safety), a plan of action, and measures of performance in place to substantiate the certification. Without these additional elements you fail to fully capitalize on the value of the certification in terms of consumer trust. Additionally, avoid going with the latest “buzzy” certification (we see this all the time!), leverage experts internally/externally to carefully analyze which certifications make sense and will drive credibility with your core audience. If your company is selling in the EU, pay close attention to compliance with emerging regulations related to sustainability claims including certifications. If you’d like to talk more about choosing the right certifications for your business, feel free to contact us at: info@heyhilde.com