Simply put, they are an easy way to signal “values” quickly and they should make decisions easier.

They should reflect real and meaningful progress on impacts that are relevant to the company, their supply chain, and their products.

But as you likely know, not all certifications are created equal. Some can actually be used as a tool to greenwash.

Ideally certifications are 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 plan in place to address impacts and is making progress through action.

In other words, meeting the requirements of a certification is not the destination but the beginning of a journey.

In ideal circumstances, certifications can play an important role in addressing gaps in the regulatory landscape and drive real impacts on ingredient safety and sustainability issues in the marketplace.

We’ve seen their potential because 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.

Certifications that tend to be higher quality and this more trustworthy demonstrate the following characteristics:

Organizational Independence

The organization that administers the certification is free from real or perceived conflicts of interest with the brands or products it certifies.

Transparency

The organization administering the certification provides publicly available information about their funding, standards, and certification process.

Standards & Requirements

Their standards have their basis in peer-reviewed science, they are developed and/or reviewed by credible, independent experts, they are regularly reviewed and updated, and they require recertification after a defined time period.

(If the organization notes that their certification meets ISO 14024 standard for ecolabels, for example, this is a good indicator of process credibility.)

When considering standards and requirements, we also want to know about:

• Verification practices: Certification requires an appropriate level of due diligence, documentation, data, and confirmation as well as requiring regular monitoring for compliance.

• Issue Leadership: The work of the administering organization and/or the standards or requirements of this certification could be considered leading edge.

The certifications that we trust and use in our evaluations are the certifications that meet or exceed our unique combination of these criteria.

We include them on our list of Hilde “Approved” certifications.

For more information about how we use certifications in our evaluations please read our blog here.