New website aims to end green labelling confusion

Procurement professionals keen to check up on the credentials of various products' green labels or certifications will have access to a new resource from today, following the launch of a new free online database providing information on over 280 environmental labelling schemes.

Ecolabelling.org has been launched by Canadian green research start up Big Room and offers detailed information on environmental labels, standards and certification schemes, including data on the criteria schemes use, how widely they are adopted, their geographical reach, and their enforcement and management procedures.

Anastasia O'Rourke, co-founder of Big Room, said that providing firms with the ability to quickly compare different labelling schemes should ensure that only the most credible and effective green labels are adopted.

"There are a lot of schemes out there and it is very consuming for customers, " she said. "We are seeing some harmonisation between different labelling schemes, but there are still real differences between them in both the stringency of the criteria they use to judge a product and in terms of management and policing of the scheme."

Big Room said that the new site would be updated as more programmes emerge and would be aimed at consumers, procurement professionals and companies interested in working out the best green label for their products.

"In the textile sector, for example, there are at least 10 unique labels out there and a whole bunch of other standards buried within broader schemes," explained O'Rourke. "It is really difficult for both producers and customers to work out the best one to go for."