Earning a Green Seal of Approval

By Jennifer Hill

Mattress in a GREENGUARD testing chamber

Consumers today are becoming increasingly interested in products that are environmentally safe and socially responsible. Of course, when young children are also involved, these concerns become especially heightened. New parents generally feel responsible for everything their children touch or ingest. As such, the importance of green certification for children’s products is on the rise. Obtaining certification allows companies to advertise their products as environmentally safe, and tells consumers that the companies care about the planet and their customers’ well-being. In this installment of The Green Scene, we’ll take a look behind the red tape of green certification and provide information on several reliable organic certification programs.

USDA Organic Certification

To become organically certified, there are certain requirements that must be met. While each certification varies, there are generic qualifications that are necessary for any organic certification. Products must:

Not contain any synthetic chemicals such as fertilizers, pesticides, hormones or chemical additives;
Not come from animals fed anything but organically grown food;
Be free from irradiation;
Be created with items grown on farms that have not used anything other than organic products for a certain amount of time (in the US, it’s at least 3 years);
Have been harvested and produced with clean and sanitized equipment;
Have very detailed production and sales reports;
Have been separated from non-organic products during the manufacturing process;
Undergo ongoing on-site testing to ensure that all organic standards are being met.

For companies whose products meet these strict guidelines, seeking an organic certification is the next step to becoming Green. Once the rigid requirements are met, a company is allowed to use the USDA Certified Organic Seal. The USDA offers three different levels of organic certification:

100% Certified means that everything about the product is organic; both materials used and production methods meet the USDA organic certification requirements.
The “Organic” label means that at least 95% of the materials used and the production methods are certified organic. The remaining 5% are on the National List of allowed ingredients.
Made with Organic Ingredients is a label for products that use at least 70% of certified organic ingredients, and the remaining 30% is on the National List of allowed ingredients.

In addition to organic certification offered by the USDA, specific types of organic certification are available depending on the type of product a company produces. GREENGUARD, Made-By and the Organic Trade Association all offer several benefits to organic product producers.

GREENGUARD Offers Certifications for Indoor Air Quality

The GREENGUARD Environmental Institute, with a mission to improve human health and quality through programs that improve indoor air, offers two different certifications for products: the Indoor Air Quality Certification and the Children and Schools Certification.. Testing is not limited to just organic products.

Incubator in a GREENGUARD testing chamber

The Indoor Air Quality Certification provided by GREENGUARD complies with the US Environmental Protection Agency’s purchasing requirements, the State of Washington Indoor Air Quality Program, Germany’s Blue Angel Program and the US Green Building Council’s LEED program. Companies who successfully obtain this certification are able to place the GREENGUARD mark on their products, and have their environmentally safe products listed in the GREENGUARD Online Product Guide.

Gaining the GREENGUARD Children and Schools Certification proves that products comply with California’s Department of Health Services Standard Practices for the testing of chemical emissions. This lets consumers know that the products are safe to use around children and in other sensitive areas. The GREENGUARD Children & Schools Certification is among the most stringent in the world. It requires that all products be tested annually for more than 10,000 different chemicals and meet rigorous health-based criteria for volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

For more information, visit www.greenguard.org

Made-By Certifies Organic Clothing

Organic clothing companies can get their products certified through Made-By. Made-By is a company that provides organic clothing suppliers to companies and has an extensive list of organic-friendly farmers, spinners and fabric suppliers. All brands associated with Made-By use organic cotton in their products, and only use sewing factories with a specific social code of conduct. Companies that pass their strict organic certification application are approved to use their Blue Button seal.

For more information, visit www.made-by.nl

Organic Trade Association Assists Retailers

The Organic Trade Association is an organization of organic product retailers; they do not offer their own certification, nor do they require you to be certified. However, to be an active member of the Organic Trade Association, you must meet all of their strict guidelines for organic products. Because of this, membership in the OTA is, in effect, a certification unto itself.

Organic certification is a must-have to compete in today’s Green market. More and more parents are recognizing the health benefits to using organic products in their homes. Organic certification also tells consumers that companies care about the health of the planet. For companies that produce organic products, certification will build a trust relationship with their consumers.

For more information, visit www.ota.com