Managing Risks When Seeking Green Certification

June 13, 2010 - PRLog -- Knowing that every decision has consequences, the decision to obtain a Green business certification is not one without concerns.  Choices for Green certification come down to doing it yourself and creating your own logo or turning to a certification authority.  Many businesses have tried to develop their own Green credential.  Of course, that seems amateurish and carries little value.  After all, how good is your Green certification if you made it up a week ago on Photoshop?  

The second popular choice is to scan the Internet for a company offering a Green certification that is more respectable.  There are a number of choices, but you will certainly find one or more offering an “audited certification” by simply signing up online.  Warning flag should pop up right away because a self-assessment is not the same as an audit.  
That is the beginning of the well-worded deceptions by the cadre of website programs offering Green business certification.  The IRS knows that a self assessment is not the same as an audit.  LEED, ISO, and even Goodhousekeeping know that that an independent review/audit is the only way to have a legitimate certification.  

Going further, the Green certification websites have a series of forms or assessment to perform in order to earn their silver, gold, or platinum levels.  Well, that must be legitimate right?  The information is probably very helpful and insightful.  So, here’s the acid test.  Suppose, Joe’s Toxic Dump Company decides that it wants to get a Green business certification as well.  Could that actually happen?  

Knowing that are no human safeguards the process, Joe’s Toxic Dumping Services signs onto the website as Joe’s Green Delivery Service.  (After all, most of the stuff he dumped is kind of green looking.) Could he do this?  Well, no one ever sees Joe’s business; so let continue.  Joe enthusiastically completes the online process to join and pays his money via credit card.  Within minutes an automated response welcomes Joe’s Green Delivery Service into this Green certification program and encourages him to do the “audits” to earn an even higher level of certification.  

Thereby encouraged, Joe’s fills in the rest of the forms and moves up the certification scale in a matter of a few days.  Soon, the Green certification logo arrives by another automated download; and Joe’s Toxic Dump Service is not fully Green certified by an “audited” (self-assessment) that only communicates by programmed messages.
Unknowingly, you thought that the certification was more reputable.  After all, the website was well-done and the ideas were actually pretty good.  If the truth were known, you lied on a few of those same questions as well thinking that you would eventually get those items done as well.  You then placed the website-acquired logo on your website, door, or advertising telling the world that you too were a Green business.  At this point, it was just a helpful idea that you thought would increase public appeal.  

Months later the phone rings.  A reporter wants to know how you got that logo so boldly shown on the website.  “Was there an audit?” he asked.  “Yeh, kind of..” you respond.  A dogged series of questions by the reporter alerts you to something horribly wrong.  “Did you know that this company also certified Joe’s Toxic Dump Company who is in the next town over?  He’s been arrested, but we check the Internet and the same Green certification that you have for your business.  “Can we send over a camera crew to interview and how you got your certification?”  

As you may one day learn the public deception of misleading certifications often sound better at the start than they do when made to account for their true value.  Would you be horrified to learn that your doctor that you entrust with your health bought his degree online?  Would you be upset to find that the Green seal on your products at the grocery store where designed in the back room and had no real value?  

These are examples of blatant, though well-developed, forms of Greenwashing.  Classically, Greenwashing is the over-exaggeration of the Green merit of your business or product.  It is justified by the fact that marketing always paints the best picture on the product anyway.  Lying is just an inventive part of advertising.  

It is nonetheless a public deception.  Certification implies both a standard of performance that has been met and an independent review of compliance.  These programs have neither.  

When the investigative reporters finally seize on this public deception by these programs, these Green cam websites will suddenly disappear.  Embarrassed business owners will race to scour those bogus logos from their website and front doors.  Deceptions, no matter how elaborate, are not good business.  The public will exact a price when it is finally brought out, and the final realization is that the money spent on website certifications were a foolish mistake.  

Only the Green Business League (http://www.GreenBusinessLeague.com) offers an independently audited certification for Green businesses.  With more than 350 trained Certified Green Consultants nationwide and in Canada, the Green Business League seems to be setting a standard that can be respected by any industry and at governmental levels.  The critical issue for any certification is the credibility of the program used.  The risks of adopting a deceptive certification may be a very bad investment.

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The Green Business League is a training and certification organization. Using a 100 Green Point system, any business can develop an effective and substantial Green operation and earn its Green Business Certification. http://www.greenbusinessleague.com