State-of-Knowledge Assessment of Voluntary Standards and Certifications 

Evaluating the impacts and limitations of voluntary standards and certification systems

Businesses, nongovernmental organizations, foundations, and public agencies have invested significant resources to advance certification and labeling systems applying environmental and social sustainability criteria. Food, personal care items, appliances, electronics, and building and packaging materials are only a few of the product categories in which various kinds of labels identify “acceptable” or “preferred” products based on compliance with standards of environmental sustainability, energy conservation, health, safety, social justice, and other issues.

As labels proliferate, purchasers have legitimate questions about which claims to trust. Funders and regulators need to know whether the systems are achieving their objectives and what alternatives might improve performance. Manufacturers and marketers need information to support business decisions. All face gaps in the available evidence to answer these and similar questions.

To address these types of questions RESOLVE undertook a State-of-Knowledge Assessment of Standards and Certification. The Assessment was initiated in late 2009 and funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, and Mars, Incorporated. A twelve-person Steering Committee composed of leading experts governed this independent, scientifically grounded assessment of the impact and performance of both labeling and certification and their effectiveness as tools to achieve more sustainable production and consumption. RESOLVE served as the facilitator and secretariat for this effort.

The Steering Committee conducted a scientifically sound analysis of four natural resource-based commodities (i.e., forest products, aquaculture, wild-caught fish, and large commodity agricultural products) and the impacts and limitations of voluntary standards and certification systems for improving on-the-ground impacts. The Steering Committee achieved consensus among high-level experts on the role and limitations of standards and certification systems and on recommendations for improving them or using them in concert with regulatory or other mechanisms. 

The Steering Committee found substantial evidence of improvements in social, environmental, and economic practices resulting from certification at the site level, as well as some instances of unintended effects, both positive and negative. The Steering Committee also found that standards and certification are useful complements to regulatory policies and other private voluntary sustainability initiatives, filling gaps and introducing incentives for supply chain innovation.

The Steering Committee’s final report, Toward Sustainability: The Roles and Limitations of Certification , was published in June 2012.