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Environmental Choice is North America’s most widely recognized and respected certification of environmental leadership, setting standards and certifying products in more than 120 categories. There are currently more than 7,000 Environmental Choice-certified products from hundreds of manufacturers.
For buyers, Environmental Choice is a means to find, understand, and trust genuinely “green” products. For marketers, Environmental Choice is a third-party endorsement, a sales tool, and a marketing program. By helping the buyers and sellers of genuinely green products find one another, Environmental Choice rewards environmental leaders and helps shift the marketplace toward sustainability.
Launched by the Canadian federal government in 1988, Environmental Choice is North America’s oldest environmental standard and certification organization (and the second oldest in the world). It is the only North American standard accredited by the Global Ecolabeling Network as meeting the international ISO 14024 standards for Type I (third-party certified, multi-attribute) environmental labels.
Choosing environmentally responsible products is a powerful way to ensure your spending makes a difference. However, finding those products, and trusting them, is not always easy.
The program certifies and recognizes products and services that are environmentally preferable. It develops and promotes higher standards of environmental performance against which products and services can be assessed. These higher standards are called “Certification Criteria Documents” (or CCDs) and contain the exact environmental and performance requirements an applicant must meet to become certified.
The EcoLogo™ Program is a Type I eco-label, as defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in its standard - "Environmental Labeling" (ISO 14024). This means, the program compares products / services with others in the same category, develops rigorous and scientifically relevant criteria, and awards the EcoLogo™ to those that are environmentally preferable throughout their entire life. These products are subject to a thorough evaluation and auditing process.
Additionally, the EcoLogo™ Program is one of only a handful of such programs internationally that has been successfully audited by the Global EcoLabelling Network (GEN) through their GENICES accreditation program to ensure compliance with ISO 14024 principles.
EcoLogo™ certification criteria documents (CCDs) are developed in an open, public and transparent process, with a broad base of stakeholder participation including user groups (e.g. procurement associations, institutional purchasers and consumer protection organizations), product producers (e.g. industry members and associations), government / regulators, general science-based representatives (e.g. academics, life cycle experts and other scientists), environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs), and other environmental advocates. The criteria address multiple environmental attributes related to human health and environmental considerations throughout the life cycle of the product. Currently, there are 122 certification criteria documents addressing over 250 product types.