Image is everything. In 1997, the Department of Environment  and Natural Resources (DENR) released a report that cited the contamination with the coliform bacteria(Escherichia coli) of the swimming area and groundwater of the world famous Boracay Island in Malay, Aklan province. That, supposedly, scared tourists away, causing a 7.6% drop in tourist arrivals for that year (151,264 versus 163,727 for 2006); a pattern continuing until end-1998, when the arrivals further decreased to 10%, with the number of tourists then only reaching 135,944.

To allay fears, no other than then Philippine President Fidel V. Ramos himself  formed an inter-agency task force to check Boracay Island’s waters, a move eventually leading to the hiring of SGS Philippines Inc., a widely respected issuer of accreditations and certifications of national and international quality standards. Eventually, after sampling Boracay Island’s waters, it was revealed that the water quality of Boracay is within the limits prescribed for… waters regularly used for bathing, swimming, skin diving, or any water recreational activities” (from Bulletin No. 97-010, issued by the Department of Tourism-Region VI).

Immediately thereafter, Boracay Island’s tourism was back on track.

More than anything, this proves the power of certifications, capable of breaking and, in this case in particular, making businesses.

Why Certify

A certificate, states The Open Group (TOG, opengroup.org), a self-described vendor- and technology-neutral consortium, is a mark of trust, implying some successful assessment against stated and specific criteria, in many cases determined by conformance testing that is a commonly used and successful means for assessing and providing evidence of the correctness of the implementation of the criteria. “Stated another way, certification provides an independent assessment of a product or system’s ability to repeatedly meet a set of requirements...(assuring) that (a) product has been scrutinized and verified to meet some specific  functional and/or interoperability requirements,” TOG states.

The functions of certification can actually be very practical.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO, iso.org), a network of the national standards institutes 157 countries (including SGS in the Philippines), cite as an example the buying of products. “We soon notice (them) when they turn out to be of poor quality, do not fit, are incompatible with equipment we already have, are unreliable or dangerous. When products meet our expectations, we tend to take this for granted. We are usually unaware of the role played by standards in raising levels quality, safety, reliability, efficiency, and interchangeability – as well as in providing such benefits at an economical cost.”

No wonder the rush to get certifications – in the move to green industries, particular, called eco-labels.

Green Labels 

Green certifications are a good indicator that specific environmental claims have been verified, says Greg Zimmerman in The Rise and Significance of Eco-Labels and Green Product Certifications (facilitiesnet.com). “(Eco-labels) verify that a product meets specific standards. They offer a third-party validation, a way to determine a product’s green qualifications. Because any green certification or label is voluntary, green product certifications are showcases for manufacturers genuinely interested in being taken seriously by facility executives who want to purchase products with verified green claims,” he says.

Thus, adds Steve Ashkin, president of the Ashkin Group and a member of the steering committee for USbased Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Existing Buildings, as quoted by Zimmerman: “The certifications really help a purchaser Who may not be a technical expert in any one area to buy a product with some level of confidence that it really has been tested,” says. “The green certifications give purchasers confidence that the product really completes all the environmental issues expected.”

Eco-labels are actually important in controlling greenwashing – the act of claiming to be green, simply to get support for products/services, even if  they are not environmentally sustainable at all.

“Marketers have learned that green is gold, and have bent over backwards to tout the greenness of their products —and that has contributed to confusion about which environmental claims actually true. Greenwash is still alive and well, (running) from inadvertent ‘little green lies,’ like adding the phrase ‘environmentally friendly’ to a product’s marketing when the product hasn’t been changed at all, to blatant untruths meant to purposefully hoodwink a buyer,” Zimmerman says.

Since certifications, especially those internationally accepted (See Table 1), are stringent, they help clarify greenwashing.

Certification Blues

There are, understandably, limitations to acquiring eco-labels, including, firstly, the life span of certificates (ISO, for example, is only valid for three
years); compounded by, secondly, the high cost of getting eco-labels. Worse, and thirdly, the eco-labels may not be acknowledged in other countries, what with various standards applying to different countries.

But the ISO insists: “At its simplest, ‘conformity assessment’ means checking  that products, materials, services, systems or people measure up to the specifications of a relevant standard. With so much trade taking place across borders, conformity assessment has become an important component of the world economy.”

Locally, of course, one only need look at the case of Boracay Island to know what eco-labels can and can’t do.