For manufacturers the object of the game is the marketing edge conferred by a label "certifying" that products meet a selective industry standard of sustainability. For consumers the challenge is sorting the green from the greenwash among the bewildering array of eco-labels.

The first thing you need to know to play the label game is that not all labels are alike.

Consensus Based Eco-Labeling Programs

The most reliable eco-labels for green building products are those that are developed through a consensus negotiation process: LEED for buildings; [2] Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) [3] for wood products; and, EneryStar® [4] for energy efficiency. These programs offer a seat at the table for all stakeholders. The time consuming consensus process may lag behind the leading edge of technology, and some of the least cooperative industrial players often dominate the process in terms of financial and human resources. But, the results represent progress.

Trade Association Greenwash Labels

The worst of the self-styled eco-labels and certifications are those promulgated by industry trade associations, such as the timber industry's SFI, the Carpet and Rug Institute's Green Label and Green Label Plus, [5] and the Resilient Flooring Council's FloorScore. The selective "standards" represented by these labels are not negotiated in the public interest with legitimate stakeholders. They are one dimensional or least- common-denominator standards at best, and in some cases they undermine superior consensus standards.

Take the SFI (sustainable forestry initiative) label for wood. On the one hand the timber industry negotiates compromise standards with environmentalists during the FSC consensus process. But it also promotes a competing certification, SFI, which rewards some of the very practices not accepted by the FSC.

The industry sponsored labels are primarily marketing tools, heavily promoted and financed by marketing budgets of both trade associations and product manufacturers. These labels confuse consumers. In the label game, this is called a greenwash maneuver.

Greenwash is not envirosavvy.