If you are looking for socially responsible and environmentally sustainable products, the world of green or eco friendly labels is at best confusing and at worst, an ugly swamp of misdirection and false claims.

So who can you trust? 

Generally, certifications that require third person verification are best. FSC, Cradle-to-Cradle, and Green Seal are all examples of certifications that require verification. How much and how stringent these certifications are depends on who you pick.

Companies often have good intentions, but either lack resources (time, people and money) or don't want to allocate resources to certifications.  This means the really stringent certifications often get skipped in favor of easier and less time and money intensive certifications.  Lets face it, and FSC audit can take 3-4 days of someones time, not to mention the constant work of researching products, keeping a warehouse properly organized and tracking shipments.

This leaves the door open for a lot of 'green-lite' labels, or even self labeling (make up a logo, stick on your website and voila! a logo on your website that might fool someone into thinking you have done something).

Finding good providers.

One good place to start is the Responsible Purchasing Network. This is an organization dedicated to helping people find socially nd environmentally sustainable products.  they have purchasing guides and other publications which can help you in your quest to find the best sustainable products.

If you have a certification you trust, or a cause you support, find them and go to that site and see who is on their lists. 1% for the Planet  or Rainforest Action Network are organizations that support specific environmental actions and may be helpful in pointing you in the right direction.

Research.

Define what it is you are looking for first.  You want closer (with in 500 miles of you business or home), recycled content (post consumer waste or recycled - what percentage is enough?), socially conscious (fair trade, fair wage), low carbon foot print ( how far around the world has it traveled, what is involved in creating and disposing of this product).... You need to be clear about what you are looking for in order to find it.

If you haven't heard of a certification, look it up.  Many are not that stringent, some are outright ridiculous, some are excellent.

Example.

We will use our own company, Naked Binder, as an example.  We started in order to fill what we perceived as a need and an injustice.

premise:  Office supplies are toxic and unrecyclable.  This is backed up by the 40-60 million vinyl binders disposed of every year in the US alone which are basically unrecyclable (no programs exist to get your vinyl waste even if you spend the time to separate the binder parts).  We hear of LEED certified buildings failing their air tests due to office supplies and the EPA claims air in offices is up to 10 times worse than the air outside.

Goal:  Create a series of truely sustainable office products - in our case 3-ring binders, folders and tab sets that are well designed (last longer, work better, look good), and sustainable (100% post consumer waste, 100% recyclable). Also, all the employees here are avid outdoor lovers and we wanted to find a way to help insure open spaces and wilderness will continue and thrive.

Reality:  We are closer every day to our goal. 

We have had our binders tested to 250,000 flexes making these the strongest 3-ring binder available.  They look great (aw, mom...) and work well.  The board is 100% post consumer waste, FSC certified binders board. Our pocket folders are 97% post consumer waste and FSC certified.  Our current tab dividers are 30% post consumer waste and Green Seal certified from a Green-E company. Our 3-ring binders and folders are FSC certified and we are members of 1% for the Planet, donating to protect wild spaces and wilderness areas.

We use post manufacturing waste from a plant in our building for packing materials.  All of it is 100% recyclable.

Where we are going.  As a young company, we haven't analyzed our carbon foot print adequately. This is a goal of ours.  We know we can do better, we just need to find out where. We are moving our tab sets to a FSC certified 100% post consumer waste stock. We are working to find sources of organic cottons and alternative (more sustainable) fabrics.  We are looking at each product to see what can be done better, what would make it more useful and what would make it more sustainable.

We are looking into certifications that would help us identify and clarify where we have more room for growth in our resposible manufacturing and product goals.  

Future: Naked Binder wants to be the standard to which all office supplies are held. Better, greener, pro-active and more fun to use.