Dragon's Den: Made to Measure

Blog #3 in a series for CBC's Dragon's Den


Last week I talked about how the first, and most important, ingredient of any claim to “green-ness” for a product is sincerity on the part of the manufacturer.
The next most important criterion is measurability. The product needs to objectively and quantifiably contribute to making the planet a better place. There are, obviously, as many different ways of doing this as there are products themselves.

A product can be clearly less polluting. Or less toxic. Perhaps it is more forest-friendly. Or more easily compostable. Green products can be very large and complicated. Or smaller in scale. They can be sexy. Or not so much. Some of them are familiar. And many of them most Canadians won’t have heard of.

What all of these things have in common is that they’re measurably better for the environment (and therefore human health) than their alternatives. Though these products may be the green real deal, the challenge in today’s market of cluttered, competing, green claims is to ensure that consumers believe this to be the case.

One way of achieving this is for manufacturers or retailers to submit to independently verified “green labels”. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), for example, certifies that paper products are environmentally-friendly. The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is trying to do the same in the realm of seafood (though not without some hiccups). Before too long, I’m convinced, most things we buy will be covered by some third-party “green” certification scheme.

For the moment, most manufacturers don’t have the luxury of accessing such a process and need to fend for themselves. The only path forward is for them to do the homework and give consumers access to the detailed information that validates the green claim. In some cases, this involves contracting independent labs to do some serious in-depth research.

The result of all this? A heckuva lot of information for consumers to sift through, that’s what. It can be overwhelming. It can be maddening. Trying to analyze competing product claims can be difficult even for the most green-minded. And can we really shop our way to a greener planet, anyways? More on this next week.