Green Standards

Founded in 1989, Green Seal provides science-based environmental certification standards that are credible, transparent, and essential in an increasingly educated and competitive marketplace. Our industry knowledge and standards help manufacturers, purchasers, and end users alike make responsible choices that positively impact business behavior and improve quality of life.

Green Seal Certification ensures that a product meets rigorous, science-based environmental leadership standards. This gives manufacturers the assurance to back up their claims and purchasers confidence that certified products are better for human health and the environment.

Green Seal develops its standards with widespread input from industry, government, academia, and the public.

A new standard is broadly circulated for review and comment to a diverse group of stakeholders, including manufacturers, trade associations, universities, environmental and consumer groups, government officials, and the public.

When the final standard is published, we provide a written response to all the comments received, and open the standard to a formal appeal.

We periodically review and update our standards to reflect advances in technology and the marketplace.

Founded in 1988 by the Government of Canada but now recognized world-wide, EcoLogo™ is North America’s largest, most respected environmental standard and certification mark. EcoLogo provides customers – public, corporate and consumer – with assurance that the products and services bearing the logo meet stringent standards of environmental leadership. With THOUSANDS of EcoLogo Certified products, EcoLogo certifies environmental leaders covering a large variety of categories, helping you find and trust the world’s most sustainable products.

The EcoLogo Program is a Type I eco-label, as defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). This means that the Program compares products/services with others in the same category, develops rigorous and scientifically relevant criteria that reflect the entire lifecycle of the product, and awards the EcoLogo to those that are verified by an independent third party as complying with the criteria.

The EcoLogo Program is one of two such programs in North America that has been successfully audited by the Global EcoLabelling Network (GEN) as meeting ISO 14024 standards for eco-labelling.

The Comprehensive Procurement Guideline (CPG) program is part of the EPA's continuing effort to promote the use of materials recovered from solid waste. Buying recycled-content products ensures that the materials collected in recycling programs will be used again in the manufacture of new products.

EPA is required to designate products that are or can be made with recovered materials, and to recommend practices for buying these products. Once a product is designated, procuring agencies are required to purchase it with the highest recovered material content level practicable.

The EPA is required to consider several criteria when determining which items it will designate, including the availability of the item; the potential impact of procurement on the solid waste stream; the economic and technological feasibility of producing the item; and other uses of the recovered materials used to produce the item. EPA also considers comments from end users, manufacturers, distributors, the general public, and other interested parties through a formal rulemaking process to designate items.

Every choice we make as consumers carries a broader meaning for our impact on the world. To choose compostables over petroleum-based products means to make lighter impacts on energy consumption, water consumption, and emission of pollution and toxins.

"Compostable" meets D6400 composting standards set by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM): Under a managed composting program, the product must 1) break down to carbon dioxide, water, inorganic compounds, and biomass at a rate similar to paper, 2) disintegrate into small pieces within 90 days, so that the original product is not visually distinguishable in the compost, and 3) leave no toxic residue.

Click Here to Find a Compost Facility Near You

The U.S. Green Building Council is committed to a sustainable, prosperous future through LEED, the leading program for green buildings and communities worldwide.

https://www.biopreferred.gov/
The BioPreferred Program is a USDA-led initiative that aims to assist in the development and expansion of markets for biobased products. The increased development, purchase, and use of biobased products will reduce our Nation's reliance on petroleum, and increase the use of renewable agricultural materials.

EPA's DfE logo helps consumers and commercial buyers identify antimicrobial products that meet the health and safety standards of the pesticide registration process required by the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) as well as other rigorous criteria required by the agency.  When a consumer or purchaser sees EPA’s DfE logo on a product, they can feel confident that the product meets stringent EPA criteria for efficacy and effects on human health and the environment.

BPI is the leading authority on compostable products and packaging in North America. All products certified by BPI meet ASTM standards for compostability, are subject to eligibility criteria around the connection to food scraps and yard trimmings, meet limits for total fluorine (PFAS), and must display the BPI Certification Mark. BPI’s certification program operates in conjunction with education and advocacy efforts designed to help keep food scraps and other organics out of landfills. 

BPI is organized as a member-based nonprofit association, is governed by a Board of Directors, and is operated by a dedicated staff working in home-offices across the United States.