Green Certification: Credibility and Returns Linda Chipperfield VP Marketing & Outreach

1. Green Certification: Credibility and ReturnsLinda ChipperfieldVP Marketing & Outreach

2. 501 (c)(3) science-based non-profit • Founded in 1989 • Environmental mission with focus on standard • development and certification • Encompassing multiple product & service categories • Utilizing a multiple criteria / life-cycle approach • No financial interest in certified products/services • or in any manufacturer or company 2

3. Consumers Rely on Third-party Certification 3

4. Are There Really Hundreds of (Good) Ecolabels? EcolabelIndex.com is currently tracking 431 eco-labels in 217 countries. 4

5. Guidelines for Ecolabels • ISO 14020 Environmental labels and declarations – General principles • ISO 14024 Type I Environmental labelling – Principles and procedures • Global Ecolabelling Network membership requirements • American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Guidelines • US EPA criteria for third-party certifiers • Consumers Union criteria for “What Makes a Good Ecolabel” • US FTC Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims 5

6. Commonalities Among Guidelines • Criteria based on life-cycle impacts • Open access to licensees of all sizes, all countries • Authority to audit manufacturing • facility or service location • Criteria that encourage products & services that are significantly less damaging to the environment (leadership levels) • Periodic review of criteria, considering technology & marketplace • Voluntary participation • Run by organizations without • conflicts of interest • Standards process involves • stakeholders & the public • Criteria, assumptions, • methods & data used are • open & transparent (i.e., • publicly available, easily • accessed & understandable) • Legally protected mark 6

7. The Value of Certification • Opens doors to a new market of green consumers • “Super Greenies”—Gen X, high-income, higher spending lifestyle • Certification makes it easier for them to find your hotel • Helps you meet corporate and government purchasing requirements • Purchasers and meeting planners are required to select the greenest options • A certification makes it easier to respond to requirements • Proven reductions in your environmental footprint • Hotels use less energy, water, chemicals and create less waste • Chicago hotels cut green-house gasses by nearly half* • * Research study done for the City of Chicago, 2009 7

8. The Value of Certification • Positions your property ahead of the competition • Guests increasingly factor greenness into their choices • Online directories requiring listed hotels to be certified • Puts you in an elite group of environmentally active hotels • Helps improve guest and employee satisfaction • Guests expect to see what they are doing at home • Shows staff that you care about their health & community 8

9. Certification protects you against “greenwashing” • GreenwashingIndex.com • GoodGuide.com • NRDC Label Lookup • SinsOfGreenwashing.org • Federal Trade Commission 9

10. What to look for in Certification • Program run by organizations without conflict of interest • Standard development process involves balanced stakeholder group • Transparency in criteria, methods & data used • Requirements based on life-cycle impacts and science • Open access to licensees of all sizes, all countries • Includes regular site audits of facility or service location • Label is trademarked and use is policed • Requirements are regularly updated, considering technology & marketplace 10

11. Green Seal, Inc. 1001 Connecticut Ave, NW Suite 827 Washington, DC 20036-5525 (202) 872-6400 www.greenseal.org 11