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The Fate of Easy Green Certifications
How Green Certification Seek to Fool the Public
As more communities, cities and websites begin to offer their own version of a Green business certification, years of experience reminds should remind us that these eager promoters will not be around a year or two from now. Consider how these programs got started in a rush of enthusiasm and a some available money. Various communities were given grants or raised money to fund a local Green or Sustainability Committee. Volunteers stepped up, and someone found a copy of guidelines on the Internet. Of course, the local newspaper reported the creation of this new committee offering “Free Green Certifications,” and local businesses lined up to get their Green certification. After all it's free, and requires little real effort.
After a year or so, the funding isn’t as large or even available. The volunteers for the sustainability committee are now busy with issues of pressing importance. Obviously, the committee members have real jobs like a contractor, an insurance guy, and a chamber member. The idea was appealing because it was a chance to get in front of new customers. When the good intentions have faded, the program is made simpler. Anyone interested in the Green business certification is handed some stapled forms and told to answer the questions (no one checks them out anyway). Forms are submitted, and some overworked secretary sends out a Green certification.
This erosion of value is the nature of free programs. They are always filled with good intentions at the beginning, and eventually turn into something that becomes valueless. Free programs may work in church. They do not work nearly as well in the more demanding business world. If a free program survives, we can expect the later end to be just an excuse for selling something to those asking for the free certification.
Of course, we cannot forget the website certifications that appear overnight with very polished and well-written boasts of being the leader in Green business certifications. We must all wonder how many of these “Green certification leaders” there can be. Well, don't be surprised to find that lying is just a marketing tool for many promoters.
One popular and deceptive tactic is to fill the website's directory with hundreds of free listings that are purposely intended to fool visitors of the website's popularity. Anyone considering using these website certifications should do some due diligence to see if most of these listed companies actually paid money to get on this membership program. You'll find these directories were once free, but are now being sold you for $400 to $1200. Don't that seem odd?
Website certifications a lot are like Internet sex. It is not real, and it isn’t right! Of course, people can do as they like, but isn’t the real thing always better? This may be a crude illustration, but nearly every Green certification website is little more than a blatant scam. Just look at their tactics. Look suspiciously at the integrity issues these programs that have been conveniently obscure. They conveniently provide false directories, they boldly make false claims saying that “self-assessments” are the same as an audit, and they literally charge $500 or a $5 logo.
Unfortunately, there are people falling for these programs because it is just so easy. That is why these programs are called “Easy Green” certifications. A great looking website is no substitute for integrity.
Isn't it obvious that every certification in the business world comes with more than a fee and a form? If a building seeks a LEED certification, the award will not delivered by an Internet purchase and self-assessment form. International Standards Organization (ISO) does not work with companies they have never reviewed by an auditor. Does Underwriters Laboratories take a cut-rate approach? Can a company send in a picture of their product, pay a fee, and the product is automatically awarded UL approval? Yet, people seem to believe that a business can become Green certified by simply paying a fee with the same ease as ordering an iTune download.
Where will these certifications be in a few years? In most cases, the website will go vacant because the “Good Days” of the scam have passed. Consumers will reject these programs as just another form of blatant greenwashing. Local Green committees will run out of money, and volunteers will be called to other duties. Experience tells us that these free program will come and go like summer butterflies. Fortunately, the real Green programs will remain. Part of the reason is that they charge reasonable fee for their service. They also have real people who are constantly at work in the community because this is their job!
The Green Business League is certainly a leader in Green business certification. Nearly every community has a Certified Green Consultant actively promoting Green business and making the community a Greener place. Every GBL Green business certification is earned through a national Green Points system, and every business goes through an annual live audit to earn and maintain its Green certification. The Green Business League's slogan is "Earned, and Not Bought." Any business seeking a Green business certification, should go with one that has this kind of integrity.
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