Green Seal: Verifying Environmental Leadership in Products and Services

Background

Green Seal is a nonprofit ecolabeling organization whose certification program is designed to accelerate the adoption of safer and more sustainable products and practices. Built around health, sustainability, and product performance standards, the certification is used by purchasers and consumers to identify products and services that meet defined environmental leadership criteria. The certification is especially visible in cleaning and facility-care markets. Green Seal’s certified categories include cleaning products, sanitary paper, paints, laundry care products, personal care products, commercial and residential cleaning services, and hotel and lodging properties. Green Seal operates in accordance with ISO 14020 and ISO 14024 principles for environmental labeling and is a founding member of the Global Ecolabelling Network. Its standards are developed through a transparent stakeholder process and are intended to evaluate environmental and health impacts across the life cycle of a product or service.

Methodology and Verification

Green Seal Certification is granted only where an individual product, service, or space meets the applicable Green Seal standard. These standards are category-specific, meaning a cleaning product, paper product, paint, hotel, or cleaning service is assessed against the relevant criteria for that category rather than one generic sustainability checklist. Key requirements and verification elements include:

• Life-cycle criteria: Green Seal’s standards examine major impacts across the life cycle, from raw material selection and manufacturing to packaging, use, and disposal.

• Health and safety requirements: Where relevant to the product category, standards address safety issues such as toxicity, carcinogens, reproductive toxins, and endocrine disruptors,

• Environmental requirements: Criteria may cover climate-related impacts, energy use, mineral extraction, water use, biodegradability, bioaccumulation, recovered materials, recyclability etc.

• Performance requirements: Green Seal standards include performance criteria so that certified products are expected to work as well as conventional alternatives.

• Ongoing compliance: Certification is not a one-time claim. Green Seal says it periodically monitors certified products and that products remain certified only while they continue to comply with the latest version of the applicable standard.

When standards are revised, manufacturers generally have one year to demonstrate that certified products meet the new criteria, unless Green Seal announces a different timeline. This helps keep certified listings aligned with updated environmental and health requirements.

Current Status & Outlook

Green Seal Certification remains active across a wide range of product and service categories. Green Seal says it has certified more than 33,000 products and that the certification is used in more than 100 federal, state, and local purchasing policies. The certification continues to be relevant in institutional procurement, building operations, cleaning programs, hospitality, and consumer products. Green Seal-certified products may also qualify for Amazon’s Climate Pledge Friendly designation.

Resources

• https://greenseal.org/how-to-get-green-certified/

• https://greenseal.org/green-seal-standards/standards-list/

• https://greenseal.org/about/faq/