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A proliferation of definitions - that's the problem
Heidi reports 8 million web pages featuring sustainable development, and pointed out that there is "no dearth of sustainability criteria, labels and certification systems." Frankly, I think that's precisely the problem. Just reading her post, I felt so overwhelmed my brain tuned out.
I see two problems.
1) If there are 8 million pages featuring sustainable development, it's too many to be any good for "regular" non-expert people. It's also so many, manufacturers can find the right one to fit their purposes, honorable or not.
2) Too many criteria, labels and certification systems confuse consumers. Which of the multiple fair trade certifications is best? Certainly niche products (like low-VOC building products) need a very specific certification, but that's not useful for general consumers. Hyper-stringent standards (like Cradle to Cradle) also play a role, but they aren't accessible to most products.
There needs to be a small number of certifications that are meaningful, achieve significant market penetration so they can be found in stores, and that people can recognize and grasp -- think Energy Star.
I simply don't think the American consumer -- an expert at consuming, but not an expert in every technical area of manufacturing -- who wants to consume in a more sustainable way should need a masters degree to understand labeling on products.
I agree with the general direction of this post - that there are maybe too many labels, and certainly too many faux, industry-sponsored labels (check out the book "Eating Between the Lines"), but regarding Fair Trade the situation is simpler than was implied.
For starters, there is only one seal you'll find on products in the US (see www.transfairusa.org ) and the Canadian version is simply a bi-lingual version of the same seal.
Second, the link you gave to 6 six Fair Trade labels is out of date. Those were six labels used in Europe, and years ago they were all replaced with one single pan-Europe logo. see www.fairtrade.net
I certainly understand your argument and agree to a certain extent. However, with point #2: All of the "fair trade" labels in the link are certified by FLO the Fairtrade Labelling Organization, which is international. Each country has their own FLO affiliate (in the US, it's TransFair US) and those labels are for different countries, but all mean the same standards. I think it's important to remember with a lot of "sustainable" and "organic" labels that they do not have any standards related to worker rights (for example, prohibiting child labor). That is why looking for the official label from TransFair is important -- it ensures that farmers get a fair price for their products and much more.
Janne- Agreed. But I don't think anyone's going to stop creating green labels. With that being the case, we need a way to differentiate between the good and the bad. A certifier of the certifiers.
And ultimately we may need policy tools and other market mechanisms to push the green labels that are effective.
