Third-Party Certification – A Tool to Ensure Sustainability

Reader Contribution by Anna Clark and Rainforest Alliance
Published on July 5, 2011
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Many businesses claim their products are sustainable. But how can you, as a consumer, be sure that their claims really are true?

Third-party certification is the best way to demonstrates to the public that a company’s claims about itself are reliable, and have been substantiated by an independent, outside party.

Rainforest Alliance certification is built on three pillars of sustainability — environmental protection, social equity and economic viability — and no single pillar can support long-term success on its own. However, balancing environmental and social concerns with the economic, technical and cultural realities that loggers, farmers and tourism businesses face can be challenging. To address this challenge the Rainforest Alliance relies on standards that have been developed in collaboration with locally based NGOs and stakeholders (including government, businesses, scientists and academics). When farms and forestry operations meet these standards, they earn the right to use widely recognized marks signifying sustainability — the Rainforest Alliance CertifiedTM seal and/or the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) logo — to attract conscientious consumers. 

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