Eco-Labels Help Consumers Make Real Decisions with Their Money

Organic. Free-range. Biodegradable. Biocompatible. Biodynamic.

The choices consumers now have are endless. And confusing.

Undeniably, it is preferable to have the choice to buy free-range chicken or organic lettuce, but how often do we really know what those labels mean? Was the chicken let outside, free to roam in open fields for hours, or did it just suffer a fate only slightly better than its caged counterpart? Was the lettuce really farmed without the use of any pesticides or synthetic materials, or are traces of inorganic substances creeping their way into our foods, even those that have been slapped with an organic label?

These are questions any conscientious consumer would want answered. The good news? At least one organization has taken the time to do that.

Greenerchoices.org, an environmentally-friendly arm of Consumer Reports, aims at informing consumers of the choices available to them when they make the decision to leave a smaller global footprint. The website's array of topics range from providing solutions for basic green living, such as how to recycle your electronics, to advice about how to continue to make a difference, even after you've switched out the incandescent bulbs for compact fluorescent. But what this consumer has found to be one of their most interesting projects to date is the in-depth grading of consumer labels.

The company's Eco-labels center allows the user to sift through scores of labels that can be applied to anything from food to household cleaners to cosmetics. Many consumers undoubtedly see a label on a product, such as 'biodegradable' and assume that they know exactly what they're getting.

The truth, however, is worth looking into. Take, for instance, the "100% Vegetarian Ingredients" label. For starters, no organization lays claim to this label, and none will back it up. There are no certification standards in place; only the manufacturer or company marketing a product with this label would have to answer for its validity. According to the Eco-label center, a product bearing this label "may or may not contain animal-derived substances and may or may not have been tested on animals." In other words, apart from the list of ingredients, there is simply no way for the consumer to know what exactly went into the manufacturing of the product in question.

The Eco-labels center has set up a system in which more than 100 labels are graded and given report cards. Evaluations are based on how meaningful the label is, if the label is given verification by an organization, if its meaning is consistent, and if its standards are openly available to the public.

For consumers to have so many choices is liberating-provided we actually know what we are getting. Because so many of us are willing to pay for a clean conscious, we need to stay informed about what message our purchases are actually sending. Otherwise, we can never truly put our money where our mouth is.