Environmental Certification: Assessing its Impact as a Corporate Strategy

Environmental Certification, often termed Green Certification, is an international effort intended to ensure the sustainable management of natural ecosystems. To become certified, a company voluntarily contracts with an independent party to evaluate their resource management practices against established management standards. Once certified, the company can then have its claims of environmental responsibility (for example, claims such as the wood used in a product came from a well-managed forest) substantiated by the certifying body. This report focuses on environmental certification in the forest industry. Environmental certification is addressed from the viewpoint of its use as a corporate strategy and as a matter of national or international policy. The following questions are addressed: What are the perceived strategic advantages of pursuing certification? What are the driving forces behind certification? How do companies select the certification program that best suits their strategy? Is certification a long-term strategy or merely a short-term response to sociopolitical issues? What are the true impacts of certification on the environment? What are the financial burdens associated with certification? What are the financial benefits of certification? What is the future of certification