Certification schemes are holding back true sustainability, says report

A report published by the Dutch non-governmental organisation (NGO) Changing Markets has suggested that food certification schemes are lowering their standards in response to growing demand for certified products, thereby hindering ‘true sustainability’.

The report titled ‘The False Promise of Certification’ accuses many schemes of diluting their policy in order to attract stakeholders, and providing ‘green cover’ for food firms that are destroying the environment.

Changing Markets, authors of the report, said: “The schemes are so focused on getting a majority of industry players on board, or meeting the growing demand for certified products, that they have to lower their standards on sustainability.”

The report focuses specifically on certification schemes in the fishing, palm oil and textile sectors. It suggests that the reduction in standards is not only failing to promote positive change, but also causing damage by allowing companies to continue ignoring the environmental impact of their supply chain.

The NGO urged heads of certain certification schemes to be more selective about their membership and establish higher entry points within each sector.

By allowing low-quality sustainability labels, companies with a large environmental impact are noted as ‘certified’, which makes them less likely to implement more sustainable practices.

McDonalds, for example, responded to criticism over its hoki fish supply chain by pointing out its membership to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), which has been under fire recently from conservationist groups.

There are also instances of palm oil buyers failing to separate their palm oil at the mill. Products are then manufactured with a Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) logo on the packaging, although they do not contain 100% sustainable palm oil.

Changing Markets campaigns director Nusa Urbancic said: “Certification schemes are failing the environment and consumers, who increasingly want to make ethical and sustainable choices. It’s time for a serious rethink about how we achieve sustainability because the current system is broken.”

The organisation noted the MSC, the Palm Oil Innovation Group, and RSPO Next as the schemes with more promising standards, but called for weaker schemes to be abolished. It named the Friend of the Sea (FOS) certification scheme, the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil, and the Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil, as ones to be replaced.

On seafood certification, the report said that while the MSC and FOS aim to prohibit destructive fishing methods and provide environmental risk and impact assessments, Changing Markets said it found a number of breaches that contradict national certification measures.

The NGO said the MSC has issued ‘compartmentalised’ certification to a number of fisheries, meaning fishers can use nets to catch tuna sustainably. Once certified, the fishers are then free to use illicit haul methods to catch tuna and protected species without the MSC’s knowledge.

In response, MSC spokesperson James Simpson said: “Globally, stocks targeted by MSC certified fisheries show sustainable levels of stock biomass and in many regions stocks show higher biomass after MSC certification. Nearly all MSC certified fisheries are required to make an improvement as part of their certification and 90% of those improvements are completed within five years of certification.”