How to make climate-friendly and sustainable choices when shopping online

Key Points

• Shopping sustainably online is becoming more complex due to the lack of a universal certification system for sustainable products, with various third-party organizations offering their own certifications.
• Despite common misconceptions, online shopping may produce fewer emissions than physical store visits, depending on several variables like shipping speed and proximity to stores.
• To identify sustainable products, consumers should look for third-party verified certifications and quantifiable sustainability practices, as self-declarations can be misleading.
• Large retailers like Amazon and Walmart have established platforms and programs that highlight products meeting verified sustainability goals, potentially boosting sales for compliant products.

One way to be climate-friendly: Shop sustainably. But figuring out which products count as “sustainable” can be hard, especially when buying online.

As ordering with a computer or phone becomes more ubiquitous, the number of online products labeled sustainable is also increasing. Yet there is no single seal of approval across e-commerce platforms that verifies whether something is climate-friendly, partly because there are multiple ways to define sustainability.

Third-party nonprofit organizations study manufacturers and sellers' practices and offer certifications that are displayed online. Government programs such as the Agriculture Department's organic certification or Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star efficiency standard are also often listed. Large e-commerce websites may highlight the certifications with special icons, hyperlinks to certification programs or written descriptions.

The mixture can invite homework from buyers. Elwyn Grainger-Jones, who leads a nonprofit that certifies product sustainability, said there also isn't a single clearinghouse that tracks which third-party certifications are the most credible.

“Therein lies an issue and a challenge,” said Grainger-Jones, CEO of Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute. “What we haven’t seen so far is a third-third party step in and be the information portal on what a good certification is."

And while shopping online might come with more packaging, it doesn't always come with more emissions. A person shopping online may even emit less than if they went to the store in person, according to a study published in Environmental Science and Technology. But there are a lot of variables, including which e-commerce site they use, the shipping speed they select and how close they live to a brick-and-mortar alternative.

There might not be one surefire way to tell sustainable products from unsustainable ones, but certification experts shared tips on what to look for. Many apply to in-person purchases, too, so you can keep them in mind for the supermarket or furniture store.

Know how sustainability is measured

There are multiple measures of sustainability, and sometimes positive attributes can be offset by negative ones. Third-party certification is meant to show that an independent group studied these factors. Some focus on one issue, while others look holistically at how different factors fit together.

Manufacturing an item might have low emissions but use lots of water. A company might reduce plastic, but if its products don't last long, they can still wind up in the landfill. Other sustainability concerns include energy efficiency, how far the item has traveled and how resources were extracted to make it.

Certification labeling also varies. Sometimes it's printed on the product, sometimes it's listed on the manufacturer's website and sometimes the certifying body lists the products that have earned its approval. Large retail websites, in turn, often list certifications in a product description.

Check whether it’s verified by a third party

Third-party verification is a core avenue for determining whether a manufacturer's sustainability claims are legitimate.

“Ideally you want to look for some certifying bodies because they’ve removed some of that up-front labor that as a consumer you otherwise might have to do," said Clementina Consens of B-Lab, which certifies companies that meet environmental and social standards.

Grainger-Jones said some companies create their own self-certifications that look convincing but don't mean much.

“You can go and buy a self-declared certificate for a couple of thousand dollars,” he said.

Look for quantifiable and transparent climate goals

If a company is serious about sustainability, it should have its practices assessed and make that information easy for customers to find, Consens said. She said she looks to see whether a company has completed an environmental impact assessment, whether it publicizes its findings or whether there is any tangible data on the company's greenhouse gas emissions, water or energy use.

Large e-commerce websites such as Amazon, Walmart and Target have set emissions benchmarks and other climate-related targets for their suppliers and list their own companywide sustainability goals. Walmart, for example, has released extensive information on its Project Gigaton, including a list of participating suppliers, definitions of its recognition tiers and science-based requirements for suppliers' goals. Target publishes its climate goals, and has provided updates on where the company has surpassed expectations, and where it has fallen short. It also displays icons and hyperlinks next to products that meet sustainability goals.

Amazon’s Climate Pledge Friendly program vets products based on a set of verified third-party certifications and posts a green leaf label alongside products that meet the certifications, along with hyperlinks.

“Having those third-party standards is super important for credibility,” said Nneka Leiba, Amazon's principal sustainability specialist.

Certifications that aren't quantifiable or are too permissive don't meet Leiba's bar for inclusion in the program. She said when evaluating a certification, she looks to see whether it’s following International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards, or other relevant standards. She said certifications should be backed by scientific rigor and require companies or products meet specific benchmarks.

Leiba said manufacturers' efforts to become certified can be good for their business. She said products in the Climate Pledge Friendly program experience a 12% sales increase in the first year after earning the green leaf badge.

“That cycle is really beneficial to our customer, and beneficial to the environment,” she said.

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