Evaluating impact claims made by certifications in an environmental certification program
Summary
A client required support to evaluate the reliability and accuracy of claims made in relation to environmental impacts as part of an evaluation of a selection different certification schemes with a view to identifying any that could pose a risk if being relied on for mitigating nature-related risks.
How we helped
Little Blue Research carried out a review of a large database of impact claims made by a selection of certifiers from publicly available sources to evaluate the specificity, relevance and validity of impact claims and how these were supported by publicly available evidence.
Client description
Confidential
Confidential
Case study details
Evidencing impact & green claims: peer review
Standards and certifications
Global
Capital(s)
Challenges
• Defining a typology for impact claim evaluation, i.e., a set of characteristics for a claim to be considered reliable
• Designing a method to systematically identify certification impact claims from publicly available sources
Outcomes
• Collated a database of information for each certification including:
• the type of certification
• coverage/reach/applicable regions
• sectors covered by each certification
• types of products or services certified
• the environmental or social risks covered by each certification.
• A library of prioritised claims across a selection of individual certification organisations including environmental and
socially focused certifiers/certification processes.
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