When developing the standards for “green brands” (GREEN BRANDS), one thought was at the forefront: it is not just about individual criteria such as climate friendliness or the absence of certain pollutants. Given this background, GREEN BRANDS is committed to a serious, affordable and communicable alternative that has the potential to bring light into the jungle of sustainability labels. However, the acquisition of these labels is often expensive and, because of the complex certification procedures involved, it is more beneficial to the industry than to the SMEs. Certificates such as organic, MSC, FSC seals are good approaches to inform consumers about production guidelines and to support them in consuming in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. Rather, more and more private organizations are trying to fill this gap. “So far, there are only a few governmental eco-labels. Only when the evaluated brand reaches the benchmark of 51 % it can be awarded the GREEN BRAND after the final decision made by the jury. Every participant will receive the evaluation containing the transparent ratings. The evaluation assesses the performance level of the participant brand on the “GREEN BRANDS Index”. Random on-site verifications will be carried out for the information provided by the participants and detailed queries regarding any unclear information will be made. The validations are checked and evaluated by ALLPLAN/SERI – including the supporting documents and the certifications. The questionnaires have been developed in collaboration with the international, scientific sustainability institute SERI (Vienna), the autonomous consulting company for climate protection and sustainability ALLPLAN, ClimatePartner Austria (Vienna) and the members of the jury. The participating companies will receive the corresponding questionnaire forms to fill out for the validation process. The nominated brands are notified and invited to participate in the validation process. This prevents that “only” the big, important and “well known” brands profit, but not those medium-sized companies that possibly implement and practice the GREEN BRANDS philosophy much better, more intensively and longer.Īlready awarded GREEN BRANDS may also nominate companies/products, as they are proven to know and understand who is suitable to successfully pass the procedure in “their” league. It is understood that the jury members can of course nominate companies/ products/ services/ associations and also individuals. Through their own methods, our media partners can organise or make nominations by their own means (including through their subscribers).
Therefore, nomination by NGOs or interest groups is considered very important and valuable. They are less prominent to the consumer/consumer due to their “weak” brand management and are therefore rarely/not mentioned in surveys. Several small and medium-sized companies/brands have for years/decades committed themselves to an exclusively ecological and sustainable ideology and implement this ”par excellence” in their daily business life.
The nominations are made in a variety of ways to ensure the broadest possible participation of all brand sizes and industries in our process (companies / products / food / service providers / associations):Ī study carried out in cooperation with the renowned market research institute Ipsos identified around 62 different categories of those brands which, in the opinion of those surveyed, are perceived to be environmentally friendly, ecological and sustainable and are therefore “green brands”.
Nomination – the first step to the GREEN BRAND award