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Introduction
Sustainability has become the number one concern of the United Nations and numerous leading science authorities, as the implications of global warming and the currently unsustainable level of exploitation of Planet Earth's finite resources are becoming better understood and more widely felt ([1] United Nations Environment Programme, 2005).
In the marketplace, some producers have developed a number of strategies to address these concerns, and to take advantage of them by publicising the "clean green", "eco", "organic", or "natural" status of their products. There exists a plethora of environmental certification systems, ranging from policy level government-sponsored programmes through to "rent-a-greenie" one-off project endorsements. Marketing approaches vary from the promotion of independently certified products through to superficial "green labelling" of products using "green" colour schemes and "green imaging", such as the use of dolphin, Earth, and tree logos.
However, such claims and marketing approaches do not necessarily mean that products are sustainably produced. The myriad of "clean green" claims and environmental certifications present in the market is very confusing to consumers, and there is considerable consumer scepticism as to the validity of most "clean green" product claims; except possibly for certain third-party organically certified products ([3] Pahl, 2003). Consumers have lacked a means whereby they can easily identify genuinely sustainable products, and producers have lacked access to a dedicated and credible sustainability eco-label. Also, the commercial viability and consumer acceptance of sustainability certification and certified sustainable products has not been tested.
The Green Tick(TM) Sustainability Certification system was created to address this gap in the market. The purpose of the market trials reported in this paper was to introduce Green Tick certified sustainable consumer products into Australian and New Zealand markets, and to test market responses to them in terms of sales patterns, competitor responses, and consumer reaction.
Scientific and marketing criteria for the design of a sustainability eco-label
In order to create a credible sustainability certification system and brand, a scientifically sound certification system had to be designed, and a distinctive eco-label adopted that could clearly identify certified products in a marketplace already crowded with many types of "green" consumer labels.
Market research into the ideal scientific and marketing criteria for a sustainability eco-label pointed to the following key design criteria:
- Independence, integrity, and...