Certified Green: The Law and Future of Environmental Labeling

Abstract

Environmental marketing has grown dramatically in response to consumer preferences for environmentally sensitive goods. The availability of adequate information on the environmental attributes of goods could enable consumers collectively, through their purchasing decisions, to persuade manufacturers to adopt environmentally superior product designs. In this Article, the author analyzes the legal and policy implications of contemporary environmental marketing and demonstrates how current statutes, nonbinding FTC guidelines, and common law remedies fail to ensure the accuracy and usefulness of environmental information in the marketplace. The Article also identifies pressures which could undermine the integrity of independent environmental certification programs. In addressing these issues, the author examines broad questions of administrative rulemaking and adjudication, federalism, commercial speech, and the interplay of common law, statutory, and market remedies. Ultimately, the author argues for federal legislation that would increase government oversight of environmental marketing, and for a coordinated approach to evaluating the environmental attributes of consumer goods.

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