Labels & certifications audit

Sustainable business labels & certifications

As climate change has become a more prominent issue, many companies and organizations have started to examine their own impact on the global environment, and to switch towards more sustainable practices coming from internal initiatives, customer pressure or legal constraints:

  • The EU developing more and more Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) regulations: taxonomy, CSRD, …
  • Directives being integrated in national legislations (PGRD, PWD-R…)
  • Circular and sustainable practices becoming a prerequisite for regional funding in Belgium by 2030

 

At Zerwaste, we work with companies to integrate those constraints into their operations, but we also know how important it is for YOUR business to be recognized for their efforts. This is the role of labels and certifications.

Labels & Certifications
Summary

What is the added-value for your business ?

Certifications will give you access to a great network (e.g. 4000 BCorporations), which will increase your visibility towards companies willing to work with like-minded businesses. It is a great opportunity to be recognized by your peers and to expand (or maintain) your activities.
Certifications will help to keep your business sustainable in the long-run. Integrating sustainable practices into your operations could potentially reduce operating costs, increase your return on investment by around 18% and multiply your chances of success by 2.
Sharing your desire to do good for social and environmental causes is also beneficial for your brand image and is a good way to stand out from an increasing number of products on the market as more than 30% of consumers will tend to favor ethical or ecological brands in their supermarket.
A purpose-driven company is today considered as the most important factor when job seekers are choosing an employer. So, what if you could easily demonstrate all this through consistent certifications and use this to hire and retain your best elements.

What are the challenges ?

There is a really high number of certifications and labels: official or private; local, national or international; ….
They all have their pros and cons depending on:

  • The criteria you want to evaluate (product/service, process, management system, strategy)
  • Your company size and industry
  • The market you are willing to reach

It also requires some monitoring as the situation might evolve: a new regulation might be implemented; some labels might become controversial; a certification could become a must-have due to economic or political events….

What's in it for you ?

Certifications and labels can add a lot of value to your business, but they also raise a lot of questions:

Zerwaste can help you navigate within those questions.
During a one-day audit, we will:

  • Identify your top priorities
  • Provide recommendations aligned with your strategy
  • Share a first roadmap, with the workload associated
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