J. Environ. Econ. Manage. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2011.03.009 (2011)

Eco-certification programmes for products and services have increased in number over the past 20 years — there are now over 30,000 programmes in Japan, more than 300 in the European Union and around 150 in the US. These programmes are run and authorized by certification bodies either in industry, government or non-government organizations (NGOs). These bodies set environmental standards and compliance rules, and regulate access to certification, which sometimes requires a fee to be paid.

Klaas van't Veld of the University of Wyoming and Matthew J. Kotchen of Yale University set out to see if there was a difference in whether certification was regulated and managed by industry, public bodies or NGOs. The results from their modelling experiment suggest that if improving the environmental standards of a product is directly linked to benefits for the product's users, such as energy efficiency improvements, then industry may be best placed to regulate the certification process. Where there are few direct benefits to the product's users, such as for sustainably sourced timber, NGOs would best manage the certification.

Government may best manage the certification when users could not otherwise be confident in the regulatory process, they suggest.