KEEPING FORESTS GREEN: CERTIFICATION COMPETITION

As environmental certification in the United States has grown, standards such as "dolphin-safe tuna" and the LEED rating system for "green" buildings have become commonplace.1 Such certification helps consumers select products that experts have deemed "eco-conscious."
Some people consider certification a free-market way of ensuring environmental protection, while others think it smacks of bureaucratic regulation. The experience of the forest products industry-companies engaged in timber management and the production of pulp, paper, and wood products-suggests that competing certification can be both a free-market and an environmental success...