Royalty Free image obtained from https://pixabay.com/vectors/accepted-approval-approved-151153/

Greetings 28^th Eco-generational Regional Ambassadors! This is your mentor Joon and I am writing this article to announce the Themes of the Month for June succeeding May’s topic, ‘Biodiversity’. The keyword for the fourth month will be <Green Certification Programs>.

 Throughout the process of researching through various environmental problems, ambassadors would now be aware that we are standing on the risky edge of the cliff. Climate change and global warming is accelerating, animals and plants are going extinct. Situation is getting worse and worse every day. Then, here’s the question: What is mankind doing right now on the glimpse of current situation? Are we taking our hands off from reality?

 Though for most industries and people, the answer for previous question is ‘yes’. However, there are still different tries and attempts going on to reduce our impact on environment. This month’s topic, ‘Green Certification Programs’, is one of the examples of industries at least trying to consider their effects on environment. The concept might not sound familiar for some ambassadors, while there are some whom are already familiar with it.

Have you ever seen ‘Energy Star’ on the booting screen or on the desktop of your computer? How about ‘Fair Trade Certified’ mark on imported products? Those are some examples of Green Certification Programs. It ensures that the product met certain specification based on the criteria set by evaluation group.

Energy Star program was first set up in 1992 by United States Environmental Protection Agency as a mean to reduce Greenhouse gases emitted by energy consumptions. It measures the energy effectiveness for 8 product groups which includes 1. Heating & Cooling 2. Appliances 3. Water Heaters 4. Lighting 5. Building Products 6. Office Equipment 7. Electronics and 8. Other. Different evaluation criterion is applied and if it meets certain requirements, the agency provides the product a badge of ‘Energy Star’ Product. According to the Agency, the program reduced 12 billion dollar worth energy consumption in 2005 only, and would have reduced much more energy considering the eco-friendly tendency. It is well-seen on electronic products such as laptops and desktop computers.

Fair Trade Certification is quite broader certification which does not only include environmental aspects, but whether the primary producers were treated fairly, the trade was done fairly, and so on. Though it faces different criticisms, it is a label which is being broadly used in commodities especially those including coffee, cocoa, textiles, and seafood. The production environment of such merchandises usually had relatively low environmental consideration as well as standards of working environment. Products with the label might be slightly higher in price, yet it guarantees the minimum ‘fairness’ involved during the production process. That is why it has continuous demands of consumers, and there are specialized shops displaying only the fair traded goods.

Above are quite famous examples of Green Certification Programs. I am quite sure that ambassadors could find such examples easily. Perhaps, your country might have its original certification program led by government bodies. For instance, South Korea has a program named ‘Environment-friendly Certification’ and ‘Energy Efficiency Rating System’.

Mission for our ambassadors is to research about themes related to such programs. It could be analyzed, altered in any form to show your understandings. It could be in any form such as tabloid, poster, card news, essay as long as it is related to the topic. If you have hard times looking up for sources, refer to following links:

https://www.sharplaunch.com/blog/green-building-certifications/

https://smallbiztrends.com/2016/10/green-business-certification.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_building_certification_systems

But feel free to refer to other sources as above is just a suggestion of possible source.

It was good to see articles with great efforts put on previous month. I hope to see more this month!

 Let’s keep up!