The proliferation of "green" marks keep extending with time, these are some of the few in the marketplace. Thereof, shopping "green" could be construe as a maze, however the strongest antidote is a free market economy. With the information available through the Internet, the more we wish to learn the more is the confusion. To help make sense of the logos - marks the list that follows we provide a sample of the gamut of certification schemes available and will help in differentiating which ones a truly helpful. We will see more of these as governments enter the business arena. To help you, see who is backing and the purpose that carries, and that they do not truly protect consumers and communities:

Energy Star is the USA EPA program to identify and promote energy efficient products. It's most often seen in home appliances.

ECO
HEALTH
SAFE

Logo undisclosed; Eco-Health-Safe came upon request and addressees the needs to consumers as the product needs be ecological friendly and safe from cradle-to-grave, thus carrying a very rigorous technical program of testing, assessments, and assays to conclude that a product is eco-health-safe. The environmental benefit in cradle-to-grave considers the scope of the product responsibility within the protection of consumers and communities.

The logo is not shown herein for proprietorship reasons.

Eighty Plus - 80 PLUS defines power supplies that operate at an 80 percent efficiency level or better. This logo can been seen directly on power supplies and their packaging. Companies like HP, Dell, CoolerMaster are starting to carry 80 PLUS.

EPEAT (Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool) certification mark applies to computers and allows to evaluate, compare... for the selection based environmental friendly equipment and devices.

Tested Green is a rapid certification scheme for businesses producing green products or use green processes in the manufacture of goods and services. As endorsed by the the National Green Business Association and the National Association of Government Contractors providing green certification to federal and state contractors and businesses.

Tested Green provides a simple way to the certification of your business certify as "green" and provides a package of tools to advertise and show you have a verified green product, service, or manufacturing process. This certification gives you a marking through the verification that you can customize for your business.

The Restriction of Hazards Substances (RoHS) scheme is a EU directive to ban from the market products containing more than a given maximum quantities of heavy metals, hexavalent chromium and some flame retardants. RoHS applies to equipment such as PC except batteries which carry a separate scheme.

WEEE

WEEE is a European Community restriction on the use of hazardous substances in electrical and electric equipment (EU Directive 2002/95/EC) that promotes the collection and recycle of electrical and electronic equipment (EU Directive 2002/96/EC) as been enforced since February 2003. The legislation provides the directive for the creation of a collection schemes where consumers return their used e-waste free of charge. The objective of these schemes is to increase the recycling and/or re-use of such products. It also requires heavy metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, and chromium and flame retardants such as polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) or polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) to be substituted by safer alternatives.

In December 2008 the European Commission proposed revision of this directive to tackle the fast increasing waste stream of such products. The aim is to increase the amount of e-waste that is appropriately treated and reduce the number that go to final disposal. The proposals also aim reduce administrative burden through a scheme.

This is Taiwan's (ROC) Green Mark to bear by products saving energy, low polluters and recyclable. Their mission statement is "To guide the consumers in purchasing green products and to encourage manufactures to design and supply environmental benign products".

REACH

REACH is an European Community Regulation on chemicals and their safe use (see specifics in EC 1907/2006). It deals with the business of Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and the restriction usage of chemical substances. This regulation came into effect 1 June 2007.

REACH aims to improve the protection of human health and the environment through the better and earlier identification of the intrinsic properties of chemical substances.

REACH forces greater responsibility to industry in managing risks from chemicals and by providing safety information on the substances forces to register the information in a central database run by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in Helsinki (much like MSDS and the Right to Know)

REACH calls for the progressive substitution of the hazardous chemicals when suitable alternatives have been identified.

EMAS - the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme, is a voluntary initiative to improve companies' environmental performance. It was initially established by European Regulation 1836/93, although this has been replaced by Council Regulation 761/01.

Its aim is to recognize and reward those organizations that go beyond minimum legal compliance and continuously improve their environmental performance. In addition, it is a requirement of the scheme that participating organizations regularly produce a public environmental statement that reports on their environmental performance. It is this voluntary publication of environmental information, whose accuracy and reliability has been independently verified through a scheme of environmental verifier, that gives EMAS and those organizations that participate favorable credibility and recognition status.

EMAS is strongly backed by Government and the business of environmental regulators - organizations who participate are benefited as making strong commitments to the environment and to improve economically.