A wide range of products – from furniture to bananas – carry ecolabels. Ecolabels help us make informed decisions in a matter of seconds because the presence of an ecolabel should ensure that all the hard work of determining if the product is sustainable – or fair, or environmentally responsible – has been carried out on your behalf by a third-party. Ecolabels also empower you to make a positive choice and support producers who are caring for the environment through their working practices.

But we would say that wouldn’t we…?

Building trust in our ecolabel is crucial and we go to great lengths to ensure we are credible and effective. For example, we meet and often exceed the ecolabel guidelines set out by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization,  which requires seafood ecolabel to implement independent third-party certification programs that are thorough, transparent, open, include stakeholder consultation and have an objections process. We are able to make that claim because it has been tested by ISEAL, an independent alliance of organisations following best practice guidelines in setting social and environmental standards.

The MSC recommends that you support the following ecolabelling and certification organisations, which along with the MSC, meet the ISEAL Code of Good Practice:

Fairtrade Labelling Organisation
Forest Stewardship Council
International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements
Marine Aquarium Council
Rainforest Alliance
Social Accountability International

Our ISEAL membership and FAO consistency are verification that we are committed to making sure the MSC programme meets the highest standards of credibility for ecolabelling. Find out more about our credibility.