1909. That was the year that Good Housekeeping launched its famous Seal of Approval, a telegraphically reassuring mark for mothers everywhere. Hard to imagine how many irons, vacuums, and coffeemakers have been purchased with confidence thanks to the promise of replacement or refund if the product proves defective.


Fast forward a century. Good Housekeeping just unveiled a new seal of approval to join its much older sister: the "Green" Seal of Approval. I credit the magazine for acknowledging the vast number of eco-conscious consumers desperate for some kind of standard to guide their pocketbooks. Yet my initial suspicion (and greatest hope) is that its usefulness won't endure as long as its predecessor. Here's why:

To be eligible for the green seal, a product must meet the criteria for the original seal of approval, plus another set of standards. The second "filter" measures product composition, manufacturing and packaging. It sounds like they will be scrutinizing not only how a product performs once you get it home, but how far it traveled from its manufacturing source to your doorstep, and how long its packaging will survive in a landfill. All good.

My hope is that standards like these, as well as government incentives, will raise the bar for all companies. In the short-term, I imagine the mark might give certain products an advantage in the marketplace, as well as motivate others to get on board. Yet 10, 20, 50 years from now, will there still be great gulfs dividing "green" products from non-green ones? Not like today, I predict.

Even now, many clients come to Maternal Instinct looking to reach "Green Moms." While there are certainly many online communities that fit the bill, I think more apt terminology would be to divide moms into two groups: green moms and uber-green moms. I have yet to meet a woman with an offspring who hopes to reside on this planet for the next 80 years or so, who didn't care deeply about the environment. Plus, this mother/child "green" connection goes both ways. Kids are being raised to be such aware eco-citizens that they regularly lobby at home for greener standards (I still get dirty looks from my 11-year old if my shower lasts more than a few minutes).

In closing, I hope that the Good Housekeeping Green Seal of Approval helps to put itself out of business. Reminds me a bit of an ad campaign that ran about 15 years ago. I can't remember which phone company sponsored it, but the headline is still crisp in my mind. "Someday you won't refer to it as your cell phone. It will just be your phone." This predictive line panned out. Hopefully one day products will just be "products" -- assumed to be green to even stay in the game --and Moms will once again just be "moms."

Labels: Good Housekeeping Green Seal of Approval, Green Moms

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