Dive Brief:

• Amazon has added four certifications from health, organic and animal welfare organizations to its sustainable product labeling initiative, the retailer announced on Tuesday.
• With the new certifications — EWG Verified, Regenerative Organic Certified, The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Safer Choice and Animal Welfare Approved — Amazon is expanding its selection of products recognized under its Climate Pledge Friendly program, which identifies approved sustainable products across grocery, household, beauty and other product categories. 
• The e-tailer now has 31 certifications covering more than 75,000 products linked to its Climate Pledge Friendly program as retailers boost their efforts to make it easier to find planet-friendly products.

Dive Insight:

As part of its drive to become a net-zero carbon company by 2040, Amazon is ramping up marketing initiatives that identify sustainable products listed on its marketplace.

The retailer launched Climate Pledge Friendly last September and includes certifications from organizations like Fairtrade International and Rainforest Alliance. Eligible products receive the Climate Pledge Friendly badge with their online listing and are featured in a dedicated store section. 

With its Climate Pledge Friendly initiative, Amazon is bundling numerous certifications involving animal welfare, workers' rights and environmental awareness under one proprietary label. The four latest certifications include: 

• The EPA's Safer Choice label, which indicates products that are made with ingredients that meet EPA safety criteria for human health and the environment;
• EWG Verified, a certification from the Environmental Working Group that identifies products that are free of chemicals of concern identified by the organization;
• Regenerative Organic Certified, which applies standards for soil health, animal welfare and social fairness to food, textiles and personal care ingredients; and
• Animal Welfare Approval, a food label that indicates animals are raised on pasture or range on sustainable farms. Additionally, the products don’t contain added hormones and animal byproducts. 

The e-tailer also has its own certification, Compact by Design, which highlights products that are more efficient to ship because they use less water, air and packaging. The e-tailer notes as examples cleaning liquids that are more concentrated, shampoo bars and beverages that trade glass containers for aluminum. 

“At scale, these small differences in product size and weight lead to significant carbon emission reductions,” according to Amazon. 

As retailers ramp up their sustainability efforts, digital and in-store tags are one way to help shoppers’ find items that match their preferences. For example, Target has a variety of wellness icons in-store and online to signal which products meet certain health criteria, and in 2019, debuted its "Clean" icon to identify products free of certain unwanted chemicals.