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Can You Trust Green Labels? Find Out Sept. 15

Aug. 11, 2016
The speakers at the next Environmental Professionals Network breakfast will look at the trustworthiness (or not) of companies’ green claims. (Image: iStock.)
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Two national experts on green labels and keeping them trustable are the featured speakers for September’s breakfast by the Environmental Professionals Network.
 
Laura Koss of the Federal Trade Commission and Tim Bartley of The Ohio State University will present “Eco-Labels, Certifications, Green Advertising: How Trustworthy Are Green Claims?” from 7:15 to 9:30 a.m. Sept. 15 in Ohio State’s Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center, 2201 Fred Taylor Drive in Columbus.
 
Registration, which includes breakfast, is $10 for members of the network and the public and free for Ohio State students. The deadline to register is noon Sept. 9.
 

Speakers from FTC, Ohio State

 
Koss is an attorney and assistant director of the FTC’s Division of Enforcement in the Bureau of Consumer Protection, based in Washington, D.C. Among her work, she helped update the commission’s Green Guides to environmentally friendly products.
 
Bartley is an associate professor in Ohio State’s Department of Sociology, where he studies environmental and sustainability standards, among other areas. He’s the co-author of 2015’s Looking Behind the Label: Global Industries and the Conscientious Consumer, published by Indiana University Press.
 
The Environmental Professionals Network is a statewide professional group coordinated by Ohio State’s School of Environment and Natural Resources. The school is in the university’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.

 

‘Important drivers’ of behavior

 
“(Green) labels and certifications are among the most important drivers of sustainable business practices and consumer behavior, but consumer and investor confidence can quickly erode if claims become false or hollow,” said the network’s coordinator, David Hanselmann, who’s a lecturer in the school.
 
Details on the program and a link to register are at go.osu.edu/Sept2016EPN. For more information, contact Hanselmann at hanselmann.3@osu.edu or 614-247-1908.
 
Sponsoring the event are the Ohio Environmental Council and the Center for Interdisciplinary Law and Policy Studies in Ohio State’s Moritz College of Law.
 
The school and two other Ohio State units — the Office of Energy and Environment and the Office of Student Life’s Energy Management and Sustainability program — are sponsoring the free student registrations and breakfasts.
 
 
 
WRITER(S): 
Kurt Knebusch
330-263-3776
 
SOURCE(S): 
David Hanselmann
614-247-1908