ecosaucerBy GreenerDesign Staff, GreenerDesign The EcoLogo Program has started developing a standard that will allow toys to receive EcoLogo certification for meeting certain environmental criteria. The EcoLogo Program has so far developed more than 120 different standards covering a wide swath of products. More than 7,000 products from 300 brands and companies have been certified to the various standards. Each standard has specific environmental criteria based on the EcoSaucerproduct or service it covers. “Growing numbers of toys and children’s products have been making environmental claims like ‘all natural’ and ‘earth friendly’ without consistent meanings to the terms and without providing any proof of the accuracy or relevance of the claims,” Scot Case, executive director of the EcoLogo Program, said in a statement. “The new EcoLogo standard will define clear criteria that products must meet before they can claim environmental leadership.” Vague terms and a lack of widely-accepted definitions of some phrases has also led the U.S. GreenPuzzleFederal Trade Commission to work on revamping its Green Guides, which offer guidance on the use of marketing and advertising claims. The EcoLogo Program’s toy standard development process will last 12-18 months and is accepting input from any interested parties, whether they’re consumers, companies, non-government organizations or others. The process will first determine what environmental issues and questions the standard should address.