The Good Housekeeping magazine makes their way into the green movement by updating their legendary emblem, helping consumers make purchases for the last 100 years.

Now the magazine will also focus on environmentally products because, after all, that’s what their readers want.

In it’s April issue, editor-in-chief Rosemary Ellis announced that the magazine is adding an additional seal to the original quality-assurance logo. According to Ellis, The Green Good Housekeeping Seal will come into action in a few months, after working with the consultancy firm Brown and Wilmanns Environment to determine how products will be evaluated.

Like for their other seal, they will look at the product’s composition, manufacturing, and packaging components, but this time with a focus on its environmental impact. Additional criteria will be set for different categories of products.

Michael Brown, from Brown and Wilmanns, is helping to outline the criteria. “It’s a combination of looking at the materials that go into the product, aspects of waste, energy use, water use and certainly the potential health impacts associated with the product,” he explains.

With so much greenwashing going on, it’s hard for consumers to know what products are worth it when we go to the store.  “Marketers were slapping a lot of words on products sometimes legitimately, no doubt, sometimes not so legitimately,” Ellis adds.

This isn’t to say that “natural” and “organic” aren’t good (or better) options, but instead, the terms can be overused and result in mis-guiding purchases for users. Organic Oreos, anyone?

Products already adorned by the original Good Housekeeping Seal can opt to be reevaluated for the green one, also.

The Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval made its debut in 1909, and today, about 5,000 products have the seal. The new seal will follow the same guarantee of the original: if the product proves to be defective within two years of purchase, then Good Housekeeping will replace it or offer the consumer a refund.

“[...] If something has the Good Housekeeping seal, whether it’s an expensive or inexpensive product, you know you’re getting your money’s worth,” says Ellis.

Not only our money’s worth, but help us from understanding if our purchases really are doing their part in helping the environment.

Visit Good Housekeeping for more info, and a list of their products with the seal.

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