It's long stated as near fact by observers of the confusing and confounding green marketplace that what's needed, once and for all, is something akin to a Good Housekeeping Seal for the environment. Good Housekeeping, it seems, represents a pinnacle of credibility and consumer confidence.

So, now that Good Housekeeping has introduced its own green seal, what should we make of it?

First, some background. The original Good Housekeeping Seal was introduced in 1909, when there was little regulatory oversight of consumer products. It represented an audacious marketing promise from its namesake magazine: If a product bearing the seal proved defective within two years, the magazine would replace it or refund the purchase price. Over the past century, the seal has endured in a world of fickle consumers and shifting brand alliances. And while its design has been updated to reflect modern times, the mission and purpose of the seal remains intact.

Last month, the Good Housekeeping Research Institute -- the product-evaluation laboratory of the magazine, which itself is part of the media giant Hearst Communications -- announced the first seven products to receive its new Green Good Housekeeping Seal, "developed to help consumers sift through the confusing clutter of 'green' claims on hundreds of products on store shelves today," according to the seal's website. The first batch of certifications include household cleaners and beauty products. Paints and appliances are expected to follow.

I sat down recently with a team from the Good Housekeeping Research Institute in its New York headquarters, including its director, Miriam Arond, to learn about the seal, what's behind it, and its promise for helping consumers make sense of the green marketplace.

I began with asking Arond to explain the process a product goes through to earn the seal. "In order to earn the Green Good Housekeeping Seal," she said, "a product first has to be reviewed for an advertisement in Good Housekeeping magazine. That means the scientists at the Good Housekeeping Research Institute evaluate the product to make sure it lives up to the advertising claims. Once a product is approved for advertising, it can apply for the Good Housekeeping Seal. We then further evaluate the product, because we want to make sure it lives up to all the claims on the website, on its packaging, to make sure that it actually performs as promised.

"Then, once a product earns the primary Good Housekeeping Seal, it can apply for the Green Good Housekeeping Seal, in which case we ask for quite a bit of data. In some cases, we are signing non-disclosure agreements, confidentiality agreements, because companies are disclosing to us a lot of data about how the product is manufactured and how it is distributed. Once we have evaluated the result, as well as verified the data, then they can earn, hopefully, the Green Good Housekeeping Seal."

I wanted to know about the criteria being used -- the standard to which Good Housekeeping was holding companies. Arond explained that the questionnaire contains 56 questions that cover a wide spectrum of a product's potential environmental impacts, from upstream materials sourcing through consumer use and disposal. (A summary of the application process is here.)