## 4 Results
### Characterization of C2C Certified Regarding ISO Typology
#### 4.1.5 Conclusive Characteristics  
Transparency, comparability, and the intention to achieve environmental excellence are the three attributes that form the last category of the characterization scheme. Concerning transparency, information on the certification process, awardees, funding sources, and pricing is accessible for C2C Certified. The Assessment Summary Report is submitted by the assessment body to C2 CPII, but this document is usually not publicly available. This is considered to be in line with ISO 14024, according to which information on the program-setting process and rules of the specific program shall be accessible; a verification report on the certified product shall be available to the eco-labeling body, but it is not mandatory that it be open to the public [11]. Similarly, ISO 14025 allows open access to the program-setting process; a verification report of the EPD shall be available upon request [16]. Further evaluation cannot be made here, since the level of transparency of the operation of a given Type I eco-label or of a given Type III EPD program is program-specific. Comparability is not a topic in C2C Certified. The Product Standard v3.1 [20] does not mention comparability or comparative assertions regarding the superiority between certified products. Nevertheless, stakeholders tend to use C2C certificates in order to compare products in reality [40]. At first glance, this seems possible, because the rating format of awarding gives the user a notion of superiority between products, and the idea that a comparison is possible. However, in practice, obtaining an objective conclusion by comparing two C2C certified products is challenging and scientifically unjustified. The reason for this is that a product obtains a respective level of certification as the minimal performance level achieved in one of the five quality categories, regardless of which one. Thus, a product is awarded e.g., an overall rating of Silver, because it may obtain a minimum score for Silver in e.g., the Material Health category. However, this does not imply that it has the same performance characteristics as another product that also has achieved an overall rating of Silver, but achieved its minimum score in e.g., Social Fairness. As a result, if the user does not get introduced with the background documentation (e.g., the certification scorecard) along with the certificate, misleading conclusions are conceivable. A careful comparison of the scorecards of two products could give the user a perspective on which product scores better in each category. Nevertheless, C2C Certified does not oblige, but rather only encourages, certification holders to publish the scorecards on their marketing materials [20]. Furthermore, the awarding criteria setting procedure does not consider the so-called 'frontrunner' principle, i.e., a certification awarded only to the best performing products of a product category for a certain market. Thus, overall comparative assertions should not be allowed. With regard to Type I eco-labels, comparative assertions between two products that have the same label are not possible, and neither are statements regarding the level of environmental superiority between the same. This is due to the binary awarding format, through which both products have covered the same criteria, but nothing more. However, Type I eco-labels in their essence are used to indicate an overall environmental superiority over products that do not hold the label. Environmental excellence is aimed for, and only the best performing products within a product category on the market can obtain the label. By their nature, Type III declarations allow the user to compare products under the condition that the EPDs are based on the same PCR (e.g., identical product category definition, system boundaries, and functional unit). EPDs are designed to present transparent and quantitative information, thus allowing the user to fully understand eventual limitations while making a comparison.