standards for addressing environmental labelling with the ISO 14000 family which grew out of ISO's commitment to support the objective of sustainable development discussed at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, in Rio de Janeiro, in 1992. Green Labelling worldwide is moving beyond traditional country borders. Most of these initiatives are voluntary eco-labels, however, there is an initiative underway in North America to broaden the scope of Green Stickers to include other consumer goods. Although consumers tend to prefer ecolabeled products, recent research show that consumers do not fully understand ecolabels and do not fully trust ecolabels, especially when learning negative environmental consequences of production. International networks Global Ecolabelling Network Founded in 1994, the Global Ecolabelling Network (GEN) is an international non-profit network of third party type I ecolabelling organizations focused on encouraging and promoting type I ecolabelling development worldwide. GEN has members represented from more than 50 territories and countries, with a particular focus in Europe and Asia. GEN’s mission is to educate and encourage government, industry, and consumers to recognize the unique and important value of Type I ecolabelling. More specifically, GEN functions to foster cooperation and information exchange across members and ecolabelling programs, facilities access to information on ecolabelling standards, engages with international organizations to promote ecolabelling, and encourages demand for ecolabelling products through the promotion of sustainable public procurement. GEN supports its members in developing environmental leadership standards and criteria. International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labelling Alliance Created in 2002, the International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labelling Alliance (ISEAL) is a body of sustainability standard organizations set up to advance and develop sustainability standards for products across the globe. Its membership is open to all multistakeholder sustainability standards and accreditation bodies that demonstrate their ability to meet the ISEAL Codes of Good Practice and accompanying requirements. Its members are primarily single attribute focused ecolabelling organizations and include the Forest Stewardship Alliance, the Marine Stewardship Council, Fair Trade International, the Rainforest Alliance, and the Alliance for Water Stewardship, among many others. The goals of the ISEAL Alliance are to improve the impacts of standards, define credibility for sustainability standards, increase the uptake of credible sustainability standards, and improve the effectiveness of standards, including driving innovations in standards. Programs by region Governments of many countries have environmental protection agencies. These agencies are mandated watchdogs of industry and regulate releasing chemical pollution into the environment.