One of the problems with certification systems is that there is simply too many of them, experts say.
A number of European countries have their own green-building certification systems, as do Japan and Singapore.
The council plans to modify LEED standards this month to move closer to more stringent certification systems.
But the stores are dependent on certification systems that are coming under criticism as being too loose.
The roundtable approach is at the centre of successful certification systems like the Marine Stewardship Council, Forest Stewardship Council, and the newly established Aquaculture Stewardship Council.
Certification systems like the SA8000, said Khalid Nadvi, an expert on monitoring at the University of Manchester in England, are "very patchy and in many cases totally ineffective".
It's a problem he believes Australia could turn into an opportunity by developing stringent certification systems and involving itself in the entire production cycle of lithium: mining, processing, leasing the batteries to users, then collecting them for recycling.
The investigation is likely to increase pressure on the government to tighten its monitoring and certification systems to minimise the damage done to the Amazon, the world's biggest forest.
"It's up to the department to scrutinize the states to find out whether states are living up to the law, not to grant a blanket exemption to alternative certification systems," Mr. Miller said.
To try and answer these questions, the voluntary offset market has developed various standards, which are a bit like the certification systems used for fairly traded or organic food.
2. Manufacturers can develop antitampering packaging and certification systems Early efforts by the private sector to control the prevalence of fake drugs, such as the introduction of trademarked branding and tamper-evident packaging systems, demonstrated some success.
