First-of-a-kind label focuses on compact products

There's a new label to look for on laundry and skin care products: "Certified Compact Product." It comes from NSF, the same group behind many product safety standards, and it marks items that pack more use into less material. For laundry tablets, that means a single dose has to weigh 20 grams or less and still get a full load clean. The idea is that smaller, more concentrated products mean less packaging, less water used in manufacturing, and lower shipping emissions, since companies aren't hauling around water-heavy formulas.

The certification launched last month and several familiar brands are already working through the approval process, though NSF hasn't named them yet. Right now it only applies to laundry and skin care items, but shampoo and conditioner are next in line. If you shop on Amazon, products with this certification will also carry the retailer's "Climate Pledge Friendly" tag, which covers items meeting any of more than 50 environmental standards.

For a homeowner, this doesn't change anything about your house or energy bills, but it may show up next time you're buying detergent or skin care and want a quicker way to spot products that use less packaging and resources. Keep in mind this joins a long list of existing "ecolabels," so it's one more option rather than a universal standard.