‘Brooklyn Made’ is the new ‘LEED’

Brands, it seems, want a piece of Brooklyn.
So much so that the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce has created a new logo for certified Brooklyn-based companies to place on their products.
Is that jar of probiotic “Made in Brooklyn” mayo really from a Crown Heights food startup? Check the black and white gear logo on the product to know for sure.
Here:

There are three levels of certification: gold, silver and bronze, which correlate to the degree to which the product really is made in Brooklyn. Here’s a glimpse at the criteria the Chamber is using:

As baseline criteria, only legal businesses headquartered in Brooklyn making one or more physical products will be considered. From there, the points-based system will evaluate a range of manufacturing activities, taking into account criteria such as share of total employees located in Brooklyn, location of product assembly, where design and development takes place, and other important factors.

The Chamber engaged an NYU Wagner School of Public Service capstone team to study the landscape and recommend which facets of a product to focus on. The study interviewed small business owners and published the results last spring. More than 200 companies have now been certified as “Brooklyn Made.”

The cost for business owners to become certified is $50, or $25 for members of the Chamber of Commerce.