Although sustainability certifications are widespread, the challenges confronting the sustainability certification organizations (SCOs) who develop, promote and administer such certifications have received less attention. We argue that SCOs face three task domains: legitimacy management, organizational learning, and stakeholder engagement. Critically, these domains are interdependent; a preoccupation with one domain poses limitations on the others. First, an emphasis on legitimacy management can inhibit organizational learning, leading to the advocacy trap. Second, an emphasis on stakeholder engagement can inhibit learning processes, leading to the inertia trap. Third, an emphasis on legitimacy management can inhibit stakeholder engagement, leading to the mobilization trap. Collectively, these challenges constitute the trap triangle. Building on our theoretical model, we develop propositions about how SCOs fall into these traps and how they can overcome them. Finally, recognizing SCOs vary in terms of their movement, market or mission orientations leads to propositions about the traps each type of SCO is most likely to fall into. We close the article by discussing our contributions to the literature on sustainability certifications and environmental governance.
