begin{description}
item[foo]  foo is good
item[bar]  bar is bad
end{description}

begin{description}
item[foo] label{foo} foo is good
....
end{description}
....
For good things (see, for example ref{foo})...

newcounter{desccount}
newcommand{descitem}[1]{%
  item[#1] refstepcounter{desccount}label{#1}
}
newcommand{descref}[1]{hyperref[#1]{#1}}

begin{description}
  descitem{foo} foo is good
  descitem{bar} bar is bad
end{description}
...
For good things (see, for example descref{foo})...

newcounter{foobarcounter}
renewcommand{thefoobarcounter}
      {({ifcasevalue{foobarcounter}or fooor barelse ehhhfirelax})}
begin{list}{thefoobarcounter}{usecounter{foobarcounter}}
 itemlabel{foodesc} Foo is good
 item Bar is bad
 item This list was not supposed to be this long
end{list}
......
.. Something good, see ref{foodesc}.

usepackage{amsmath}
...
begin{equation}label{eq:energy}tag{Einstein}
  E=mc^2
end{equation}
...
Invoking the energy-mass equivalence of ref{eq:energy}

newcommand{foo}{foo}
....
begin{description}
item[foo] foo is good
....
end{description}
....
For good things (see, for example foo)...

newcounter{foocnt}   %% define a counter
setcounter{foocnt}{0} %% set the counter to some initial value (not really important)
%%%% Parameters
% #1: Title
newenvironment{fooEnvironment}[1]
{
    renewcommand{thefoocnt}{textbf{#1}}  %% this is where the display of the counter is overwritten/modified
    refstepcounter{foocnt} %% increment counter (in this case we write the custom label/title to a temp. file which is read when the document resolves a ref)
    par  %% start new paragraph (this is just an example for format modifications)
    textbf{#1:}  %% display the title before the content of the environment is displayed
}{
    par  %% another paragraph after the environment
}

begin{fooEnvironment}{foo}
foo is good
label{fooLabel}
end{fooEnvironment}
begin{fooEnvironment}{bar}
bar is bad
label{barLabel}
end{fooEnvironment}
For good things (see, for example ref{fooLabel})...

newcounter{desccount}
newcommand{descitem}[1]{%
refstepcounter{desccount}label{#1}%
}
newcommand{descref}[2][undefined]{%
ifx#1undefined%
    hyperref[#2]{#2}%
else%
    hyperref[#2]{#1}%
fi%
}%

descitem{linklabel} text next to label, you will be directed here...

newpage
descref[after clicking on this optional text]{linklabel}

documentclass{article}
usepackage{hyperref}
begin{document}
makeatletter
newcommandmy@saved@item{}
newcommandmydescriptionitem{}
defmydescriptionitem[#1]{%
  my@saved@item[{csname phantomsectionendcsname#1}]%
  def@currentlabel{unexpanded{unexpanded{#1}}}%
}%
newenvironment{mydescription}%
               {%
                  letmy@saved@item@item
                  let@item=mydescriptionitem
                  description
               }%
               {csname enddescriptionendcsname}
makeatother

begin{mydescription}
item[foo]  label{foo} foo is good
item[bar]  label{bar} bar is bad
end{mydescription}

For good things (see, for example ref{foo})dots

For bad things (see, for example ref{bar})dots

end{document}