EFTA00281487.pdf

(Mis)Understanding Green Products A DIZZYING ARRAY OF GREEN-PRODUCT CERTIFICATION PROTOCOLS ARE OVERWHELMING THE BUILDING INDUSTRY-EVEN STAUNCH ADVOCATES SEE A TOUGH ROAD AHEAD FOR ARCHITECTS COURTESY HERMAN MILLER INTERNATIONAL a O a.a. By Russell Fortineyar tan Rhode., the president and C.E.O. of Scientific Certification systems, or SCS„ certifies building products. He's been doing it since 1984. You bring him carpet you think is sustainable and hell certify it against the new NSF 140 Sustainable Carpet Assessment Standard. Bring him anything and he'll likely find a standard. somewhere, to use for certification. There are thousands of standards, most of which are accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), so Rhodes is in no danger of running out of work. But today. Rhoda doesn't want to talk about standards or certi- fication. If you're talking sustainabiliry. Rhodes says, so-called green building products don't much matter in the scheme of things. "Building envelopes are only IS percent of the total life-cycle impacts of any build- ing," he says, sitting in his office in Emeryville, California. For Rhodes, life-cycle impacts mean energy use, or the carbon footprint. He says the real question is how you reduce the energy impact of the work function— that other 85 percent consisting of the people who spend a minimum of 8 hours of their day sitting in your building, when not commuting—on the natural environment of your budding and the larger region. That one of the more influential people in the sustainable design world is growing impatient with the mounting army of building products purporting to be "sustainable" should be alarming. But talk to anyone who specifies, designs, builds, or certifies green products and you'll hear the same frustration lurking in their voice. "We're trying to balance delivering what the client wants on schedule and on budget. so adding this other level of complexity of having to understand what standards and what certifica- CONTINUING EDUCATION set /4). /Jr: learning rheloilinerm/ objectives to focus your study 40 • 4 1* while reading this months mu:sanctums *tmp/ • . C. MA Continuing Education article. To tarn one AlA 0 2 learning unit. including one hour of health. inkty. and whar v min. tune to page 181 and follow the instructions. Other oppor- t tttt receive Continuing Education :Wits in this issueam be found beginning on page Md. LEARNING OBJECTIVES . 1,nldtieable to: l 'I, 14 ,, • one:,• • 4 , illiCdfil111$ ill the building industry. 2. Explain the surge of new green product labels in the design industry 3. Dewily the difference between first, second-. I:bird-party iernlYing For this story and more continung mucaoon, as weft as links to sources. white Herman Miller's Celle chair meets both Cradle to Cradle and Groonguard product-cart/math:In requirements. it lions to take seriously is difficult: complains Melissa Mizell. an intern architect at Gender's San Francisco office. "You either have to embrace It challenge or give up." That sentiment is expressed by many architec working in sustainable design, even those supported by in-house sustair ability experts with the resources of a large firm. The design world is discouraged because there is no uniform reliable industry consensus in certifying many green products and, i this vacuum, organizations and special interests are rushing in with pn grams and certification labels of sometimes dubious quality. Slap picture of the earth on anything and. presto, it's earth-friendly. The gree products jumble might be sustainable design's first internal crisis. An you've been warned. The standard raspiness Standards can come from anywhere. If you can get enough volunte. industry players—manufacturers, trade organizations, governmer experts, scientists, environmentalists, architects, and other interested pa ties—in a room, with a few years and some good luck, you can produce standard. That's more or less what happened with NSF 140, the sustainab carpet standard. NSF International is a nonprofit, nongovemment organization that provides the umbrella for the development of ANS accredited standards. NSF and the American Society for Testing an Materials (ASTM) arc the two biggest players in the US. standard-makir world. Neither organization enforces its standards, nor certifies produc against standards. They simply ensure that appropriate protocols al followed, that a consensus is reached, and that the standard is publisher Dru Meadows. AIA, is a consultant and founder of Tulsa-base theGreenTeam, which advises corporations and product manufacturers sustainabiliry. She is also a volunteer on ASTM's sustainable building con II 0 7 Aft haat gird Reoirilr 17 EFTA00281487 A Brief Guide to Select Green Product Certifications ARCHITECTURAL TECHNOLOGY SIOD FSC I. :1 . Mil ) r ut' , L_-ra I ......... I S SFI Mee; ---- - - --- - FSC Forest Stewardship Energy Star SCS Sustainable MPI Green Performance SR Sustainable Forestry Council Certification for Forest Management and Chain of Custody, www.fsc.org Environmental Protection 49enCh kwAvienergYslat 9°v Established: 1992 Industry: Electronics, Choice Scientific Certification Systems, Established:2006 Master Painters Institute, Established: 2005 Industry: Paint, lacquers, Initiative, American Forest & Paper Association, sinvw.about-stkorg Established: 1996 Established: 1993 appliances, HVAC, building Industry: Indoor carpet, stains, floor coatings, and Industry: Forest products Industry: Forest products systems other building products fire retardants About SF I was launched as About: FSC is an independ- About: EPA's Energy Star About SCS's Sustainable About This standard is a response by the timber ent, nonprofit organization that sets standards for sus- was established to standard, ize energy efficiency fora Choice label recognizes car- pets that conform to the NSF based on the E PA's stan. dards for VOC content levels industry to the establishment of FSC. It's a third-party tamable forest management range of products and build- 140 standard for sustain- in surface coatings, as well certified standard that yen- and accredits thirdiparty inns. Relevance: Energy able carpet, but will expand as those of California's Air fies sustainable logging and organizations to certify Star continues to be updated to other industries and stag- Quality Management reforestation. Relevance: products. Relevance: and is one of the most suc- dards Relevance: SCS is a Districts. Relevance: Green SF I certification is not cur- FSC is the only sustainable wood certification recog- cessful federal government programs.The EPA launched third-party testing and certi- fication organization widely Seal's sustainable paint standard is based on MP I's rently accepted by LE ED, although this has been the nized by the USGBC's LE ED the Watersense program in recognized in the sustainable Green Performance, and it topic of much research and rating program and has wide 2007 to address water- design community for its is recognized in the LE ED discussion in the sustainable industry recognition. saving products. impartial and reliable work. rating system. design community. crisg.N.9)4J ca • posth.mo ii # Sidi ..,70 --- Greenguard Cradle to Cradle Planet Positive CRI Green Label Plus Green Seal Green Seal Greenguard Environmental McDonough Braungart dCarbon8/Battle McCarthy, Carpet & Rug Institute Organization, Institute WEI), Www.greenguard.ong Design Chemistry (MBDC), wvamplanetipositive.org Established: 2006 (CRI), www.carpet-rug.org Established:2004 www.greenseaLorg Established: 1989 Established: 2002 Established: 2005 Industry: Products and Industry: Carpet Industry: Building products Industry: Building products Industry: Any buildings About This label indicates About The nonprofit, indoi and furniture About MBDC's program AboubdCarbon8 established compliance with California's pendent Green Seal develops About: GE I is a third-party, nonprofit organization that certifies products for emis- uses life-cycle assessment, focusing on recyclability, disassembly, and material the program to standardize how carbon credits have been treated in the building Indus- CH PS Section 01350 for acceptable emissions for indoor air quality, also rec- accredited, open standards based on existing standards, all focused on life-cyCle signs for indoor air quality. content as chief concerns. try. Products and buildings ognized as the NSF 140 assessment for many Relevance: The Greenguard Relevance: Cradle to are given credits that must standard for sustainable products. Relevance: air-quality certification has Cradle has significant be offset by owners. carpet. Green Seal standards are achieved wide industry industry recognition and is Relevance: Planet Positive Relevance: This label is cited by L EED, as well as acceptance, from Cradle to considered comprehensive, has lately focused on simply the carpet industry's by government entities. Cradle to LE ED. It has but its proprietary, closed buildings, since few if any recognition of its sustainable Although it maintains stam been incorporated into other process and lack of certified products offer the credits. products and, though dards for a limited group of standards for a variety of products has frustrated the Its U.K. base has limited respected, is still considered products, it is viewed credibly products. design community. efforts to expand in the U.S. a second-party label. in the market. Pe..ri,rinAl.On 41010eglin this than was Compiled through a ran! Of sources, including interviews for the accompanying article, Dream recoiling for icor 1ETOM PE corn and • . •to5ce•ce in.:pilot mlonomion prov icl try the organicaton$ profiled, and from the organizal.ons"ligg sites. EFTA00281488 mince, which covers products and buildings. There are hundreds of stan- dards on the committee's wish list. For example. there is currently no industrywide, specific standard on what qualifies—the materials, tech- nique& and pmass—as acceptable rammed-earth construction. That could explain why many clients shy away from such building methods. While their are many standards in development, including those for rammed earth, there are a few ASTM standards that act as umbrellas for sustainability, such as the ASTM E2I 29.05 Standard Practice for Data Collection for Sustainahility Assessment of Building Products and ASTM E2432.05 Standard Guide for General Principles of Susrainability Relative to Buildings. If you drop a reference to ASTM F2129 into your green specifica- tions, you're basically forcing the manufacturers of the products for your project to comply with a standard set of submittal criteria. This allows man- ufacturers to compete on an even keel.-E2129 was motivated by frustrated manufacturers who were getting questions from architects such as 'is your product green: " says Meadows. "Now the attributes are on an apples-to- apples basis. With this market evolving as it is, this is a big accomplishment." Of course, this evolving nature of the green-products market leads to another set of problems. To return to our example of carpet, an architect might ask why you would need a standard that focused specifi- cally on sustainability. After all, shouldn't all carpet be sustainable? Why have two standards? For the most part, this is guided by the industry, which needs to fulfill the demands of both nonsustainable and sustainable markets. But also by chance, as the State of California, seeking to reduce landfill waste, focused its efforts toward developing a sustainable standard since discarded carpet was its biggest landfill culprit (the standard origi- MEASURING INDOOR AIR QUALITY IS A SCIENCE, WHEREAS ACCOUNTING FOR SUSTAINABILITY IS MORE OF AN ART. limed with yet another party, the independent Institute for Market transformation to Sustainability. or 1MTS, which is a Washington• I U:.-bawd mess-market group of concerned manufacturers). Alternately, with -sample of rammed-earth construction, there is no need for a specifically -grave standard, since there are, more or less, only a few ways to do it. Judging a rammed-earth wall's sustainable attributes would be more appropriately handled in a "whole-building" rating system, like the U.S. Gram Ititilding Council's LEED program. You could write a book— and many have-,bout the proper way to evaluate sustainability in a building or the components of a system. Meadows says this is one of the difficulties of even talking about sustainability standards, since you have to consider things like the economic and social issues tied to the product, in addition to the • ' I aincerns. Measuring an attribute like indoor air quality is a science, whereas accounting for sustainability is more of an an. "It requires not just a familiarity with the materials and your systems," she says, "hut a Ian kground in applied ecology, socially responsible investing, or any number of environmental issues: If it's so difficult to coordinate the thousands of players in the building industry, why doesn't someone with practically unlimited resources and authority step in to streamline the process—someone like the federal government? It certainly isn't missing from the picture. since the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) both play large roles in shaping the national agenda toward sustain- able design, but bureaucracies and a scattershot approach of uncoordinated programs also hamper them. It may come as little surprise to know there is no productive "sustainability czar" in this White House, but that may be what it would take. There are bright spots. By far, the biggest success of the DOE and EPA is Energy Star. a joint program dating to 1992 that is most widely known for consumer electronics. This is a voluntary program that single-attribute—it basically guarantees a product meets energy-efficient criteria—and it is based on existing standards, rather than being a standar itself. For example, the Energy Star requirements for a geothermal he. pump are based on standards prepared by the International Organizatio for Standardization (ISO). This approach—creating a product label base on other standards—is common and partly explains the rash of new grec product labels. However•architects interested in sustainability often fund d single-attribute label certification to be of limited use. Having an enerj efficient geothermal heat pump makes sense, but not if that pump is col structed of materials that harm the environment. A multi-attribu certification could address this. The hand that rocks the cradle In 2007, the most recognizable of the multi-attribute certifications McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry's Cradle to Cradle prograr which achieved notoriety with the 2002 book, Cradle to Cradle Remakit the Way We Make Things. written by William McDonough, FAIR, an Michael Braungan. The idea of making a product that would be endless used or reused has been so compelling in the sustainable design indusn that "cradle to cradle" has become shorthand for the goals many peop and organizations are working toward. It's the Kleenex of sustainab design. McDonough Braungart, or MBDC, developed the program as proprietary standard, so a manufacturer is forced to submit materials I MBDC for evaluation and certification. Cradle to Cradle focuses on tl life-cycle of a product, looking at where it is produced, the material sources, and how it is used after it's no longer needed—all in addition the product's construction and performance. Although the Cradle Cradle program, which was officially launched in 2005, is not an accret Red standard, it is partly based on accredited or consensus standar( similar to the way the Energy Star program is structured. While Cradle Cradle is one of the few certification labels that qualifies for a LEE Innovation point and also satisfies the EPA's Environmentally Preferab Products requirements for government purchasing, few manufacture have invested in certification. While many in the design industry see Cradle to Cradle as important development, many regret the proprietary nature of the pct gram—as well as the conflict of interest posed by a manufacturer hirir MBDC as a sustainable product consultant and then paying them to a tify its products—and think these issues will limit its effectiveness. But r one denies that the program, which could apply to anything from a toot) brush to a 747, is one of the most comprehensive on the market. Paul Murray. director of environmental health and safety Michigan-based Herman Miller, has seen a lot of changes in the induct: since he started working on environmental issues full-time for the compact in 1992. Herman Miller—a manufacturer long committed to environmen tal concerns—was the first company to certify a furniture product• the Mir chair, as Cradle to Cradle. "To some degree, it hasn't always been a but degree of cost: Murray says. "Reengineering products to meet Cradle Cradle has produced some less-expensive features that have been patentabl So, we try to integrate it as early as possible in the design process." Part what the program doe• is divide materials into good. okay, and bad cat gories, assigning them colors. Green stands for good• red for bad. Put a n chemical in your plastic. you might fail to get certified. Herman Miller h now embarked on a process of ridding their supply chains of red material A benefit to embracing Cradle to Cradle has been that it practical ensures the products will comply with any other standard. For exampl Herman Miller has been testing its products for low emissions of Volati Organic Compounds (VOCs) for decades, but now certifies them again Ito? Anliikaural Record E EFTA00281489 ARCHITECTURAL TECHNOLOGY Shaw Contract Group's Ecoworx carpet tile is a Cradle to Cradle product. (1) Old carpet Is returned to Shaw's plant, where h is (MUM up (2) before having the backing and fibers separated. (3) The backing Is then melted and turned into flow pellets. (4) At this point, the backing is re-formed into new back material before it Is extruded and cut (5). Shaw documents every carpet installation, so It can pursue recycling the material attar use. (6)The recycled backing Is then combined with the recycled nylon to form new carpet tiles. In August 2007. Shaw Introduced a broadloom version of the carpet but it will take at least seven or more years to reach the point of full recyclability. the Greenguard Air Quality standard. This is an ANSI-accredited, consen- sus-based standard provided by the nonprofit Greenguard Environmental Institute (GEO, which is exclusively affiliated, though independent from, the Air Quality Sciences testing lab (AQS). Herman Miller also participated in the development of another indoor-emissions standard by the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturer's Association (BIFNIA)."I don't know which one will shake out in the long run, but both have credibility because they are recognized by the USGBC," says Murray. An industry leader. Herman Miller has resources to not only push the market toward specific standards, but also to cover the short-term certification bases. Not every manufacturer can afford every green label. Michigan- based Haworth may be a competitor to Herman Miller in some markets, but it also shares similarly ambitious environmental goals. Aside from Cradle to Cradle certification for its Zody chair, it also worked with London-based mechanical engineer Guy Battle to achieve a Planet Positive certification. Battle's open-protocol program, based on the ISO 14025 standard for environmental labels and declarations, tracks carbon emis- sions along the supply chain of a product. accounts for them as credits, 2.74 in lutoutrai Rand 11.07 and then passes those credits to the end user. Someone purchasing a Zody chair then must invest in a renewable-energy project that would offset I al percent of those emissions credits."You have to keep in mind that this is an emerging motet: Battle says. "The key issues are going to he transparency. accountability, and honesty. so were taking our time to ensure our proto- cols are rigorous: MBDC is aware of the chalknge that lies ahead for Cradle to Cradle. In September 2007, MBDC announced a collaborative relation- ship with the influential architectural materials sources company Material ConneXion, geared toward helping companies develop more sustainable materials and products. Steve Bolton, MBDC's manager of business development, says they haven't made a decision about turning Cradle to Cradle into an open standard that people could certify against outside of MBDC. "A consensus-based standard is valuable in that you arc bringing people together to create it, but it could be watered down in the end because you are trying to make sure anyone can meet it; Bolton says. 'All of our criteria are widely accepted in the scientific community and typically go beyond what is stringent for any authoritative body: EFTA00281490 ARCHITECTURAL TECHNOLOGY The Greenguard air-quality voluntary Standard Includes more than 150.000 certified products from mote than 100 manu- facturers, among them (1) Dupont's Conan line. (2) CertainTeed's SoftTouch duct-wrap Insulation. (3) Georgia•Pacilic's DensArmor Plus abuse-resistant paperless drywall, and (0) Knoll's Dividends Horizon office furniture 4 system. Greenguard is an independent, third- party organization that certifies building products for the emission of Volatile Organic Compounds. The program is recommended by the USGBC's LEED, the National Association of Home Builders' Green Building Guidelines, and the Green Guide for Health Care, among other sustainable design initiatives. Gat the third party started Product certifications, expressed with labels, mostly break down in three ways: first party. second party. and third party. First-party certification gen- erally means the product manufacturer set up and then tested against the conditions that supposedly qualify the product as green. SC lohnson's new Greertlist program is an example of a first-party program. as the claims rep- resent SC Johnson's own investigations of its products based on a system of its own design. Regardless of the merits of the manufacturer's program— and to be fair, SC !Anson has a comprehensive environmental policy that puts many companies to shame—most architects working in sustainabiliry distrust first-party labels. Second-party labels are more of a gray area, since these are often based on consensus standards established by an industry's trade organization. For example, the Carpet and Rug Institute's Green Label Plus is a second-party label. Third-party labels, on the other hand, often come from a range of organizations outside of the industries seeking certi- fication. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is a well-known third-party certification and label for sustainably managed forests and timber supply chains. LEED recognizes FSC, but doesn't recognize the Sustainable Forestry 1711 Arch:trauma Record 1107 Initiative (SF1) which is administered by the timber industry. However. SR certifications are undertaken by independent third panics, such as PriceWaterhouseC_oopers, since standards development is usually separate from certification. Other third-party programs include the aforementioned Energy Star and Greenguard, as well as California Gold and Scientific Certification Systems Sustainable Choice and Indoor Advantage Gold. All of this can get very confusing, very fast. So, let's return to our carpet example. If you needle down to the fine print in many of the labels and certifications for sustainable carpet. they often rely on only a few real standards. On the VOC emissions side, the Carpet and Rug Institute iCRI) based its Green Label Plus on California's Collaborative for High Performance Schools ICHPS) Section 01350 requirements for indoor-air- quality testing standards. SCS's Indoor Advantage Gold program for carpet is based on Section 01350. too. The limits for VOC emissions in NSF 140—the broader sustainable carpet standard SCS can certify against in its Sustainable Choice program—also refer to Section 01350. If you see a pattern here, it's that three certification programs for carpet all rely, in part. on an emissions standard developed by the State of California for EFTA00281491 ARCHITECTURAL TECHNOLOGY public projects. While California helped develop NSF 140, it ultimately felt the standard wasn't stringent enough for emissions, which is why the state published a revised standard. California Gold. NSF 140 is organized like LEED, with different levels of compliance for Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Since California Gold is now identical to NSF 140 Platinum, it will be phased out in a year. "There's no question the state has used its purchasing power to motivate change in the marketplace." says Dan Burgoyne. an architect who works as the sustainability manager for California's Department of General Services. Although Burgoyne knew there were no carpets certified to NSF 140 Platinum months before it went into effect in September 2006. by the time the deadline rolled around, there were close to eight products certified and on the nlarlcct."We put a lot of effort into the carpet standard and prob- ably won't be able to put as much into the others:* he says. though he adds the state is working with BIFMA on sustainable office furniture and with Green Seal on sustainable cleaning standards. NSF 140 has been a good model for other standards, Burgoyne says, because it's a multi-attribute stan- dard that looks at product development, manufacturing, use, and end use. No find In sight It's likely the next decade will be tilled with new standards and certifica- tion labels, giving architects little relief. Marilyn Black, founder of ' AIA/ARCHITECTURAL RECORD ...RI CONTINUING EDUCATION INSTRUCTIONS • Read the article "t MislUnderstanding Green Products" using the learning objectives provided. • Complete the questions below, then fill in your answers on the next page. • Fill out and submit the AIA/CES education re ortin form on the next page or download the form at to receive one AIA learning unit QUESTIONS 1. The Anwrkan Society for Testing and Materials does which for standards? a. enforces standards b. certifies products against standards a ensures standards are followed d. ensures standards are published according to acceptable guidelines 2. Inserting a reference to ASTM E2129 into your specifications results in which? a. ensures the result will be a LEED-catified project b. forces manufacturers of products for your project to comply with a standard set of submittal criteria C. answers the question.ls sour product green?" O. certifies products against standards 3. I he Energy Star program is all except which of the following? a. an energy efficiency standard b. J voluntary program C. bawd ins existing standards d. a guarantee that a product meets energrefficitncv criteria 4. Cieging a product label bawd on other standards explains what phenomenon? a. the ereJIIIIII of volunteer industry organizations b. the evolving nature of the green.products market c. the rash ol new green prodo. t labels in the market d. the so-mini of intilitartribute per kluct.cettilication labels Georgia-based Greenguard and AQS. sees no sign of consolidation any time soon. "I certainly don't see the government in a leadership role of trying to bring this together." Black says."From my perspective, some of the leading programs need to take a proactive step to focus the industry:' TheGreenTeam's Meadows agrees. but she thinks market competition will increasingly come into play."Certifications and labels are products, so you have to ask which one has more credibility, is least expensive, and most adaptable," she says."1 wouldn't want to say the only way to do things is with ASTM or ISO or LEED because competition is not a bad thing. At some point there are going to be clear winners." Back in California, SCS's Rhodes still considers life-cycle assessments the missing ingredient in many of these new programs, espe- cially since it allows you to make incremental improvement in larger issues affecting sustainability. And he doesn't see a "super-label" for green products on the horizon. "When you get to the product level for certifica- tion, most likely there arc going to be trade-offs. There is no magic green bullet," Rhodes says, suggesting that creating standards an industry can easily meet won't do much to change the effects of global warming."With a life-cycle assessment, some of these materials just don't cause enough impact to show up. We see industrial standards we don't agree with, we have to set our own." With green product certification, that seems to be something on which everyone can agree.• S. A proprietary certification program that focuses on the lifecycle of a product is known as which! a. Environmentally Preferable Products b. Energy Sur a Cradle to Cradle d. Cradle to Grave S. The first company to certify a furniture product as Cradle to Cradle was which? ft. Herman Miller b. Haworth C. seedcase • MBIX 7. Architects often distrust firsopartycenification of a product because of which? tan industry organization participated in the formation of the standard b. the product inanufacturer established the standard C. an independent organization created the standard d. the state of California created the standard N. An exampk of a nun. industry-developed. independent certification program is which of the following? a Carpet & Rug Institutes Green Label Plus b. Forest Stewardship Council C. Sustainable Forestry Initiative d. SC lohnson's Creenlist S. Which of the following tracks carbon emissions along the supply chain of a product. accounts tar them as credits. and passes them to the end user? a first-party certification b. Cradle to Cradle C. Planet Positive eertification d. Scientific Certification Systems 10.Kuildins envelopes impact which percent of the energy use in the total lifecycleof any building? a 85 percent b. 60 percent c.45 percent d. IS percent 180 In Intel WM/ Reeont II II, EFTA00281492