Third-party certifications provide assurance that a product, process or service conforms to specified requirements. These pledges ensure transparency and accountability to sustainable principles.
Recently, I participated in the semi-annual NEWH Leadership Conference in San Diego. From observations and conversations, it is clear that there is both a desire to better understand green principles and a need for more education around the value of certifications. Using green standards as guidelines will help in creating a more sustainable and more cost-effective design process.
Typically, standard development follows a consensus process. In the green arena, sound science and existing knowledge provide decision-making tools that are complementary to current and emerging building guidelines. The process offers a path forward for concerned participants that may include architects, designers, manufacturers, government regulators, industry trade associations and nonprofit organizations. Achieving green building success also requires a collaborative approach from the beginning—not adjustments midstream.
Any high performance green building effort involves financial, environmental and social considerations. Financial factors include saving money; reducing energy, water and wastewater costs; producing less waste with more effective use of materials and lower waste fees; and creating new revenue streams through recycling or other means. Environmental concerns include preserving natural resources and reducing impacts on the planet and community from site selection to lowering energy and water consumption. Social benefits include a healthier and safer environment for staff and guests and improved workforce morale.
Ultimately, sustainable choices increase profit, company value, and brand awareness. Successful green industry programs choose the best quality for the anticipated use and location. In selecting products for your project, end-of-life impacts are basic concerns. For example, are case goods easily disassembled for reuse or recycling? Does the product contain chemistries that will limit reuse or disposal? What are the economies of scale? What finishes best serve the brand and price point? Are there back-of-house areas where motion sensors are appropriate?
Certification Types
Everyone’s heard of and trusts the Underwriters Laboratories (UL) that ensures the safety of products. It is a good example of a third-party global single certification program. UL delivers valuable product safety information to consumers, but it is not looking beyond the attribute of safety. GREENGUARD Environmental Institute sponsors certifications that aim to improve public health and quality of life through improving indoor air including GREENGUARD Indoor Air Quality Certified, and GREENGUARD for Building Construction that improve indoor air. GREENGUARD Certified products are tested for their chemical emissions performance.
Multi-attribute third-party green standards are increasingly gaining traction and respect in the marketplace. SMART Consensus Sustainable Product Standards, LEED for green building, and the carpet industry’s NSF/ANSI 140-2007 Sustainable Carpet Assessment Standard are good examples. Each evaluates numerous qualities that may impact the planet, which serve as guidelines to specifiers. So how do you use these certifications?
What You Need to Know
First and foremost, the product or service needs to meet your needs. For example, if a window cleaning product can’t clean a glass window, it really doesn’t matter if it is low in VOCs. If an HVAC system doesn’t keep you comfortable year-around, then it doesn’t matter if it is energy efficient.
Even with a commitment to green, regulations and market incentives alter with geography. Additionally, impacts related to water, energy, site selection, property maintenance, transportation and materials may vary based on climate and culture. Suggested guidelines for selecting products that reflect responsible choices fall under three general categories of understanding:
• General knowledge of product-life cycles;
• Green product attributes; and
• Potential product life cycle impacts on the planet.
When making decisions about a product, service or a company’s commitment to sustainability, consider these attributes: energy efficiency, water conservation, low/no VOCs, recycled content, organic content, bio-based content, local production, recyclability and renewable components. A demand for corporate transparency is pushing companies to fill product information gaps. Asking the right questions will get you what you need. However, you must ask: Is the information complete or merely a marketing response from an industry interested in being perceived as green?
Questions You Should Be Asking
As a starting point, use these questions to ask yourself or the product sales representative before you make a purchasing decision. Keep in mind the explanation can be more important than a simple “yes” or “no.”
• Are the company’s manufacturing plants ISO 14000 certified?
• Does the company track its energy and water use annually?
• Is the amount of waste measured during manufacturing? How much goes to the landfill? How much is diverted from the landfill?
• Is the company working to reduce CO2 and other emissions? What is their carbon footprint?
• Does the company purchase or generate any energy from renewable sources?
• Does the company recycle throughout the products’ life cycle?
• Does the product fulfill your needs as well as being environmentally benign?
• Does the company publish a sustainability report or offer information on its website regarding environmental and social initiatives and activities?
Although the way to measure and report a product’s level of sustainability has not been established as an accepted standard yet, it is important for everybody who has the responsibility of selecting products to take responsibility and to hold manufacturers accountable for the products they sell as well as marketing. You might think you don’t have time or the knowledge to ask all of the right questions, but perhaps nobody does—yet.
All product manufacturers should be looking at reducing their environmental footprints. That commitment needs to be thoroughly entrenched in the boardroom of a company and not just in the marketing department. Obstacles to greening the hospitality industry include faulty information regarding values and costs plus unwillingness to change. Everyone needs to be on board and recognize the challenges. An important step is overcoming the struggle to understand what a sustainable hospitality property means for different properties. Guest perceptions of health and safety vary. Standards like LEED allow specifiers to make value decisions appropriate to the customer base and expectations. In today’s world a reluctance to specify more sustainable products and properties is not an option. Working together we can reduce project environmental footprints.
Bill Gregory, Director of Sustainability for Milliken & Co., has actively participated in establishing sustainable standards for the carpet industry, and represents carbon negative Milliken with the Alliance for Sustainable Built Environments, USGBC, and the NEWH Sustainability Committee, among other green organizations.
