New Report Aims to Simplify Purchasing Green Building Products

Published March 27, 2009

More Stories On: Materials

MARIETTA, Ga. — With green buildings as a keystone of sustainability at the governmental, corporate and individual level, it should come as no surprise that the number of products aiming to help achieve a certain level of greenness in commercial and residential buildings is growing exponentially.

And as with all things green, there are confusing and at times contradictory definitions of just what green means, and what certifications for those green projects actually mean.

A report released this week by Atlanta-based Air Quality Sciences hopes to pierce some of the fog surrounding those green labels, and in the process make it a bit easier to choose products based on both your building and environmental needs.

The report, "Primary Green Product Standards and Certification Programs: A Comparison," expands on research from one of McGraw-Hill Construction's SmartMarket reports, and explores in-depth the following eight certifications:

• Energy Star
• WaterSense
• Cradle to Cradle
• GreenGuard
• Green Seal
• the GreenSpec Directory
• Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
• Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI)

"Even though green product standards and certifications offer helpful guidance and assurances, there are significant differences, which lead to confusion in the marketplace," said Tony Worthan, President and COO of AQS. "Specifiers, building owners, contractors, homebuilders and consumers need a clear understanding of what each program offers and what it means when a product carries a particular certification mark."

To that end, the report first defines each of the first-, second- and third-party standard/certification programs listed above, and then explains its level of awareness and market penetration, the products it covers, and relevant background information. The report also includes a table laying out which certifications are accepted for either ANSI standards or the LEED-CI and LEED-NC certification credits.

The full report is available for download from Aerias.org, the resource center for AQS.

hats off to you

Anonymous, March 30, 2009 - 01:00

There is always the right tool for the job and without the right tools no job would be able to be completed. Thanks to sites like these were are able to find great sturdy equipment at the right price (even in tough economical times) making it easy for us to always have the right tools for the right job,and the fact that now major companies are going green trying to help us with out hurting the environment. Its a noble cause and I hope it exceeds our expectations and I hope all aspects of life can become eco-friendly without changing what we have become accustomed to (too much). In short I applaud the efforts to all those have decided to take a greener step in to the future. good luck!

PepsiCo Launches Industry's Lightest Water Bottle PepsiCo plans to use 50 percent less plastic in its half-liter Aquafina water bottles in a move that will save the company an estimated 75 million pounds of plastic each year....	Turning Guilt Trips into Gold It's not every day, John Davies writes, that he comes up with an idea worth millions of dollars. His craziest ideas often come in the hour before taking the stage at a conference or corporate presentation. In this case, he says, it was at the first-ever green travel summit held this week in Newport Beach, CA. Find out about John's big idea....
Current IT Technologies Can Curtail Emissions: Reports Virtual meetings and telecommuting may potentially trim billions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions without sacrificing worker productivity or quality of life, according to two new reports released today from World Wildlife Fund....	IBM Helps Keep Beer Deliveries on Track in Norway, Trains on Time in China, Holland Ringnes, Norway's largest brewer, the Guangzhou Metro Corporation with two million-plus passengers daily and the Netherlands Railways, one of the busier national train networks in Europe, have all tapped IBM to help keep track of their inventory and get where it needs to be....
EPA Moving Away from Animal Testing to Assess Chemical Toxicity Risk The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is reducing its reliance on animal testing to assess the human risks of chemical toxicity in order to find better, cheaper and faster ways to screen thousands of chemicals....	Dare to Do Sustainable Marketing It is impossible to continue to produce and consume as if natural resources are unlimited and as if we live alone in this world. We need to invent new methods of production and consumption which use less energy and fewer resources, writes Christophe Sempels....
Voluntary Offset Standards: Separating Land Mines from the Diamonds in the Rough The number of voluntary carbon offsets standards used in the market is vast and growing. So how can voluntary offset project developers and buyers wade through the mire of offsets to determine which credits are land mines and which are diamonds in the rough?...	Green:Net 09 Gets Gloomy, but Offers Some Practical Tips Half of the afternoon sessions at the Green:Net 09 conference focused both on the size of the problem facing us, but also presented some in-depth and tech-specific solutions to green IT issues....

Alternative content

New Report Aims to Simplify Purchasing Green Building Products

hats off to you

Register for GreenBiz Events

Alternative content

News

New Report Aims to Simplify Purchasing Green Building Products

hats off to you

Register for GreenBiz Events