Feature from Environmental Building News
Summary of Product Standards for GreenSpec
1. Products Made with Salvaged, Recycled, or Agricultural Waste Content
1a. Salvaged products
1b. Products with post-consumer recycled content
1c. Products with pre-consumer recycled content
1d. Products made with agricultural waste material
2. Products That Conserve Natural Resources
2a. Products that reduce material use
2b. Products with exceptional durability or low maintenance requirements
2c. Certified wood products
2d. Rapidly renewable products
3. Products That Avoid Toxic or Other Emissions
3a. Natural or minimally processed products
3b. Alternatives to ozone-depleting substances
3c. Alternatives to hazardous products
3d. Products that reduce or eliminate pesticide treatments
3e. Products that reduce stormwater pollution
Green
Quite a bit of attention has been focused on the issue
of green building materials. What makes a given product “green”? How do
you evaluate the relative greenness of different products? How do you
find green products? More important, perhaps, manufacturers are asking,
“How can we make our products greener?”
There are several directories of green building products available, some
national in focus, some regional. In compiling any directory of green
building products, the authors have to figure out what qualifies a
product for inclusion. That was an exercise the EBN editorial staff went
through when we began developing the GreenSpec® directory, our own entry
into the products directory field, in the late 1990s. This article is an
attempt to lay out for public examination and discussion our standards
for what makes a building product green. Our standards and thresholds
have evolved over time, and this article lays out for public examination
and discussion our current standards for “what makes a product green.”
These criteria will continue to change, and as they do, the products
included in future editions of GreenSpec will also change. We welcome
input in this process of determining just what is green.
The Challenges in Defining What is Green
The Holy Grail of the green building movement would be a database in
which the life-cycle environmental impacts of different materials were
fully quantified and the impacts weighted so that a designer could
easily see which material was better from an environmental standpoint.
Though efforts are afoot along these lines we are not even close to
realizing that goal. Very often, we are comparing apples to oranges. We
are trying to weigh, for example, the resource-extraction impacts of one
product with the manufacturing impacts of another, and the
indoor-air-quality impacts of a third.
These issues were addressed in an earlier article on material selection
(see EBN Vol. 6, No. 1), but in that article we were addressing the
broader issue of material selection for a given project—not determining
which materials should be considered green in general. This distinction
is subtle but important. In building a house or office building, a great
many materials and products will be used. Even in the greenest of
projects it is likely that many products will be used that are not
themselves green—but they are used in a manner that helps reduce the
overall environmental impacts of the building. A particular window may
not be green, but the way it is used maximizes collection of low winter
sunlight and blocks the summer sun. So even a relatively conventional
window can help make a house green. Creating a green building means
matching the products and materials to the specific design and site to
minimize the overall environmental impact.
This article examines products in isolation—not how to use a product to
make a building green, rather what makes a certain product green. Green
products, including virtually all of those found in GreenSpec, could be
used in dumb ways that result in buildings that are far from
environmentally responsible. In a well-thought-out building design,
however, substituting green products for conventional products can make
the difference between a good building and a great one.
More...
From
Buildinggreen.com
Continued...
3f. Products that reduce impacts from construction or demolition
activities
3g. Products that reduce pollution or waste from operations
4. Products That Save Energy or Water
4a. Building components that reduce heating and cooling loads
4b. Equipment that conserves energy and manages loads
4c. Renewable energy and fuel cell equipment
4d. Fixtures and equipment that conserve water
5. Products That Contribute to a Safe, Healthy Built Environment
5a. Products that do not release significant pollutants into the
building
5b. Products that block the introduction, development, or spread of
indoor contaminants
5c. Products that remove indoor pollutants
5d. Products that warn occupants of health hazards in the building
5e. Products that improve light quality
5f. Products that help noise control
5g. Products that enhance community well-being