A Better Way to Navigate Green Product Claims at Greenbuild?

James is the Director of Strategic Sustainability for InterfaceFLOR, where she is responsible for strategically leveraging and expanding Interface’s thought leadership in sustainability.

Throughout my career as a sustainability strategist, I have examined the twin questions of how to identify sustainable materials and also how to enable specifiers (the designers, architects, or end users who choose materials) to do the same. I have learned over the years that if I ask ten different specifiers how they identify sustainable materials, I will probably hear ten different answers. For example, some specifiers focus on product attributes, like recycled content or low-VOC emissions, while others choose products based on life cycle attributes, like end-of-life management or climate footprint.

The diversity of approaches to identifying sustainable materials is illustrative of the diversity of definitions for product sustainability. There is hardly consensus in the green building movement for what constitutes a green building, much less a green product. While the movement has great momentum, it is a relatively recent phenomenon, and in these early stages of market adoption we see competing efforts for defining green. Also, as our understanding of the complexities involved in sustainability evolve, so too must our attempts to define what constitutes a sustainable material.

At Greenbuild, Green Products Abound: How Do You Navigate Through The Clutter?

In a world of competing and evolving definitions, how can a specifier understand the sustainability attributes of a product? And in a world where manufacturers can gain additional sales from pitching a product as being “green,” how can a specifier trust that the information about a product’s impacts is valid? These questions highlight the growing importance of verified product transparency in the green building sector.

Product transparency could also mean different things to different people, but fortunately there is an ISO protocol for manufacturers to follow for creating a product disclosure that reports the product’s ingredients as well as the full environmental life cycle impacts associated with the product. In accordance with the ISO protocol, these Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) must be verified by an external 3rd party.

EPDs Prove There Is A Better Way

Verified life-cycle product data fills a critical market need: allowing users to select products based upon the sustainability attributes that are most important to them – not the attributes that are most important to the manufacturer. Product transparency, in the form of EPDs, enables a diversity of approaches for choosing sustainable products. EPDs provide validated product data, including recycled content, VOC emissions, end-of-life options, and climate footprint, without any opportunity for marketing spin or greenwash.

EPDs also provide the context for understanding why these specific attributes are important. I often ask clients, “Do you really want recycled content, or do you want the reduced environmental footprint that you assume recycled content offers?” With the verified data in an EPD, specifiers can understand if, for example, recycled content is reducing the product’s footprint. They can use the EPD to learn if transportation actually has a material impact on the product’s climate footprint.
EPDs are not yet widely adopted, but in the meantime specifiers can begin to raise questions about product transparency.

5 Tips for Navigating Green Product Claims At Greenbuild

With Greenbuild upon us, a new influx of product claims, certifications and marketing messages will hit the show floor. What better time to test your product savvy? Here are my top five tips for navigating the clutter of green product claims at Greenbuild each time you stop at a booth:

• Identify the issue(s) the manufacturer is hanging its hat on.
• Next, look for proof points. Are there third party verifications supporting the manufacturer’s claims?
• Don’t just assume, ask. Ask the booth representative, “How do you report environmental impacts across your product’s entire life cycle?” or “How transparent are you about the environmental impacts of your products?”
• Extend the conversation you’ve begun with the representative by asking how they intend to be more transparent in displaying their product’s environmental impacts. What are their biggest challenges going forward?
• Look for how the manufacturer enables easy access to the data and the ability to compare against other products. Without easy access to details, chances are getting the complete picture of a product will prove difficult.

These tips may seem like no-brainers now, but once you land in Toronto it becomes easy to get swept away by clever marketing messages that ignore the biggest environmental impacts. As we all know, customers’ questions have the power to move markets. In order for us to move in the right direction it’s imperative that we ask these difficult questions, push to learn more about product choices, ultimately helping to accelerate product transparency across the market.