Greentailing

Greentailing
A certifications guide
October 01, 2009

In less than a decade, certifications and standards have transformed the way we build, produce, transport and think about design, manufacturing and construction in retail. If you have not yet used them, you will eventually deal with them in some capacity.

Certification is certainly not the end-all of sustainable performance—especially since most have yet to roll Life-Cycle Anaylsis (LCA) into their platforms—but verification has become an increasingly important component to the sustainability dialogue and should be considered in any level of planning.

To provide some clarity, I’m providing an overview of 10 of the most recognized green certifying programs in retail—five certifications for product and five for buildings.

PRODUCTS & RETAIL ENVIRONMENTS

1) Smart Certification: The non-profit Institute for Market Transformation to Sustainability’s product standards for building products, apparel, textiles and flooring that address all product stages and the entire supply chain to reduce pollutants, and promote renewable power, post-consumer recycled content, bio-based materials and reuse. www.mts.sustainableproducts.com.

2) Cradle to Cradle Certification: Provided by a for-profit company that takes a lifecycle approach to assessing a product’s environmental attributes from extraction through end-of-life issues. A product that is certified as a Silver, Gold or Platinum product, or as a Technical/Biological Nutrient, can be branded as Cradle to Cradle. www.mbdc.com.

3) Forest Stewardship Council (FSC): An accredited, independent council that works with third-party certification bodies that assess and certify forest management. FSC-labeled wood products indicate that the wood has been harvested from responsibly managed forests. www.fscus.org.

4) Greenguard: An established, third-party product certification program based on proven emissions standards that acts as a resource for low-emitting products. www.greenguard.org.

5) Scientific Certification Systems (SCS): Founded in 1984, a widely recognized third-party provider of certification, auditing and testing services and standards. This non-profit organization has two programs that are relevant for retail environments, which evaluate the environmental performance of furniture, carpet and material contents. www.scscertified.com.

BUILDINGS

6) LEED: The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), provides a suite of standards for environmentally sustainable construction and is currently positioned as the acknowledged standard recognizing high-performing buildings. The hallmark of LEED is that it is an open and transparent process where the technical criteria proposed by the LEED committees are publicly reviewed for approval by the more than 10,000 USGBC membership organizations. www.usgbc.org.

7) Green Globes: An environmental assessment, education and rating system that is promoted by the Green Building Initiative, a Portland, Ore.-based non-profit. Green Globes helps with both the new construction of commercial buildings and with the maintenance and improvement of existing buildings. The system, which is an online interactive software tool, competes with the USGBC’S LEED system. www.greenglobes.com.

8) California Green Building Standards Code: This document is a 2009 supplement to California Code of Regulations, Title 24. California’s first-in-the-nation Green Building Standards Code will help guide new green code regulations for commercial buildings and is gaining attention worldwide. www.bsc.ca.gov.

9) ENERGY STAR: Developed by the U.S. EPA, the program has created energy performance rating systems, on a scale of 1 to 100, as a means for benchmarking the energy efficiency of specific buildings and industrial plants against the performance of similar facilities. www.energystar.gov.

10) ASHRAE Energy Quotient: Now in its pilot phase, the Building Energy Quotient labeling program provides the general public, building owners and tenants, and building operations and maintenance staff with information on the potential and actual energy use of buildings.  www.buildingeq.com.

Cheers,

Justin Doak
Founder, Ecoxera – Green Business Strategy for Retail
Send green retail questions to justindoak@ecoxera.com.