I too enjoyed this video -- a great way to both make complex information accessible and make the case for labeling that seems eminently sensible. My readers (residential remodelers, primarily) on d5R will enjoy it as well, as greater transparency could help them better educate their clients on the products they do and do not recommend installing.
Blog Post
Why We Need "Nutrition Labels" for Building Products (Video)
Nutrition labels allow shoppers to compare two bags of chips. The transparency movement seeks that level of transparency for building materials.
This is Part 2 in our series on transparency.
Part 1: Why We Care About Product Transparency
Part 3: The End of Greenwashing? Five Myths about Product Transparency
Building product transparency has been a hot topic in the design and construction world lately.
Pioneering manufacturers like InterfaceFLOR are releasing environmental product declarations (EPDs). Influential firms like Perkins+Will are gathering and publishing more data about what's really in our building materials (if you haven't seen the firm's new Transparency website, check it out here).
The LEED 2012 drafts are looking to incentivize transparency by offering credits for the use of products that have an EPD. We're also adding product transparency to GreenSpec as a searchable attribute to help you when specifying products.
As a companion to this month's EBN feature article, "The Product Transparency Movement: Peeking Behind the Corporate Veil," we've put together this fun four-minute video on what the transparency movement is all about. (Cheeky animations and soothing narration by our amazing sales administrator HB Lozito.)
We had a lot of fun making it, and folks have told us it's also fun to watch. Enjoy!
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See membership options »Published January 4, 2012 Permalink Citation
(2012, January 4). Why We Need "Nutrition Labels" for Building Products (Video). Retrieved from https://www.buildinggreen.com/news-article/why-we-need-nutrition-labels-building-products-video
Comments
Thanks!
Steve, your comments are much appreciated. And we definitely agree that including the health info is a valuable step forward. Both are so important.
Transparency Video
I very much support the concepts presented in the video. As a leader in the LCA and EPD field, PE INTERNATIONAL, has advocated for these disclosure type communications for some time. The inclusion of the Health information into the ISO approved EPD standards is a valuable step forward. The process to include these disclosures would be easily accomplished through the Product Category Rules approach, part of the ISO 14025 requirements.
The move towards LEED inclusion of transparency along with performance criteria for product selection is a huge step forward, and will help drive demand for this type information.
Nice Work.
steve baer
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