Green Building Product Certifications Report Errata and Update

Our new report, Green Building Product Certifications: Getting What You Need, covers every relevant certification in the field. But of course, as we all know, things keep changing. To ensure you have correct and current information, this errata covers all updates, corrections, and clarifications that we know of to date. If report readers learn of other updates in this constantly evolving area, please let us and fellow readers know by commenting on this blog or emailing news@buildinggreen.com. Correction: MTS is an ANSI Accredited Standards Developer and the MTS SMART Sustainable Building Product Standard is available for purchase on the ANSI standards webstore but it is not currently an ANSI-approved standard. Any formally ANSI-Approved standard will be designated ANSI/xxx in its title. Correction: Greenguard Environmental Institute was founded in 2001, not 2000, and Greenguard's pilot certification is known as Greenguard Premier not Premium. Greenguard states that the partnership with NSF to develop an ANSI standard is a separate effort from the Premier program. Update: The standard on which the BIFMA level certification is based is now ANSI-Approved. On Nov. 11, 2010, ANSI/BIFMA e3-2010 was officially approved as an American National Standard by ANSI. Update: The USDA BioPreferred program launched its voluntary Biobased product certification and labeling program on January 20, 2011, when the final ruling on the program appeared in the Federal Register. The program as launched is largely similar to the planned program described in the report (See this EBN articlefor more details). Highlights to remember:

• The Biopreferred program now has two distinct components (1) a procurement preference program for federal agencies, and (2) a voluntary labeling initiative. for commercial and consumer markets
• Products from "mature" markets, established before 1972, cannot use the label.
• Products in categories designated for Federal preferred procurement must meet the minimum biobased content specified for the category. For other categories, the product must be a minimum of 25% biobased material.
• The label includes the percent biobased content (specifying whether the percentage is of the product or package). If the product is eligible for Federal preferred procurement, "FP" is added discretely to the logo.
• There is no requirement for--or screening based on--life cycle analysis. As described in the Federal Register, "The only requirement is that claims made by manufacturers regarding the environmental or life cycle benefits of their labeled products must be supported by appropriate documentation."

Update: The Greener Product online directory has launched a new "Greener Product Certified" label. This label appears to be paperwork verification of 3rd party certifications and manufacturer supplied data against the requirements of LEED and NAHB, with an on site audit scheduled on occasion to confirm the regional resource provision. Clarification:California's use of NSF 140 Gold and NSF 140 Platinum is as follows:

• Carpet purchased by California state agencies shall meet as a minimum NSF 140-2007e Platinum certification.
• CALGreen, the new green building code, offers NSF 140 Gold as one path of complying with credit 5.504.4.4 Carpet systems, in Section 5.504 Pollutant Control, for non-residential buildings. The other pathways are Carpet and Rug Institute's Green Label Plus Program, California Department of Public Health Standard Practice for the testing of VOCs (Specification 01350), Scientific Certifications Systems Sustainable Choice.

Clarification: California Section 01350 v1.1 was published as an "informative appendix and not part of the required portion of this Standard Method." In the preamble to Appendix B, it is stated that "It is the intent of the CDPH-IAQ to further review and develop the Single Family Residence Scenario for inclusion in final form in Version 2.0 of the Standard Method."