The Green Alphabet – A Look at Third Party Green Certification

When you start looking around for green products and green certified building materials, you are going to notice the alphabet soup of acronyms being used in the industry. I’m going to give you a short list of the most important organizations and third party certifications to look for. Be aware that some companies have created their own “green washing” identification process. The list below contains the most trusted programs in place today.

USGBC – The US Green Building Council is the non-profit umbrella organization responsible for setting the standard for green building. It is comprised of leaders in the construction industry whose goal is to ‘transform the way buildings and communities are designed, built and operated, enabling an environmentally and socially responsible, healthy, and prosperous environment that improves the quality of life.’ See www.usgbc.com

LEED – Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is a rating system created by the USGBC to give the green building industry a set of standards and programs in five main areas - sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality. See www.usgbc.org/leed/homes

FSC - The Forest Stewardship Council was created to set standards for responsible, sustainable forestry. When choosing the wood components for your home including framing, subflooring, flooring and doors insist on FSC certified wood only. There are other certification programs that are not as responsible and FSC is by far the leader in environmental forestry. See www.fscus.org

SCS – Scientific Certification Systems is a third party certification program that concentrates on food safety and quality, environmental protection and social responsibility in the private and public sectors, and works to stimulate continuous improvement in sustainable development. See www.scscertified.com

Green Seal is a third party certification system that utilize a life-cycle approach, which means they evaluate a product or service beginning with material extraction, continuing with manufacturing and use, and ending with recycling and disposal. Products only become Green Seal certified after rigorous testing and evaluation. See www.greenseal.org

GREENGUARD is another third party certification system which focuses on indoor air quality in building materials and consumer products. See www.greenguard.org

ISO - The term ISO stands for the International Organization for Standardization. You would reasonably assume that it ought to be IOS, but it isn't. Apparently, the term ISO was chosen (instead of IOS), because iso in Greek means equal, and ISO wanted to convey the idea of equality - the idea that they develop standards to place organizations on an equal footing. For an informative FAQ written in plain English.  see www.praxiom.com/faq.htm

ENERGY STAR is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy helping us all save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices. See www.EnergyStar.gov

NOP – The USDA National Organic Program oversees the certification standards and practices associated with organic products. See USDA National Organic Program

There are others but these are the big players in the certification of all things green. If you see a certification that isn’t familiar, you should definitely see who they are and what they do. You will find some companies creating their own certification labels to try to convince you that they are “green”. Just because a product or company tells you in their beautiful slick marketing that they are green doesn’t make it so.

Check out all the above programs for listings of the products and companies that have been legitimately certified by independent third party certification processes.

Comments

[Brian Sperber]

I think you may want to clarify the role of the USGBC. Yes, they are a non-profit organization, but I they are not responsible for "setting the standard for green building."

As stated on the USGBC web page: "The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to a prosperous and sustainable future for our nation through cost-efficient and energy-saving green buildings. USGBC works toward its mission of market transformation through its LEED green building certification program, robust educational offerings, a nationwide network of chapters and affiliates, the annual Greenbuild International Conference & Expo, and advocacy in support of public policy that encourages and enables green buildings and communities."

I am not aware of any one organization that is "responsible" for setting green standards. Unfortunately, many people think that the USGBC is a government agency, when in fact, it is not.

[Tom]

Thanks Brian for the clarification. You are right that the USGBC nor any one group is responsible for setting green standards. To be clearer maybe I should have said that as an organization they have been a driving force for the advocacy of green standards.