Incorporating sustainable building products and practices is becoming the norm for commercial, hotel, school and multifamily construction projects. Increasingly, owners and developers want to build green both to enhance the marketability of their buildings and to reduce potential liability for health problems resulting from the outgassing of building products. Prudent and careful selection of building materials can reduce occupants’ exposure to gaseous pollutants.
Owners and developers often expect contractors to know how to evaluate, select and incorporate green materials. But, contractors may struggle to determine if building materials are truly friendly to the environment and to building occupants. Manufacturers often make broad statements that tout environmental friendliness, but can’t back up their declarations with any verifiable data.
One key way to ensure products under consideration are as green as advertised is to select products certified by an independent organization.
Certification Methods
A manufacturer can use three generally recognized methods of certification. First-party certification is essentially manufacturer self-certification, which can raise questions about the evaluation parameters and actual testing techniques. Second-party certification results from assessment by a trade association or other organization. Third-party certification—generally the most thorough and rigorous—uses unbiased, independent laboratory testing or detailed evaluations of claims that cannot be verified through testing.
ENERGY STAR, which certifies consumer electronics, and the Forest Stewardship Council, which certifies sustainably managed forests, are two well-known third-party certifiers.
One of the most rigorous environmental certification programs to verify accuracy of environmental claims is Scientific Certification System’s (SCS) Environmental Claims Certification Program. It offers evaluation and certification services to a broad range of manufacturing sectors, including many producers of building materials.
SCS has certified hundreds of companies and thousands of products for indoor air quality and recycled content. One acoustical underlayment, for example, was certified to contain 89 percent recycled materials and tested for 80 volatile organic compounds to achieve the highest level of indoor environmental quality certification.
Manufacturers that go to the expense and effort of third-party product certification often make the information readily available on their websites, which makes it easy for contractors to research and evaluate potential products.
Earning LEED Credits
Certification also helps define and measure green buildings for the LEED rating system. Building products can earn credits in one or more of LEED’s six categories for new construction or renovations: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality, and innovation and design process.
In many cases, using one particular product can earn credits in more than one category. For example, sustainable sound attenuating floor underlayment may help earn one credit in the materials and resources category if the entire project is composed of at least 10 percent recycled materials (or two credits if it’s composed of at least 20 percent recycled materials). Post-consumer recycled materials may contribute at full value, while pre- consumer materials (derived from the waste stream of the manufacturing process) enter into the calculation at half value. The same sound attenuating underlayment for laminate flooring or floating wood floors that is LEED compliant for recycled materials in the materials and resources category also may meet LEED standards for low emissions and help earn credits in the indoor environmental quality category.
Certification that a product meets stringent, impartially devised criteria in a particular category not only reassures specifiers, which can use the information to compare products within a category, but also owners and developers, which can feel assured that the selected building components meet industry-recognized standards.
The more contractors know about the green products they are specifying, the better they can meet the needs of owners and developers that want to build green.
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Friday, September 3, 2010