Green product specification

This article is a special online feature accompanying the 2007 Top 10 Green Building Products supplement to the August 2007 issue of Sustainable Industries. Download the supplement to see the 2007 winners on the Downloads page!

The last decade has seen tremendous progress in what green building aficionados call “market transformation”, the rise in availability, diversity and affordability of environmentally friendly products and services.

Third-party certification organizations, such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), often have online presence offering findings about their area of expertise -- sustainable wood harvesting practices in the case of FSC. Government sources are evolving as well. The U.S. Department of Agriculture offers a database of approved biobased products, and the U.S. Department of Energy Web site offers case studies of products and materials used in sustainable buildings around the country through its High Performance Buildings Database.

Many manufacturers are also beginning to provide greater depth to their online presence with third-party testing results, examples and sourcing information. In the case of many products and materials, a simple Google search can net countless websites around the world offering buying and research information.

On the whole, however, architects and builders say, the resources available for procuring and regulating sustainable materials are a patchwork, lacking a centralized clearinghouse.

Sustainable Industries asked West Coast green builders about key resources everyone looking to find and choose green building products should know.

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The GreenSpec Directory
www.buildinggreen.com
Available in book form or online, the GreenSpec Directory comes from the publishers of Environmental Building News. “It’s by far the best resource for green product information,” says Ralph DiNola with Green Building Services, a Portland sustainable design-consulting firm. Looking for wood framing fasteners in lieu of wall sheathing? The guide suggests Simpson Strong-Tie Connectors of Dublin, Calif. How about an off-peak thermal energy storage cooling system for that next project? The guide says CALMAC of Englewood, N.J. is your go-to source. At the same time, the Directory could better utilize the opportunity to create a sense of community with its otherwise impressive website. “There is still a lot of confusion in the market about green products and what makes them green,” DiNola says.

The GreenSpec Directory can be a bible for do-it-yourselfers as well as cutting-edge designers and firm principals. “Since I don’t have an architectural background, it helps clarify materials selection in a way I wouldn’t think of,” says Alisa Kane of the City of Portland’s Office of Sustainable Development. “It arms regular people with the language of an architect. People who come to us want that level of detail, but it also helps in that language translation.”

Pharos Project
www.pharosproject.net
Created by the nonprofit Healthy Building Network, the Pharos Project is an online materials evaluation system that uses open-source technology such as that utilized by Wikipedia to create a constantly evolving community. Here experts share materials information and products undergo rigorous analysis in a completely transparent process, with specific focus divided into three key areas: health, sustainability and social justice. “The goal of Pharos is not to supersede other efforts to establish performance standards based on industry consensus,” the site explains, “but rather to put those standards in context. Pharos will be designed to reflect the fact that, most current ‘green’ standards are just mileposts, at best, on the road to green and, at worst, they lead the user astray.”

“It’s really trying to establish this be-all, end-all source that is populated by the public,” says Eden Brukman, a sustainable materials specification expert for SERA Architects in Portland. “We all have information about products and why we like them or don’t. Here you can find out about manufacturers’ processes and the quality of the product, or what happens with recycling after its service life. You can upload your information to the Pharos wiki and answer questions about extraction of raw materials, transportation, embodied CO2, and all other kinds of criteria. “You can compare and contrast, just as we already do in our office with our Excel charts, only a lot better.”

“Pharos is the most promising thing I’ve seen come on the market in the last ten years or so,” agrees Narada Golden, who oversees specifications for another Portland architecture firm, BOORA. “I think it has the real potential for people to share with each other. It’s a matter of getting enough people using it that it gains momentum and becomes a big resource for everyone. And I think Portland can really lead that effort with a lot of good resources.”

Building Research Establishment Green Guide to Specification
www.breeam.org
The world's most widely used environmental assessment method for buildings, English-based BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) assesses buildings against set criteria and provides, like LEED, its own scoring system. BREAM also provides life-cycle analysis of materials in its publication BREEAM Specification: The Green Guide as well as numerous assessment tools covering different scales of construction activity. BREEAM also assists in master planning for large sites such as new housing developments and assesses the operational and the embodied environmental impacts of individual buildings.

“Green Building Materials: A Guide To Product Selection and Specification, Second Edition”
by Ross Spiegel and Dru Meadows
www.wiley.com
Although online is where most people search for green building information today, certain books are worth a spot on the shelf. Reading Ross Spiegel and Dru Meadows’ "Green Building Materials: A Guide To Product Selection and Specification" is like taking a class in green building. Chapter 5’s inquisitive title, for example, is “How Does the Product Specification Process Work?” The authors also detail the product selection process, cover economic and liability issues, and even philosophize about what really constitutes green building materials. The book’s extensive appendices include glossary definitions of terms like “soil stabilization,” “joint sealers” and “plastic toilet compartments” as well as sample environmental impact forms.

Industry magazines
While industry magazines may not seem the most high-minded source for product information, green building specifiers say they’re a great place to start. Industry magazines (both print and online) such as eco-structure, GreenSource, Architectural Record, Buildings magazine, and Environmental Design + Construction provide news and analysis about products, innovations and trends. Returning magazine’s “reader service card,” which allows readers to request additional information from advertisers, or following up on an advertisement or article can be good ways to expand a repertoire of green products. While the pay-to-play resources such as magazines provide are “okay as a starting point, not everyone using those resources or looking at those products clearly understands how that product would be considered,” DiNola cautions.