Vet the Verifiers

In my quest to understand greenwashing, I came upon this article. This is talking about how to evaluate if a certification is for real or biassx/compromises/greenwashing.

http://tinyurl.com/r24vgd

Third-Party Rules

If you or your pro customers are confused about the authenticity of independent, third-party green product certification programs, you're not alone. There are more of them popping up all the time, begging you and others to cite or list them as legitimate standards for what's green. Short of opening an accredited testing lab of your own to verify their results, consider the following tactics to vet their validity:

• Ask building science and environmental building groups or trained individuals for their opinions of the verifier/certification program.
• Similarly, ask building product suppliers, especially those not certified by the program you're investigating, for their opinions on and experiences with the program.
• Research editorial articles and other resources about the program.
• See if the program is cited in green building certification programs, such as LEED or the NGBS, among other local and regional standards.
• Find out how the organization generates revenue; be suspicious of those requiring on-going licensing fees to carry their certification label, which may cause a conflict of interest or compromise their objectivity.
• Look for independent accreditation of the organization's testing facility, capacity, and processes, such as the ISO-65 standard and groups such as Accreditation Services International.

–Rich Binsacca

Green premium or no green premium

After all the talks and reading I've been doing, I've realized there is a contradiction going on in the clean/green world. Corporations definitely are not going to pay any green premium to "green" their operations. I heard Ann Feldhusen from HP talk about converting a site in San Diego to solar and the criteria to sell to upper mgmt was showing no green premium.

Yet I keep hearing about how consumers are willing to pay a green premium for food, laundry detergent, etc etc which is supposed to encourage new companies to enter the market. My feel is that it depends on if the premium is a few cents here and there or a significant investment.

I know I am one consumer who has very little tolerance for green premiums. In my ongoing home remodel, I looked closely at solar and decided that although it was the green thing to do, the costs were still too high. A payback after 20 years for what is basically a small expenditure and to plunk down a lot of cash - No way. My gas and electric is only $100/month. My personal feeling is that I need a 3 year payback - it's just a gut feel - for any change I'm going to make.

Is it only people with very large bills that are getting into solar? Have they really conserved the energy they can before doing the math and seeing if it's worth it? I guess so. I hope so.

In the remodel we had to decide on flooring. The old floor was Douglas Fir covered in ancient vinyl tile was some kind of tar paper underneath and there were areas that needed wood to be filled in. The other option was to rip out the floor entirely and replace it. I quickly determined that FSC certified wood was not going to work - couldn't find it in Doug Fir - other woods would be very expensive - over $1K green premium. Instead, we had to use lots of horrible chemicals and get the vinyl hand scraped. Saved at least $2K and had to cut down minimal amount of trees. But did we harm the environment more with the chemicals? I don't know.

If someone knows how to calculate this, I'd love to hear it. To weigh which was less worse for the environment and price it.

In my reading I see that the idea that there is no green, there just is sustainability is starting to be talked about for some sectors.

Comparison of Wood Certification Systems

http://www.ecotimber.com/pledgeOverview.php

Examples of questionable certification systems include:

SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative - Sustainable Flooring)

• Funded and dominated by the timber industry
• Weak environmental protections
• Allows conversion of natural forests (including old-growth) into tree farms
• No credible Chain of Custody to keep out illegal wood

CSA (Canadian Standards Association)

• Allows large-scale clearing of old-growth
• Fails to protect First Nations

PEFC - Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification

• Weak environmental standards
• No credible Chain of Custody
• Mutually recognizes virtually all forest certification systems, including SFI and CSA
• PEFC wood could come from almost any source

ISO (International Standards Organization)

• Standards address manufacturing practices, not forest management

IBAMA

• Program of the Brazilian government
• Low environmental standards, poorly enforced
• No Chain of Custody

None of the above forest certification systems enjoy the support of the environmental community. The FSC, on the other hand, is supported by major international conservation groups such as Greenpeace, Sierra Club, World Wildlife Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, Rainforest Action Network, and many others.

www.doteco.info - Identifying Greenwashing

Big Room

About .eco

About .eco

The .eco system will display current, detailed eco-information to anyone with a browser, anytime they need it, anywhere on the planet.

It will do this by collecting information from people when they register .eco domain names for their companies, organisations, products, or even themselves and then displaying that information on a standardised, open platform.

As well, the .eco foundation will send a significant amount of revenue from the sale of every domain to eco-causes around the world.

This could include things like biodiversity, preservation, rehabilitation, poverty alleviation, sustainable consumption and clean energy, as well as support for eco-research and innovators.

Together, the .eco system and foundation make Big Room's .eco much more than a domain.

In fact, domain names are probably the least interesting thing about .eco. They simply provide the building blocks for the .eco system. Domains are ideal for this purpose because they are:

1. part of the domain name system; the world's largest distributed database,
2. accessible from any web browser, any time, anywhere,
3. secure and stable,
4. already used by millions of organisations, companies and individuals around the world.

Once this system is built, it's going to make it much easier for small and large businesses, organisations and individuals around the world to calculate, share and compare their eco-footprints.

That's why we're excited about .eco, why we've been working on it full time since 2007, and why it's so important the eco-community works together to ensure that this global resource delivers the best outcomes for the planet.

http://doteco.info/news/archive/2009/08/leading-anti-greenwash-voice-joins-big-rooms-dot-eco-bid

Big Room

Leading anti-greenwash voice joins Big Room's Dot Eco bid

News > August 2009

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Leading anti-greenwash voice joins Big Room's Dot Eco bid

Vancouver, BC, Canada (5 August 2009): TerraChoice, North America’s leading environmental marketing company, and a leading voice against greenwashing, will join the global team supporting Big Room’s application to create a new .eco (Dot Eco) Internet extension.

“Big Room’s Dot Eco is about trust and transparency – two critical components of enabling green markets,” said Scott McDougall, President and CEO of TerraChoice. “Dot Eco will be a useful tool in the fight against greenwash by helping to disclose details about a company’s environmental performance and impact. We’re pleased to lend our support.”

In 2009, TerraChoice Environmental Marketing released its Seven Sins of Greenwashing report on environmental claims in consumer markets, revealing that 98 per cent of products surveyed were found to be greenwashing.

The Big Room Inc. application for the Dot Eco extension has been developed along with an international team of advisors and investors with deep roots in sustainability and business communities.

TerraChoice will join other leading organizations including WWF International, Green Cross International, David Suzuki Foundation, Verité, and ISEAL Alliance on the Dot Eco Stakeholder Council. The Stakeholder Council is a key body guiding Big Room’s global policy development process for how Dot Eco should work.

“We’re excited that Terrachoice has lined up behind our vision for Dot Eco – we both understand that Dot Eco must be credible and trustworthy – part of the solution to greenwashing,” said Anastasia O’Rourke, Big Room co-founder. “Terrachoice’s extensive experience with the EcoLogo environmental certification program, and its ‘Sins of Greenwashing’ series will be invaluable as Big Room continues to build its application for Dot Eco.”

Big Room’s ‘.eco system’ will place key environmental and sustainability information along side the technical information collected and stored when a web address is registered. The .eco system will display current, detailed eco-information to anyone with a browser, anytime they need it, anywhere on the planet.

Big Room will submit its application for Dot Eco when the application round for new gTLDs overseen by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers opens in the first quarter of 2010.

For more information on Big Room’s application for Dot Eco, visit http://doteco.info, or follow us at http://www.twitter.com/doteco.

About Terrachoice Environmental Marketing

As a global environmental marketing firm, TerraChoice Environmental Marketing helps grow the world’s most sustainable companies. TerraChoice’s consulting practice converts knowledge of environmental science, markets, and marketing into winning, client-centered solutions to help sustainability leaders deliver results.

About Big Room

Big Room Inc. is a Canadian company based in Vancouver, British Columbia with an office in New Haven, Connecticut. It was founded in 2007 with the goal of empowering the global community to make informed environmental and sustainability choices. Big Room’s three co-founders are committed environmentalists with a long history of working with organisations, governments and companies to bring about positive environmental and social change.

TerraChoice media contact

Kate Rusnak (Ottawa)
krusnak@terrachoice.com
(office) +1 613 247 1900 ext. 250

Big Room media contact

Tom Jennings (London)
tom.jennings@edelman.com
(mobile) +44 774 003 8925
(office) +44 203 047 2308

Great breakdown of types of Greenwashing

http://sinsofgreenwashing.org/findings/the-seven-sins/

Sin of the Hidden Trade-off

A claim suggesting that a product is ‘green’ based on a narrow set of attributes without attention to other important environmental issues. Paper, for example, is not necessarily environmentally-preferable just because it comes from a sustainably-harvested forest. Other important environmental issues in the paper-making process, such as greenhouse gas emissions, or chlorine use in bleaching may be equally important.

Sin of No Proof

An environmental claim that cannot be substantiated by easily accessible supporting information or by a reliable third-party certification. Common examples are facial tissues or toilet tissue products that claim various percentages of post-consumer recycled content without providing evidence.

Sin of Vagueness

A claim that is so poorly defined or broad that its real meaning is likely to be misunderstood by the consumer. ‘All-natural’ is an example. Arsenic, uranium, mercury, and formaldehyde are all naturally occurring, and poisonous. ‘All natural’ isn’t necessarily ‘green’.

Sin of Worshiping False Labels

A product that, through either words or images, gives the impression of third-party endorsement where no such endorsement exists; fake labels, in other words.

Sin of Irrelevance

An environmental claim that may be truthful but is unimportant or unhelpful for consumers seeking environmentally preferable products. ‘CFC-free’ is a common example, since it is a frequent claim despite the fact that CFCs are banned by law.

Sin of Lesser of Two Evils

A claim that may be true within the product category, but that risks distracting the consumer from the greater environmental impacts of the category as a whole. Organic cigarettes could be an example of this Sin, as might the fuel-efficient sport-utility vehicle.

Sin of Fibbing

Environmental claims that are simply false. The most common examples were products falsely claiming to be Energy Star certified or registered.

Wal-Mart Sustainable Product Index

I hope it's not greenwashing. It sounds wonderful. It can't happen soon enough. The devil will be in the details. 



*2. WAL-MART TO DEVELOP SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT INDEX*

In a move likely to further drive sustainability initiatives up consumer-product supply chains, retail giant Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.(Bentonville, AR) has announced plans to develop a new product index that’s designed to assess the sustainability of consumer products. “Customers want products that are more efficient, last longer, and perform better,” saidWal-Mart President and CEO Mike Duke during a meeting with 1,500 suppliers, associates, and sustainability leaders at the company’s headquarters on July 16. “And increasingly, they want information about the entire lifecycle of a
 product so that they can feel good about buying it.”

Wal-Mart will introduce the sustainability product index in three phases, beginning with a survey of the energy and climate, materials efficiency, natural resources management, and people and community policies and practices of its more than 100,000 global suppliers. In the second phase, Wal-Mart will create a consortium of universities that will collaborate with suppliers, retailers, and others in the development of a global database of product lifecycle information. The third phase will involve the development of an index translating this information into product ratings, the company said.

Excellent Definiton of Clean Technology

Clean Technology is a term that covers broad categories of clean, environmentally sustainable technologies. The Clean Tech Open lists these areas :

Clean Tech Open Defines Clean Technology

Air, Water and Waste

Entries in the Air, Water & Waste category focuses on improving resource availability, conservation and pollution control. With respect to waste, the category focuses on cradle-to-cradle approaches to reduction, reuse and recycling technologies, as well as innovative business models and approaches to materials usage.

Air examples include services, instruments and equipment related to emission control, treatment or reduction technologies. Also included are creative approaches to greenhouse gas reduction, including carbon conversion and sequestration.

Water examples include treatment, storage and monitoring, recycling and conservation technologies.

Waste examples include: waste management equipment; sorting; resource recovery processes; pollution prevention, control, and treatment technology; as well as waste reduction through innovative recycling processes and new recyclable materials, such as bio-based plastics.

Example technologies include:

• Water monitoring-on-site in-situ real-time water monitoring for pathogens
• Cooling solution
• On-site wastewater recycling-industrial and commercial applications
• Advanced water metering
• Storm-water and flood control, rainwater harvesting
• Smart irrigation
• On-site water disinfection
• Membranes for water treatment
• Advanced filtration without membranes
• Produced water (from oil exploration and drilling)
• Energy efficient water pumping
• Reverse osmosis
• Advanced filters and filtration (air or water)
• Emissions controls
• Scrubber technology
• Carbon and GHG monitoring and control
• Carbon sequestration
• Carbon Capture and storage
• Technology enablers for Carbon markets
• Reduction and remediation of VOCs
• Waste cleanup and remediation
• DI water supply
• Agricultural waste treatment
• Recycling
• Microbial water treatment
• Bio based packaging solutions
• Methane capture and storage
• Soil technology
• Natural pesticides

Energy Efficiency

The Energy Efficiency category comprises technology that can significantly reduce wasted energy (including natural gas), driving toward the common goal of saving the equivalent of "a power plant a year" (a/k/a "Negawatts").

Examples include advanced light sources and controls, smart / user-friendly energy management systems, energy-efficient water heaters and other appliances, high-efficiency industrial process systems, motors, pumps, and advanced space heating and cooling systems.

Example technologies include:

• Pumps for water / material
• Industrial process improvements
• Natural gas monitoring and control (industrial or residential)
• LED lighting
• Advanced lighting controls
• Water heating
• HVAC solutions
• Heat pumps
• Waste heat management
• Efficient heat transfer
• Utility scale natural gas controls
• Display systems for energy management
• Materials use in microelectronics manufacturing
• Deposition and sputtering processes
• Alternatives to heat intensive processes
• Cooling solutions
• Glass materials production
• Pure manufacture techniques for fuel cells

Green Building

The Green Building category focuses on reducing the environmental impact of building construction or operation through improved design or construction practices, new or innovative use of building materials, or new hardware or software applications. Technologies are applied directly to the built environment. Technologies are applied directly to the built environment. (Building energy efficiency submissions will be considered in the Energy Efficiency category).

Examples include improved site planning, water management systems, reduction of hazardous materials in building construction or operation, use of new environmentally friendly or recycled materials, systems to improve indoor environmental quality and systems for improved waste reduction or disposal.

Example technologies include:

• Insulation materials
• Cement alternatives
• Cement production techniques
• Building integrated PV (BIPV)
• Indoor air filtration systems
• Modular housing
• Disaster relief housing
• Architectural Designs for thermal management
• Office environment
• Low VOC carpeting and flooring
• Water saving toilets, showers, plumbing
• Residential heat pumps
• Recycled materials for use in building material
• Design improvements to commercial environment

Renewable Energy

The Renewable Energy category includes innovations that use, enable and accelerate the migration to renewable energy. Renewables encompass technologies that use waste streams to directly produce energy.

Examples include low-emission power sources, such as solar, biofuels, wind, wave and tidal energy and hydropower.

Example technologies include:

• Solar for energy production
• CIGS
• Thin film solar manufacture
• Concentrating solar PV
• Coatings for solar panels
• Polysilicon supply and manufacture
• Residential scale solar deployment
• Ethanol
• Biobased fuels
• Tidal energy
• Wave energy capture
• Landfill gas to energy systems
• Agricultural waste to energy systems
• Hydropower
• Turbine blade design
• Advanced fluid flow designs
• Wind power aerodynamics
• Wind power conversion efficiency

Smart Power, Green Grid and Energy Storage

The Smart Power, Green Grid and Energy Storage category encourages links between information technologies and electricity delivery that give industrial, commercial and residential consumers greater control over when and how their energy is delivered and used. It includes improvements in all forms of energy storage, from battery technology for consumer-scale products to large chemical, metal, biological or other approaches to storage of utility-scale energy, as well as methods for controlling or increasing the efficiency of energy storage or energy transmission.

Examples include wireless metering and use of real-time pricing information, intelligent sensors, batteries, fuel cells, fly-wheels, and advanced materials or systems for energy transmission, such as hardware and software controls.

Example technologies include:

• Advanced metering
• Network architecture for power management
• Cloud computing, applied to grid
• Batteries
• Novel battery chemistry
• Nickel-metal hydride improvements
• Hydrogen storage
• Li-ion cells
• Form factor improvements
• Improved cycle life for batteries
• Depth of discharge for batteries
• Solid oxide fuel cells
• Novel catalysts in batteries, fuel cells
• Advanced fuel cell membranes
• Methanol fuel cells
• PEM fuel cells
• Flywheels
• Grid scale hardware and infrastructure
• Power storage for intermittent, renewable resources
• Monitoring and deploying power generated from renewables
• Transmission efficiency
• Electrical engineering and controls for power distribution
• Novel metals and alloys for power transmission
• Superconducting power transmission
• Real-time power monitoring

Transportation

The Transportation category encompasses transportation and mobile technology applications that improve fuel efficiency, reduce air pollution, reduce oil consumption or reduce vehicle travel (not limited to automobiles). Technologies are applied directly to transportation systems or vehicles.

Examples include new vehicles and new types of transport services and infrastructure, efficient batteries, fuel cells, bio-based transportation fuels and use of information technologies.

Example technologies include:

• Fleet management hardware and software systems
• Routing and data solutions for public transportation operators
• Logistics management
• Carpooling solutions
• Hybrid motor systems
• Storage of energy specifically applied to vehicles
• Plug in hybrid vehicles
• All electric vehicles
• Fuel cell vehicles
• Biodiesel applications
• Intermodal tracking and monitoring
• NOX/SOX reductions for ocean going vessels
• Cold-ironing systems
• Diesel particulate matter filters for Locomotives
• Combustion designs
• Fuel blends
• Flex fuel engines and applications
• Drivetrain conversion kits
• Route management via GPS networks
• Exploiting GPS and location information
• Monitoring and control of driver behavior