g-Think | Issue 17 | Certification Soup

The dot-com era of “green” is here. Many of us have worked dilligently for years to raise green building and environmental degradation into the public spotlight. Now, that spotlight is shining bright green. It is a time of great opportunity for positive change and for realizing a return on an investment of years (or even a lifetime) and money.

With opportunity comes the risks born of the allure of a fast buck. Like the dot-com era and the more recent residential real estate boom, there will be shortcuts taken, superficial due dilligence and scams. Marketing departments are jumping on the “green economy” out of opportunity and necessity. Some are really improving their products and operations. Some are not. It is purely market forces.

We have just launched out of the bottom of the J-curve. Renewable energy has already experienced a run up in venture capital and stock prices. As of April, product manufacturers were starting to receive spillover funding as venture capitalists broadened their view to include sustainability-oriented products. “Irrational exhuberance” will take hold of the market and then, in a few years, we will experience the inevitable crash. As we have seen with the speed of the residential real estate bubble vs. the dot-com bubble, investment trends are accelerating into pop-culture fads. The instantaneous flow of information and the near frictionless movement of money contribute to an investment cyclone that mirrors our microwave lifestyle.

After the crash comes the shakeout. The real advances in green and sustainability will become incorporated into our daily business processes and personal lives and much of the hubris will be left for post-mortem business best-sellers. Like internet technologies, sustainable practices will become another necessary tool of operating a competitive business… and hopefully this integration will happen in time to save our biosphere from radical change.

So, are there ways to manage this cycle? Can we minimize the hubris, throttle down the climb and make it into solid, lasting progress? And thereby minimize the fall? Yes. It involves knowledgeable professionals acting as the caretakers of the boom, doing their homework, demanding reality checks, calling out greenwashing, and generally acting as professionals. They will be the ones that will tame the storm and survive it successfully.

Let’s look at one narrow but very significant segment of sustainability and green building as an example of what form that responsibility might take: Green building product certifications.

Green product certifications and labels are multiplying like algae in a bio-fuels research experiment. A quick scan of an industry journal can reveal fifty or more green labels in a single issue. One reason is clear; market demand and opportunity. Additional reasons include 1) little uniform agreement on how to define green, 2) costs of true third-party certification, and 3) greenwashing. The unfortunate by-product is that a reasonable professional with a typical work schedule in this field cannot keep up with all of the certifcations and their legitimacy. A consumer in the same situation stands no chance.

What can professionals do to keep the situation from getting totally out of hand? The most powerful act would be to call for some of the more robust certification programs to merge their efforts and create a recognizable brand image across a broad range of product categories. This call could come from individual professionals and firms, or from professional societies and associations like the AIA, CSI and USGBC.

An example might be Greenseal, Greenguard, FloorScore, SCS and the Forest Stewardship Council coming together to unite strong third-party standards/programs with wide (and also overlapping) product coverage under one or more umbrella, ANSI-approved standards. They could market the standard(s) under one label as a consumer mark like the EPA’s Energy Star. Scientific Certification Systems and others could be granted a license to actually perform the certifications. The mechanics of such a move require transition phases, organizational restructurings and ego-checks. For-profit vs. non-profit issues also come into play but those organizations that would be willing to take such a plunge stand to gain enormous strength and credibility in a field that will inevitably see consolidation. The additional benefit would be to push meaningless marketing labels and weaker second-party certification programs to the sidelines, cleaning up the marketplace and clearing consumers’ and professionals’ heads.

On a related front, at press time, the International Standards Organization just announced accreditation requirements (ISO 14065) for organizations that validate greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction claims. With the proliferation of carbon offset programs, this will help tremendously in making sure money paid to these programs is actually being used effectively… if professionals demand these programs become accredited before giving money to them. Real progress will also be seen when ISO 26000, regarding social responsibility, is completed and adopted by U.S. companies. However, that will probably coincide with the shakeout period, when we will have already learned a lot of lessons.

So, let’s all hop on for the wild ride but let’s put some of the steering systems, gas pedals and brakes in place to manage the trip and enjoy the scenery.