108 Product and material certification Environmental profiles can be used to measure the impacts of a construction material, product or building system throughout its life. This includes its extraction, processing, use and maintenance and its eventual disposal.1 As certified products become more commonly available worldwide, the positive impacts for the environment and human health cannot be underestimated. Ecolabelling is a method of verifying the environmental credentials of products. The largest global directory of ecolabels, the Ecolabel Index, currently tracks 455 ecolabels in 199 countries and 25 industry sectors.2 Life-cycle ecolabels can provide proof that a product or service has met the highest environmental requirements across all the stages of its life. This includes extraction of raw materials, as well as the manufacturing and recycling stages. INTERNAT IONAL WI SDOM 1 Source: GreenBookLive, Environmental Profiles 2 Source: Ecolabel Index, Who’s deciding what’s green Establishing the criteria for ecolabelling • An Initial Research Report gathers product information, technical characteristics and checks global development trends • An initial life cycle analysis is made, and existing global criteria are compared • Sub-product categories are scoped for inclusion • Elements of existing criteria are separated into ‘core’ and ‘non-core’ portions • Detailed specifications/requirements are listed for each core element • Testing and verification methods are set for each specification • Common core criteria are agreed and an action plan proposed • Members are encouraged to adopt the criteria. Source: Global Ecolabelling Network, Common core criteria “ The largest global directory of ecolabels, the Ecolabel Index, currently tracks 455 ecolabels in 199 countries and 25 industry sectors” Ecolabel Index
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