Green Building Products Coalition Forming

The Construction Specifications Institute, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and GreenBlue will launch Green Building Products Coalition (GBPC) from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on May 11, 2010, at the Philadelphia Convention Center. Interested parties are invited to attend, and the Construction Materials Recycling Association will be participating.
The GBPC would give building product manufacturers the opportunity to leverage its collective expertise and develop a common framework for innovation and implementation. Its goal is to create a credible forum for the building products supply chain in which to discuss, define, reach consensus on, and communicate how product-level improvements can support system-level sustainability.

The GBPC would connect the building products industry and its supply chains with environmental and health experts, government agencies, standards and certification bodies, and other key stakeholders. It could provide education and create the resources and tools required to help the industry make better informed decisions and increase innovation in product design and manufacturing. The Coalition could also facilitate better and more transparent communication between building product manufacturers and building system architects, specifiers and contractors.

GPBC members would determine the direction of the Coalition, but potential projects might include:
•    Conducting research to identify and prioritize areas of environmental concern;
•    Developing responsible building product design and disclosure guidelines;
•    Delivering workshops on relevant product assessment methodologies;
•    Producing building product materials environmental technical briefs;
•    Developing product and enterprise-level sustainability metrics and reporting formats;
•    Defining what “green” really means for building products;
•    More transparency in the way products are positioned in the marketplace;
•    The proliferating number of product certification systems;
•    Deciding which industry standards directly apply to your business; and
•    A prominent voice in the discussion about building products sustainability

A Green Building Products Coalition would seek alignment through collaboration and leadership from within the building products industry and its supply chain to address the industry’s sustainability challenges and opportunities. To learn more, or to register for the organizing meeting, visit www.greenbuildingproductscoalition.org.

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