Commercial Architecture September 2016 - 10

FEATURE healthcare The CO Architects, Los Angeles, design for the Palomar Medical Center includes a full complement of waterconservation, air-quality, and energysaving measures. Photo: Tom Bonner tectural firms or end users who do not necessarily have a chemistry or been working on this for a very long time, and they have made very key toxicology background," Martel said. decisions for their organization to eliminate certain chemicals, push "Most people I interact with today who are just specifying products down certain paths, and adopt certain policies. This has forced their are not going to be digging through detailed data sheets such as EPDs constituents to look for those types of certifications or those types of or HPDs. They're looking to make sure those are available, perhaps for transparency documents that will allow them to fulfill the vision and LEED credits, but they're looking for some sort of thumbs-up indica- the mission that Kaiser has set forth for their healthcare facilities." tor," commented Paul M. Firth, director, Service Development and Innovation, UL Environmental, Marietta, GA. "The Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency (EPEA), Hamburg, Germany, has put together a new tool that seems to be eas- "I would say by and large that level of knowledge is not usually ier to read, but it also may be subject to interpretation by whomever is needed or desired for that first-pass purchase unless you have a more reading it. It will, however, tell you if there is a risk, whether it is asso- advanced design firm, builder, or owner that is putting forth those ciated with the worker or the end user, and whether the product is re- specifications," added Firth. cyclable, given the materials it contains," Martel said. Such advanced building owners would likely be healthcare provid- EPDs are not uniformly available for all products, Martel noted, ers. "Kaiser Permanente is a great example," Firth said. "They have but there is good penetration in industries such as flooring and furniture, for example. Firth agreed that flooring is a good example. Interface (LaGrange, What Are Eco-Labels? GA) founder Ray Anderson, decided to emphasize sustainability as far back as 1994. "They've done a lot of work over the past decades on sustainability issues. They've tackled content issues, performance, and achievement issues, and they've tackled transparency issues both on The International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Geneva, Switzerland, has defined three types of the chemical/health side and the environment side. The furniture in- Eco-Labels. dustry has also been an active participant, "although the biggest issue Type I: These are seal-of-approval labels on products that meet specifications that are independently in the furniture industry, when it comes to these larger transparency determined and environmental impacts over the product's lifecycle have been considered. The labels gen- issues, is the number of components that are involved in many of their erally don't include detailed, specific information. Examples are WaterSense and Green Seal. products," Firth said. Type II: The information behind these labels is self declared by the manufacturer and is not verified by a third party. Type III: EPDs are considered Type III labels and are verified by organizations such as UL Environment "Imagine a mechanical chair; you probably have well more than 100 different parts that go into that chair. Those parts each have a supplier, and the supplier is probably getting some of their chemical in the U.S., EPD International in Sweden, and IBU (Institut Bauen und Umwelt e.V.) in Germany. Independent information from another supplier. You keep going down that supply audits include information about environmental impact, raw materials, chemical substances, emissions, and chain, and it becomes very difficult to gather some of the details. The waste generation. fact that they are working on it [acquiring a maximum amount of information] speaks to their level of activity and commitment. Even 10 COMMERCI A L A RCHI T EC T URE SEPTEMBER 2016 commercialarchitecturemagazine.com http://www.commercialarchitecturemagazine.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Commercial Architecture September 2016