Green Building and Greenwashing

(Published in the August '09, Merchant Magazine and Building Products Digest.)

The green building movement continues apace and more LBM dealers continue to ask how they can prepare. One of the best things a dealer can do is get their key staff trained in the most relevant programs in their area, whether it’s LEED or a regional program. Developing this knowledge base in the organization can only be a positive and, if pursued intelligently, can be leveraged for competitive advantage. But knowledge of guidelines is only half the battle since, as a merchant, the bottom line is still the bottom line – you have to stock and be effective at selling the green materials and products that green builders want, or should want with the proper education. And education is, of course, one of the most important aspects of selling. Which brings up the question – how do you know which products to stock?

The first part of the answer should be obvious - ask your customers. You have to get close to your customers, learn about the projects they're working on, and for goodness sake, ask them what kinds of products you should stock for them. Having some background in green building guidelines will help you ask the questions intelligently, but even so, a green builder who encounters an interested, responsive retailer is practically a customer for life, so go do it!

But relying on your customers to tell you what they want is, again, only half the battle. Developing expertise in your product categories and discerning the “real deal” from the “greenwash” requires some study of product certifications and getting to know the manufacturers.

Product certifications exist to protect against false claims and many are so good that green building rating systems like LEED incorporate them as standard. Among them, for example, are GreenSeal’s GS-11, the standard for low-VOC paint and coatings, and FloorScore, for low-emitting flooring products. But for uncertified products, the honus is ultimately on the merchandise manager to determine whether the product is truly green, is good enough to stand behind, and whether customers actually want it. After all, if a product fails to satisfy, for whatever reason, the dealer’s reputation can suffer right along with the manufacturer. And reputations are damaged most when the charge is “greenwashing.”

In short, greenwashing is the false or exaggerated claims about a product – that it’s “LEED certified” (LEED is a building rating system, not a product certification) when it’s not, or that it has any number of “green” qualities that are vague, untrue and/or unverified. In the realm of green building, the merchandise manager can help him or herself tremendously by asking manufacturers for 3rd-party LEED credit analysis or other documentation that demonstrates the veracity of the claims being made. A manufacturer that has gone the extra mile to produce an environmental product declaration (EPD), for example, demonstrates not only that the product qualifies for LEED credits, but that they take green building seriously. That’s a good sign.

It’s also a good idea to attend the green building expos and talk to manufacturers directly – there are regional shows in almost every part of the country with the USGBC GreenBuild show being the largest national show. This is where you’ll find the best information on new products and their performance characteristics short of trying them yourself. And why not try them yourself. Only with this kind of commitment will you find those gems that your customers should be using and when that happens your green building reputation will be golden.