by Brianna Crandall — January 2, 2017 — The green building industry’s first consortium of program operators just announced the addition of two new affiliate members: NRMCA (National Ready Mixed Concrete Association), a concrete advocate organization, and Sustainable Solutions Corporation, an environmental consulting firm with years of experience completing LCAs and EPDs, and a team of certified LCA practitioners.
The Program Operator Consortium launched last year to provide simpler, standardized, and more useful environmental-product transparency solutions and to reduce complexity in the marketplace. The consortium serves as an expert resource and advocate for creating product category rules (PCRs), reviewing life cycle assessment reports (LCAs), and verifying and publishing environmental product declarations (EPDs).
NRMCA says joining the POC allows the concrete industry access to a network of practitioners and experts, and insight to evolving environmental disclosure reporting. The two new affiliate members join thinkstep, a software, data and environmental consulting services company, which was the consortium’s first affiliate member. Regular members of the Program Operator Consortium include: ASTM International, CSA Group, ICC-Evaluation Service, NSF Sustainability, SCS Global Services, and Sustainable Minds.
The Affiliate Member Program was recently created for industry associations, government agencies, standards developers, consultants, and data providers to have access to expertise from a like-minded community. The free program also provides education, discounted rates, and a seat at the table to contribute to creating uniformity across environmental reporting formats, data requirements, and communication.
Each consortium member is represented in the group’s Technical Advisory Board. These LCA experts oversee the harmonized implementation of the consortium’s North American two-part PCR framework, which consortium members have aligned to use and maintain over the past year. Today, PCRs created by any member will produce standardized environmental declarations, helping both manufacturers as well as decision-makers who specify green building materials and products.
The first comprehensive catalog of North American PCRs and an aggregated catalog of EPDs from members’ programs are available on the POC Web site.
The Program Operator Consortium holds both in-person meetings and Webinars with global manufacturers, LCA providers, and industry trade associations. Those interested in joining or learning more are encouraged to contact info@programoperators.org.
