by Shane Henson — June 20, 2011—The Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association (BIFMA) International has collaborated with NSF International, an ANSI-accredited developer of more than 75 American national standards, to develop product category rules (PCRs) for the furniture industry. The National Center for Sustainability Standards, founded by NSF, will serve as the program operator for developing the furniture PCRs.
NSF officials say PCRs help meet the growing demand for science-based support to verify environmental product claims and eliminate greenwashing. PCRs define how to conduct a life cycle assessment for a particular product group and what to include in the resulting report. A life cycle assessment (LCA) measures inputs, outputs and environmental impacts of a product across its lifespan, from cradle to grave. An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is the ISO-compliant third-party-verified report that functions like a nutrition label to explain the data generated from a life cycle assessment.
Adopted by European countries and growing in recognition in the United States, PCRs and EPDs also provide an international method of communication to compare and report a product’s environmental impact throughout its entire life cycle.
