Earlier this fall, Gensler unveiled their very own in-house sustainability standard. In recent years, manufacturers large and small have been left a little frustrated by having to figure out yet another way to tell their customers about the sustainability their products tout—or don’t. Standards and certifications seem to be on a never-ending mission to dip into your margins and you’re left playing a game of whack-a-mole trying to keep up.
The good news is that this particular standard isn’t asking anything brand new, and it doesn’t even apply to every product in their libraries. Currently, only 12 product categories are being asked to comply with their ambitious approach for selecting products.
What were they thinking?
Gensler set out to raise the bar on their projects beyond what was being required by the common building rating systems for material selection. In 2021 they publicly committed to finding a thorough way to evaluate the products with the goal of “changing the value chain and catalyzing innovation”. They then built a team to research and establish a minimum sustainable materials criterion for their new standard called the Gensler Product Sustainability (GPS) Standards.
According to David Briefel, Climate Action Leader, Sustainability Director & Principal and Mallory Taub, Senior Associate & Sustainability Director, “Our product sustainability standards have been in development for several years, formalized by our internal embodied carbon research in 2019 and launch announcement at COP26 of our Global Green Materials Initiative. The Gensler Product Sustainability Standards are the culmination of feedback collected through engagement with industry organizations, manufacturers, and our sustainability and technical experts. Our evergreen standards are intended both to define our minimum requirements as well as signal our more aspirational goals.”
The GPS Standards will be rolled out across the U.S., Canada, UK, and Europe regardless of geographical and local preferences for evaluations. This consistency may be particularly useful to forward-thinking manufacturers who have been documenting their sustainability attributes and operational policies across multiple time zones.
Which products are being held to the GPS Standards?
In this current iteration of the standard, 12 product categories have been selected with two criteria in mind. They gave priority to those with the 1: largest opportunity to have an impact on the project and 2: are likely to have the sustainability disclosures already in place. The list of products includes acoustic ceiling panels, tiles, and suspension grids; batt insulation; board insulation; carpet tile; decorative glass; glass demountable partitions; gypsum board; interior latex paint’ non-structural metal framing; resilient flooring and base; systems furniture workstation; and task chairs.
What are they asking of these products?
The requirements of this standard fall into two levels which don’t necessarily requiring new ways of evaluating products. They are looking at four areas of evaluation in their baseline requirements called the “Gensler Standard”.
The first is organizational commitment which asks you to provide an action plan to address your commitment to sustainable practices.
Next, they are looking for life-cycle information regarding materials used to make your product, the location where the product is made, end of life options and an option for FSC Certified wood.
The third area of evaluation is on indoor air quality—which you should already have in place.
The last area requests you to disclose the ingredients required to manufacture your products down to 1,000 ppm.
Now, there are nuances and details to each of these, and no product that has been avoiding working toward these objectives is going to have all of this information just sitting around. But if you have been addressing sustainability in your products and practices, these are all attainable.
Beyond the Gensler Standard, there is a higher level of scrutiny that includes third party verified multi-attribute certifications—and if you have that, then you likely have all of the other documentation that is being requested.
If your product is not one of the 12 they are requiring this information from, you are not automatically getting a pass here as they plan to add additional items to their standard as they go forward. The Gensler Standard also represents a bellwether for the kinds of requests that are going to be coming at you in the short to medium term. It is only a matter of time before documenting these attributes is going to be a part of doing business on a daily basis.
If you are on the list but not ready, don’t fret. These certifications do take time, but they are all achievable with a little planning and some time dedicated to the task.
If your product is on the list of products being evaluated and you have your documentation in place, congratulations. The work you have done has allowed you to position yourself as a leader. Many manufacturers have wondered over the years if all of this added time effort and money was actually worth anything to their specifying audience. This may be manufacturers’ first quantifiable “YES”. Your documentations and certifications are literally the difference between being considered on a project in the largest A&D firm in the world or being shut out.