Until this year, there were different EcoLogo standards for photocopiers, fax machines and laser printers. The criteria for these standards, first instituted in 1998, are now being combined into one updated standard along with requirements for multifunctional devices and mailing machines. The standard will go into effect at the end of March.

So what does it take to make a green office machine? And how has EcoLogo’s criteria changed in ten years? You can read the full documentation on the standard here, but I thought I’d highlight a few items specifically that are new in 2008.

First, there are new chemical requirements. For example, the new EcoLogo standard mandates compliance with the RoHS directive with regard to restrictions on certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment. It also includes criteria for the plastic casing parts on any office machine. To win EcoLogo certification, casings must not be manufactured with the following flame retardants:

• Poly-brominated biphenyls (PBBs)
• Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs)
• Chloroparaffin flame retardents with chain length 10 to 17 carbon atoms, and chlorine content greater than 50% by weight

These substances are all environmentally toxic, and sales of products manufactured with these chemicals have been banned in some countries and states.

Second, there are new requirements on product recycling and re-use. Interestingly, this has a lot less to do with what’s in a product and much more to do with the behavior of manufacturing companies at the end of a product’s life. For example, there are EcoLogo guidelines in the office machine standard not only for waste diversion, but also for collection of office machines at the end of their use for proper processing. If a local collection program is not in place already, the manufacturer must offer one.

Green offices are a new frontier, and green office machines are a great way to start making a difference.

John Polak is the Chair of the Board of Directors for the Global Ecolabelling Network (GEN) and the founder of TerraChoice. I had the good fortune to speak with him recently and during our conversation I collected enough of his knowledge and insight to last a dozen posts at least. Consider it the John Polak series, and this is part one.

To sum up GEN as quickly as possible, the organization was started in 1994 under the auspices of the International Standards Organization (ISO) and today has 28 members on its roster. It was originally formed as a cooperative venture to facilitate consistency among Type 1 ecolabels and to bring qualified ecolabelling groups around the world together to share information and analysis. In the 1990s it moved into a defensive posture to ward off attacks from organizations afraid that GEN would become a barrier to trade. Today it is in a position of strength as more and more countries recognize the benefits of ecolabelling and realize how it can positively impact trade as well as the environment.

At the last GEN annual meeting, much of the focus was on GENICES, a mutual recognition program among ecolabelling organizations around the world. In its pilot stage now, GENICES involved a peer review process so that products certified by one country’s organization can be more easily recognized under another country’s ecolabelling program. Organizations that participate essentially put in place an umbrella agreement. If, for example, a Canadian company wants certification of a product in Taiwan, the Taiwanese can look to see if they have a similar product standard in place and, if so, automatically certify the Canadian product based on prior review of the Canadian standard.

GENICES is part of a broader GEN agenda that includes addressing the confusion surrounding ecolabels today, the appropriate scope of ecolabeling, and the growing overlap with international policy work. In the coming months I will address these issues as best as possible based on my initial conversation with John and hopefully future ones as well. These “John Polak series” posts won’t be consecutive, but I will intersperse them often with other posts on EcoLogo products and standards development work.

One final note, EcoLogo is accredited by GEN as a Type 1 ecolabelling program. It is the only GEN-accredited EcoLogo program in North America today.

In the 1970s the US banned the use of pollutants known as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Yet a recent study suggests that Americans may still be suffering the negative effects of PCBs from wood floor finishes in older homes and public buildings. The news can’t help but make me wonder what hazardous chemicals we’re being exposed to now that haven’t been outlawed yet.

The reason for environmental standards programs is that science is ahead of the law. The criteria for EcoLogo standards are far more stringent than legal requirements. Sometimes laws are weaker because of economic interests, sometimes it’s because lawmakers aren’t as quickly informed about hazardous chemicals as leading scientists, and sometimes it’s simply because the lawmaking process can be slow and bureaucratic. (Remember the famous civics-class film, “How a Bill Becomes a Law”)

Here’s an example. The Sierra Club (unsuccessfully) lobbied the EPA last year to ban industrial and household detergents containing nonylphenol ethoxylates. Many detergent manufacturers have already come up with alternatives, but there is no federal law. On the other hand, EcoLogo’s standard for laundry detergent mandates that products must not be formulated or manufactured with alkylphenol ethoxylates, which includes nonylphenol ethoxylates. The standard was first published in 1997.

Eleven years and counting for federal law to match an EcoLogo standard.

I discovered just how mainstream environmentalism has become when I went on a rare night out to a movie this past weekend. Part of the premise of 27 Dresses is that the male object of desire is an executive who makes his living in an ecologically-friendly business. He’s an outdoorsman, vegetarian and general all-around, planet-loving kind of guy.

The fact that environmentalism was an (albeit small) aspect of the plot is interesting. But even more interesting is the fact that the movie was sprinkled with green product placements to emphasize the characterization. In the space of a few minutes I saw a close-up of a major green cleaning brand followed by a shot of a hybrid car. From a business perspective, this makes me believe a few things:

1. Businesses continue to see the value of green branding
2. Green companies are doing well enough financially to invest in product placements on the big screen
3. Hollywood is perfectly comfortable depicting green as cool

The fact that environmentally-friendly products are showing up in mainstream movies is further evidence that more and more companies are likely to jump on the green marketing bandwagon. On the downside this means we’ll probably see an increase in greenwashing. On the upside it means that consumers want to buy green, and demand will only lead to greater supply.

Without being a scientist myself, it can be difficult to wade through the criteria that make up an EcoLogo standard. However, by carefully reading through the relevant documentation I can get a general sense of how a standard works, the compromises that are necessarily made, and the ultimate benefits of implementation.

For example, there is currently a draft standard under review for corrosion inhibitors in closed water systems. Corrosion inhibitors are pretty self-explanatory. They prevent corrosion to maintain the efficiency and prolong the life of a water system. (Closed systems are generally used for heating water or pumping out air conditioning in apartments and offices.)

In reading through the draft standard it becomes pretty clear that most existing corrosion inhibitors leave a lot to be desired from an environmental standpoint. Given the realities of the solutions available today – the large majority of which are fairly toxic to aquatic life – how does a program like EcoLogo decide what constitutes a reasonable and achievable standard?

The answer is EcoLogo chooses the best of what is available and uses that as a starting point. Some corrosion inhibitors produce less organic nitrogen and ammonia. They are favored in the EcoLogo draft standard. On the other hand, nearly all corrosion inhibitors include boron, which makes it impractical to disallow use of the chemical in EcoLogo’s standard criteria. (Maybe in a future review?)

Got any of your own thoughts on corrosion inhibitors? (Don’t be shy. You know you were just talking about this at the dinner table last week…) One of the nice things about the EcoLogo program is that it is entirely transparent and draft standards are open to public comment. Tell us your thoughts here, or better yet, send comments to the contact information listed in the published draft standard.

There’s an interesting post over on The Greenwash Brigade about the impact of the LEED rating system on creating green buildings. The author argues that it’s possible to be LEED-certified without really having environmentally-sound construction. The way the LEED system is set up, builders get points for each green element they include, but a low VOC carpet is given the same worth in the point system as a green roof. Are the two features equivalent?

The Greenwash Brigade makes the very good point that LEED can’t be measured just by outliers that learn how to “game” the system, but by the overall impact of the program on encouraging green building. The bottom line is that LEED ultimately continues to raise construction standards. However, in creating new environmental standards, there are still lessons to be learned from the way LEED was implemented.

In contrast, EcoLogo is designed so that across multiple criteria, products that meet the EcoLogo standard are in roughly the top 20% of environmentally-friendly products in any given category. This amounts to a weighted system, where no weak attribute can lead to a green label if certification is not warranted.

The weighted system is important. The topic of creating environmental standards around multiple attributes rather than a single element comes up often. However, the issue of how different attributes are weighted is much more subtle and often overlooked. It’s something we need to introduce into the broader environmental debate.

The EcoLogo program was set up according to the International Organization for Standardization – ISO 14024.

Around the holidays I tagged a post from Green Daily to read later. It’s about local governments offering financial incentives to individuals for environmental practices. I love the idea, but there’s a nagging part of me that questions the ethics of what amounts to a tax on people who can’t afford to go green. Everyone pays into the pool of government funding via regular taxes, but only the people who can afford to make environmentally-preferable choices reap any financial benefit.

It seems to me to make more sense to spend money incenting big businesses to go green. First, a large company has more resources than a single individual, and second, companies are likely to have a faster impact on the market for green products and services than individuals. Luckily, in a lot of ways this is already happening – not necessarily in the form of financial give-backs, but in the form of government procurement policies that favor green vendors over non-green ones.

For example, the United States Department of Defense’s (DOD’s) green procurement policy requires that green products or services must be considered “as the first choice in ALL procurements,” and green purchasing is required in the areas of office products, printing services, fleet vehicles, building construction/maintenance, traffic control, park and recreation, appliances and lighting. If you’re selling to the DOD, you have a major financial incentive to go green.

Hewlett-Packard has a long tally of photocopiers and laser jet printers on the EcoLogo-certified list, so I thought I’d share some information on the company’s environmentally-preferable products and the business results from HP’s efforts.

Public sector customers are beginning to move toward green public procurement, which means companies like HP have a competitive advantage. Companies that have products with certification, such as EcoLogo or Greenseal, are able to compete for those contracts where competitors that don’t meet environmental standards may not. As another example, according to an AMR report (which provided much of the information here on Hewlett-Packard), HP has begun measuring corporate request-for-proposal dollars from RFPs specifically asking for information on items like supply chain practices and materials used in relation to corporate responsibility goals. That number topped six billion dollars in 2005.

The biggest benefit to HP from its green initiatives may be the company’s ability to stay ahead of both government regulations and market pressures for sustainable practices. The AMR report goes so far as to suggest that HP’s approach to greening its supply chain could rival business-model disruptors like Dell, with its made-to-order computers, and Southwest, with its low-cost airline strategy. Whether or not that theory proves true, HP has created an infrastructure and product strategy – including meeting the strict environmental requirements of EcoLogo certification – that should generate greater and greater returns in the years ahead.

Did you get gadgets for the holiday? Even if your electronics don’t meet the green grade, you can still improve the situation by using the right rechargeable batteries to power them. Pure Energy batteries are EcoLogo-certified, meeting stringent criteria on minimum battery life, manufacturing waste specifications and manufacturing materials. Batteries that are EcoLogo-certified may not be manufactured or formulated with mercury, cadmium or their compounds (except where such substances are present as naturally occurring trace contaminant associated with other battery components).

In further good news, while Pure Energy batteries have been widely available in Canada for years, the company just signed a national distribution agreement in the US with Conros Corporation. Keep an eye out for Pure Energy batteries on US retail shelves in 2008.

Tis the season for resolutions and the green blogs are full of them. Green Daily says three quarters of Americans plan to be more environmentally responsible in 2008. The Green Daily has a Top Seven resolutions list that includes using recycled paper products at home and reusable bags for grocery shopping. Here’s our contribution to the New Year’s resolution melee. You can start small and still make a big difference in the next 12 months.

Clean Green
Even if your home isn’t spic and span, the occasional good scrubbing can use an awful lot of liquid cleaner. In 2008, consider using a greener cleaner for wiping down bathtubs and countertops. The EcoLogo standard for environmentally-preferable cleaners includes strict requirements for toxicity, biodegradability and bioaccumulation, prohibited and restricted compounds, physical properties and packaging. In addition to being better for your health, these cleaners reduce the potential for smog formation, ozone depletion and greater landfill waste.

Product spotlight: Looking for an EcoLogo-certified cleaner to start the year off right? Among many other options, check out “Imus Greening the Cleaning” cleaner on retail shelves.

Become a Green Advocate at Work
Whether you work in small office or a large corporation, you can make your voice heard in the procurement office (or the admin assistant’s cubicle, as the case may be). Let the person in charge of buying office supplies know that you are in favor of greener materials, and provide information on the purchasing options available. Pick one category of products to start: paper, envelopes, garbage bags, cleaning supplies, office machines, you name it. There’s probably a greener alternative than the one that’s currently being used.

Product spotlight: Boise Aspen brand paper meets EcoLogo requirements, scoring well across an array of categories including resource consumption and energy use in the manufacturing process. Plug in your zip code to see where to buy.

Make Home Improvement an Environmental Improvement
Spring seems like an awfully long time away, but in a few more months you’ll likely start thinking about new home improvement projects for the year. Before you start making plans, consider the materials you could be using. From paint to flooring, there are environmentally-preferable options out there.

Product Spotlight: Start your painting job with a greener primer - one with a low concentration of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). There are many choices, including Benjamin Moore’s Fresh Start All Purpose Primer. (Product fact sheet in PDF form)