How green building labels give orientation for sustainable buildings
More and more building owners – private and public alike – feel responsible for its users and the environment. Thus, their aim is to build sustainable buildings, buildings which form a healthy environment and are consciously handling resources.
Generally speaking, green building labels offer an orientation and support the idea of sustainable buildings. The labels, which have their origin in different countries and look at different aspects, are established as valuable guidelines for manufacturers and building owners alike.
Overview of green building labels
Four labels represent the standard for sustainability today: The oldest of them is BREEAM, originally founded in the UK, but with a nearly global coverage today. It has more than half a million certifications worldwide and features country-specific versions such as BREEAM-NL for the Netherlands. The second, LEED, started in the United States in 1998. It also has country-specific certifications. DGNB is a certificate which comes from Germany, but has gained international acknowledgement since it started in 2007. The youngest label is the WELL-label, coming from the United States in 2014 and growing fast. WELL focuses exclusively on the comfort and wellbeing of building users.
All of these green building labels use different systems for the accreditation. With the exception of DGNB, they all recognize Cradle to Cradle products as part of the system. DGNB does so in an indirect way: By using Cradle to Cradle products, users gain additional points for the certification. No matter which label you choose, Cradle to Cradle products play an important role for the assessment – and there is a reason for this.
The Cradle to Cradle label
Cradle to cradle is a worldwide recognized product label. Because Cradle to Cradle is all about safe products, sustainable production and optimised recycling, this results in a less negative environmental impact. It also results in a better score in the Product Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). The results of the LCA are communicated in the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD).
Altogether, this means a strong standardization in assessing products and their contribution to sustainability. The label owners appreciate these standards and have thus integrated Cradle to Cradle in their certification system.
Mosa is one of the few that are registered in sustainable product databases both in Europe (e.g. Nationale Milieudatabase and DGNB Navigator) and in the USA (e.g. Mindful Materials and Declare). It makes the tiles easier to find for customers looking for sustainable products or striving to reach a green building certification. You can find an overview of our certifications in the different labels here.
From an overall perspective, these labels strongly support circularity in the building industry. If you want to learn more about this support and how everything links together, watch our Circular Construction webinar here.
