The Pharos Project is a graphical green labelling system. In the same spirit as the FDA’s nutrition labels, Pharos would go on all building materials. Consumers can look at the label and get a visual indicator of the environmental impact.
A project of the good people at Healthy Building Network, Pharos is very well researched and thought out.
The framework they created is very complex, but Lifecycle Assessment is a complex subject.
There are three main categories:
1. Environment-Resource
2. Social-Community
3. Health-Pollution
which are then broken down into specific indicators:
1. Environment-Resource
Water: Net Use
Energy: Embodied
Energy: Renewable
Materials: Renewable
2. Social-Community
User Exposures
Solid Waste
Water Quality
Air Quality
Climate Change
Toxic Releases
3. Health-Pollution
Occupational Safety
Consumer Safety
Fair Compensation
Equality
Community Contributions
Corporate Practices
For an explanation of how the label works, and for the full label go HERE:
or HERE for the categories:
Pharos is not the first rating system I have seen to use a graphical display. Reveal, offers a cleaner and numeric system to rate the greeness of materials. I like both of these, but the real test is how normal consumers will react. Which would you use?
Other related links:
