The surge of green building keeps growing, but when a facility executive simply specifies green products and building materials, is that really a clear indication of what an environmentally friendly product is? Green can mean different things to different people, and products and materials can be green in completely different ways.

According to this Web page on the AIA Web site, green products and materials can be examined using five categories by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Some categories, such as how much recycled content goes into make the product, are obvious and self-explanatory. Facility executives are also usually versed in the potential for VOC off-gassing, a factor that contributes to the IAQ of a facility.

Other categories in specifying a green products or materials might not be so obvious. Whether the product has “low embodied energy,” for example. This category measures the embodied energy in the quantity of fuels and electricity used to mine or harvest raw materials, transport them, and process them into a product ready for delivery to a construction site. Unless a facility executive is extremely green-minded, I could easily see that criteria being inadvertently overlooked when searching for a truly green product or material.

The five categories, when it comes down to it, simply examine the environmental life-cycle of a material. It starts with what the product is made from, where it came from, how it’s transported, how it will act installed in a facility, and finally, what’s involved in the end of it’s life including the removal process and recyclability. The less total environmental footprint over the product or material’s life, the greener the product. Hopefully, these five categories will help facility executives take a closer look at which products and materials really are the greenest.