Questions to Ask to Find Out If a Product is Green (with Eric Corey Freed) - buildaroo.com

There is a lot of information out there regarding what is green. There are a lot of certification agencies each certifying different elements, and it is hard to really know what to rely on. It is all very confusing. In this time when green and green standards are still developing, how can we know what to rely on? How can we determine what companies and products are really green? We met with Eric Corey Freed, principle of Organic Architect and author of Green Building for Dummies, in search for an answer to this question.

According to Eric, green is not black and white. There are a lot of shades of grey. To deal with this, Eric encourages people to not just take company claims at face value. He says to "ask the right questions, because the questions start to paint a picture almost intuitively. Is this green? Does it feel green?" So what are the right questions? Here are some he mentions:

1. What is this made from?

2. Where does it come from?

3. What are the byproducts of making it?

4. How healthy is it?

5. What are we going to do with it when we're done with it?

When asking these questions you should keep in mind that there is no perfect material. All materials have some form of impact, and out job is to minimize and mitigate that.

Eric feels that the problem in the green industry is the companies that blatantly lie or unintentionally misdirect people about the health aspects of their products or the recycled content. For example, the company will say this is made from recycled material, but really if only 3% if recycled material that doesn't seem like much. It's dubious at best, and why isn't it more? A simple question about recycled content will allow you to see through this.

This video was produced by buildaroo.com and can be found on the buildaroo.com website. For more videos about sustainable companies, professionals and products, check out buildaroo.com.

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