Monday, May 18, 2009

Contact: Martin Flaherty (866.527.0225)

Brattleboro, VT (May 18, 2009)—BuildingGreen LLC, publisher of the GreenSpec® Directory and Environmental Building News™ today announced a partnership with ecoScorecard℠, an Atlanta-based organization advancing green building by organizing and simplifying the product evaluation and documentation for important environmental rating systems.

This partnership pairs a respected and independent source of green building information with a platform that enhances the usefulness of green product information. The GreenSpec Directory helps the green building community find sustainable products, while ecoScorecard offers an effective way to identify and evaluate products against every significant environmental rating system. ecoScorecard also provides documentation of third-party certification for the products in its database.

“The ecoScorecard platform provides a deeper level of functionality to our GreenSpec Directory,” explained Nadav Malin, President of BuildingGreen. “The value for our clients is having all of this information in one place.”

BuildingGreen’s online GreenSpec Directory will provide links to ecoScorecard sites; likewise, ecoScorecard will identify manufacturer’s products that are also listed in the GreenSpec Directory.

“We’ve built a system that makes product evaluation easier” said Martin Flaherty, President of ecoScorecard. ”And we’re excited to partner with BuildingGreen to offer ecoScorecard to their committed audience of green builders and product manufacturers.”

“We’d like to see manufacturers that are truly committed to sustainability work together to help simplify the product evaluation process for the architecture and design community, through platforms like ecoScorecard or other means. We need to eliminate the confusion around green building products,” said Malin, “and today BuildingGreen is taking that step with ecoScorecard.”

For more information, visit http://ecoscorecard.com/.

About BuildingGreen

BuildingGreen, www.BuildingGreen.com, has provided the building industry with quality information on sustainable design and construction since its founding in 1985. It is headquartered in Brattleboro, Vermont. Its publications include Environmental Building News; the GreenSpec Directory; the residential design and construction resource GreenBuildingAdvisor.com; and the integrated, online BuildingGreen Suite. For information, visit www.BuildingGreen.com or call 802-257-7300.

About ecoScorecard

ecoScorecard℠ is a Web-based tool that supports a manufacturer’s web site by cataloging its green products and providing architects and designers with the ability to evaluate each product based on its environmental characteristics. ecoScorecardSM does the calculations necessary for six environmental rating systems; (LEED, GGHC, Labs 21, CHPS, NAHB, Re:Green and third-party certifications) and produces the product documentation in a saved project folder or as a PDF necessary for inclusion in the submission process. For additional information visit ecoScorecard℠ or call 866.527.0225.

Boston, GA, November 19, 2008— Launched at Greenbuild one year ago, ecoScorecard returns to the conference with 12 new manufacturers on board and a track record of success helping architects and designers identify and spec environmentally-sensitive products and materials.

Using a system of embedded algorithms, ecoScorecard lets manufacturers catalogue their green products and provide architects with the ability to search and evaluate each product based on its environmental characteristics. The program does the calculations necessary for 5 rating systems; LEED, GGHC Labs, CHPS, NAHB and third-party certifications; and produces the product documentation necessary for inclusion in the submission process. 

Manufacturers new to the site include flooring providers Azrock, Bigelow, Bolyu, Cambridge, Designweave, Karastan, LEES, Patcraft, Roppe, Shaw Contract and Shaw Hospitality; furniture manufacturers el and HBF; wallcoverings by Novawall and textiles from HBF Textiles.  They join Armstrong,  J&J / Invision,  and Kirei, among others, who have been on the site since its inception.

“We have had so much positive feedback from both manufacturers and architects who had been frustrated in the past by the amount of time and research required to investigate and spec green products,” said Martin Flaherty, founding partner, Viridity Inc., the Atlanta-based company that launched ecoScorecard. “We have responded by making upgrades to the site, adding more manufacturers and incorporating the specs of certification programs as they emerge and change.”

The algorithms for ecoScorecard were designed by Chief Technology Officer, David Carlson.  “We realized that there was a critical need in the marketplace to bridge the information gap simply and inexpensively. So we created ecoScorecard for manufacturers to do just that.”

ecoScorecard is free for architects and designers to use and is paid for by manufacturers interested in displaying their products’ environmental attributes more simply.  

ecoScorecard will be exhibiting at USGBC’s Green Build this year. ecoScorescard’s booth 2200, will feature group as well as individual demonstrations.  

About ecoScorecard

 ecoScorecard is a web-based tool that supports a manufacturer’s web site by cataloging its 
green products and providing architects and designers with the ability to evaluate each product based on its environmental characteristics. Through embedded algorithms, the program does the calculations necessary for 5 environmental rating systems; (LEED, GGHC Labs, CHPS, NAHB and third-party certifications) and produces the product documentation in a saved project folder or as a PDF necessary for inclusion in the submission process. www.ecoscorecard.com or 866.527.0225 

About Viridity

Viridity is a consultancy that helps executive management teams develop a full circle view of environmental standards. Viridity delivers a clear analysis of what has to be done to fulfill the needs of the green consumer and a plan to make the analysis real. Viridity, LLC. www.viridityinc.com or  866.527.0225

The ecoScorecard founders work in the field of sustainability and bring their perspectives on rating systems, the green building movement as well random thoughts to the discussion. 

About ecoScorecard

ecoScorecard is a web-based tool that supports a manufacturer’s web site by cataloging its green products and providing architects and designers with the ability to evaluate each product based on its environmental characteristics. Through embedded algorithms, the program does the calculations necessary for leading environmental rating systems; (LEED, GGHC Labs, CHPS, NAHB and third-party certifications) and produces the product documentation in a saved project folder or as a PDF necessary for inclusion in the submission process. www.ecoscorecard.com or 866.527.0225

Using a system of embedded algorithms, ecoScorecard lets manufacturers catalogue their green products and provide architects with the ability to search and evaluate each product based on its environmental characteristics. The program does the calculations necessary for 5 rating systems; LEED, GGHC Labs, CHPS, NAHB and third-party certifications; and produces the product documentation necessary for inclusion in the submission process.

“In the green-building arena, there is so much frustration: architects spend their time trying to gather accurate data for environmental impact while manufacturers find their sales teams tied up researching environmental impact,” says Martin Flaherty, founding partner, Viridity Inc., the Atlanta-based company that launched ecoScorecard. “With ecoScorecard, we are bridging that gap with a powerful tool that can make manufacturers’ products more attractive by making them so much easier to spec.”

The algorithms for ecoScorecard were designed by Viridity co-founder Paul Shahriari, a U.S. Green Building Council faculty member who previously built customized versions of similar products for such clients as Shaw Carpet. “We realized that there was a critical need in the marketplace to bridge the information gap simply and inexpensively. So we created ecoScorecard for manufacturers to do just that.”

ecoScorecard is free for architects and designers to use and is paid for by manufacturers interested in displaying their products’ environmental attributes more simply.  Armstrong Flooring and J&J Commercial already have signed on as clients.

ecoScorecard will be exhibiting at USGBC’s Green Build this year. ecoScorescard’s booth 912, will feature group as well as, individual demonstrations.  ecoScorecard can also be viewed at Armstrong,  J&J / Invision,  and Kirei’s booth.

About Viridity

Viridity is a consultancy that helps executive management teams develop a full circle view of environmental standards. Viridity delivers a clear analysis of what has to be done to fulfill the needs of the green consumer and a plan to make the analysis real. Viridity, LLC. www.viridityinc.com or  866.527.0225