Green Architecture & Building Products

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Material or Product

Pharos Project (Fee-Based)

Source

The Pharos Project provides (for a subscription fee) a method for evaluating green building materials that promote environmental health. Using a transparent web-based model, Pharos is made up of three elements: the Framework, Lens, and Wiki. Mapping a 360-degree view of green material attributes, the Pharos framework is organized into three categories (1) Health + Pollution (2) Environment + Resources and (3) Social + Community. Comprised of a series of wedges, the Pharos Lens is a tool for signaling, documenting and visualizing the environmental and social performance of products in the marketplace. The Pharos Label accompanies the lens and offers additional information. The lens and label together allow Pharos users to determine the most important attributes to them. The Pharos Wiki is a virtual commons where material users can discuss green materials.

Pharos is not meant to replace other materials standards; it is designed to work with current standards, labels, and rating systems to help place them into context to provide a more complex picture of the full impact of a product.

The Pharos Project is a collaborative initiative of organizations including the Healthy Building Network and the University of Tennessee Center for Clean Products and Clean Technologies. The project relies on partnership between those who use building materials and those who study the products’ impacts on health and the environment.

Impact categories include: • VOC - Volatile Organic Compounds • ToxCon - Toxic Content • MfrTox - Manufacturing Toxics • RnMtrl - Renewable Materials • RnEnrg - Renewable Energy • Reflct - Reflectance

Certifications can be browsed by type: • Biobased content • Composite Wood • Energy • Formaldehyde content • LCA • Management • Multi-attribute • Organic agriculture • Recycled content • Sustainable forestry • VOC content • VOC emissions

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