EdOnline

Construction is going green. As both sustainability and efficiency advance in the built environment, architects, specifiers, and buyers are increasingly concerned with purchasing products that are environmentally friendly and can achieve project performance and client welfare goals. Architects and designers are, in essence, visionaries. This course explores options that architects and designers have when choosing products that accurately support and fuel their passion for possibilities while maintaining the health, safety, and welfare of clients. Definitions of environmental product declarations (EPDs), product category rules (PCRs), and life-cycle assessments (LCAs) are discussed, and various case studies are examined. NEWH Category: Green Voice (Sustainability) Health Care, Govt. Insitutional, Facilities Management, Office/Corporate, Hospitality/Entertainment, Retail/Store Planning - discuss how environmental product declarations allow for apples-to-apples comparisons of building products in terms of hygiene, welfare, and health performance - explain how product category rules establish clear, consistent evaluation methods for building products as a means to help ensure and validate the environmental performance of buildings - describe how EPDs, PCRs, and LCAs can be used together to assess and optimize the hygiene, health, and sustainability characteristics of high-performance restroom design, and - apply the information provided by environmental and efficiency standards when making product and welfare decisions.