Sustainable Certification Made Easy: The USG Sustainability Tool

Sustainability is a holistic concept that encompasses each of USG’s core values that drive both business and innovation forward. We understand the complexity that sustainability requirements can bring to a project, which makes it critical for USG customers to have a resource to aid in sustainable building product specification.

Building upon the success of a similar sustainable resource called the LEED Report Tool, USG developed and released the USG Sustainability Tool powered by ecomedes in 2019. Upon its release, it offered all USG customers unprecedented insight into green building initiatives and the products it takes to build with sustainability in mind.

Specifying Sustainably

In a world of heightened eco-consciousness, there are many green building initiatives and certifications that offer the built environment a slew of both environmental and health benefits. Even though the benefits and impact of building within these initiatives are great strides towards a more sustainable future, there are still many strict requirements that must be met to even be considered for a coveted certification.

The USG Sustainability Tool empowers USG customers with a resource containing all the proper information to apply for LEED, LBC, and WELL certifications, among others. Rather than combing through USG product data to find the right sustainability information, all of that data is compiled and transferred to ecomedes, the sustainability reporting platform that powers the Sustainability Tool.

By partnering with ecomedes, it is USG’s goal to provide more robust, transparent sustainability data to customers. The following benefits are currently available to all users on USG.com through the Sustainability Tool:

• Localized source for all sustainability-related information on USG products
  • Health Product Declarations (HPDs), Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), Declare Labels, GreenGuard Gold status, Recycled Content, and USDA Bio Preferred status
    • Each will be directly linked to the product page through ecomedes
• Streamlined process of finding information on green building certification
  • LEED, LBC Certification, WELL, Red-list compliance, and more
• Ability to analyze an entire USG purchase order directly against the newest Green Building Rating Systems in the market
• Inclusion of USG products in the world’s largest database of eco-performance building materials
• Product groups like wallboard, sheathing, ceilings, grid, joint treatment, and more

Work Smarter, Not Harder

Looking at the landscape of sustainable construction and its myriad of rules and regulations, the Sustainability Tool is an effort to work smarter and faster with first-class sustainability data to help inform USG customers and set them up for success.

“When the construction industry started to see the need for sustainable practices… project teams would use our EPDs, HPDs, Declare Labels, and CDPH 01350 standard certifications to obtain a specific green building achievement level,” says USG Sustainability Manager Stacy Simpson.

Obtaining a LEED building certification will often require a project team to submit 1,000+ supporting documents for evaluation, and as you’d might imagine, things can get complicated. “Considering all the work that goes into constructing a green building, the use of the USG Sustainability Tool can cut out unnecessary document searching and evaluates how products contribute to the specific points/credits,” says Simpson.

Often, the contractor or project manager working to gather the necessary sustainability information does not have a full understanding of what is needed. The ability to screen products against the green standard to inform and guide a green building project is perhaps the most impactful function of the USG Sustainability Tool.

“We strive to take the burden off of the project team,” says Simpson, and that speaks to the essence of digital innovation at USG. If our products must exceed our customers’ expectations, then we expect no less from our digital offerings and the actionable ways in which they help us achieve our goals.

Visit the USG Sustainability Tool for a firsthand look at how USG is utilizing digital innovation to make a real-world impact.