Test green claims with life-cycle thinking
Use life-cycle thinking to test whether a building-material sustainability claim is specific and defensible.
The principle: if the boundary is vague, the sustainability claim is weak. Name the comparison A claim needs a baseline: prior product, market alternative, code-minimum assembly, or customer-specified substitute. Without a baseline, the customer cannot tell whether the improvement is meaningful. Name the functional unit Building materials perform functions. Compare per square meter at the same R-value, per cubic meter at the same strength class, per installed roof area over the same service life, or per fire-rated assembly. The unit protects the analysis from apples-to-oranges claims. Name the boundary Cradle-to-gate, cradle-to-site, use phase, replacement cycle, and end-of-life tell different stories.…
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