GreenScreen Launches Certification for Textile Chemicals

Clean Production Action recently tossed its hat into the ring of those attempting to recognize whole formulations with greener chemistries by releasing Greenscreen Certified Standard for Textile Chemicals. The certification relies on GreenScreen, the hazard assessment framework behind Health Product Declarations and other transparency programs. Now the framework will feed into the organization’s own suite of certifications.

Greenscreen’s first certification is limited to textile chemicals. It was chosen because of demand from the apparel industry, Mark Rossi, Ph.D., executive director of Clean Production Action said during a webcast about the certification’s launch. (The only chemicals currently certified are made by Garmon, a denim supplier.) But demand from one industry might serve another if this certification it becomes a useful addition to the few other certifications that apply to woven fabrics used for upholstery or interior design—products that have a troubling environmental and social-equity record.

To be certified, a textile chemical must meet the requirements of the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals Group B Manufacturing Restricted Substances List and report all intentionally added substances as well as impurities greater than 100 ppm. Once that criteria is met, there are three levels of certification that become increasingly more rigorous, both in terms of the level of hazard permitted and precision of the evaluation required:

• Bronze: Contains no chemicals with an LT-1 score
• Silver: Contains no BM-1 chemicals as assessed using the GreenScreen for Safer Chemicals method
• Gold: Contain no substances or impurities that have a GreenScreen score of BM-1 or BM-2

To understand these levels, see Understanding GreenScreen and List Translator Benchmarks. For comparison, Option 2 of MRc4 in LEED v4 currently requires that 25% of products by cost contain no chemicals with an LT-1 score.