Green Seal Disputes Decision by CRI

Washington, DC, Jan. 15, 2009 — Green Seal has taken issue with the Carpet and Rug Institute's recent decision to withdraw support from GS-37, Green Seal's standard for institutional cleaning products over concerns about process.

Green Seal is a third-party certifier of green products and services, which first published its standard in 2000. GS-37 has become the single most-referenced environmental standard in the cleaning industry.

“We trust that government agencies that are charged with protecting the health of their citizens will choose to support a standard that protects the health of children and other vulnerable populations,” says Arthur Weissman, CEO of Green Seal,

The Green Seal process strictly followed the ISO 14024 standard, Green Seal said. These guiding principles for environmental labels are different from ANSI guidelines in that they require that reasonable efforts be made to achieve consensus but do not require that all stakeholders vote the same way.

Green Seal said there were 400 registered stakeholders engaged in the standard development process, including chemical manufacturers, children's health advocates, facilities workers, government agencies, and institutional purchasers

It said the process to develop GS-37 was open and transparent, as required by ISO. It noted that ISO 14024 also requires that the criteria of a standard be based on sound scientific and engineering principles and be derived from data that support the claim of environmental preferability and that the revised GS-37 is based on peer-reviewed scientific data.

Green Seal said the majority of stakeholders, including government agencies, environmental and public health groups, accept the published standard and continue to support it.