Establishing Comprehensive American National Product Sustainability Standards for the Water Treatment and Distribution Industries

Over the last several years, growth of the green building industry and demand for independently validated environmental product claims have prompted the development of consensus, multi-attribute product sustainability assessment standards. NSF has a longstanding relationship with the water industry through its American National product safety and performance standards and certification programs for drinking water conveyance and treatment products, recreational water products, and wastewater treatment products. Beginning in 2011, NSF initiated development of sustainability product standards for the entire water treatment and distribution product industry.

Comprehensive sustainability assessment standards are life-cycle-based and include environmental as well as social and governance criteria. This provides companies with a broad template for imbedding more sustainable processes into their product development and operations as well as the organizational side of their business. Sustainability assessment standards help define a path for continual improvement in both product and organizational sustainability.

A typical NSF/ANSI sustainability assessment standard employs an easy-to use point system to evaluate products or services against prerequisite requirements, performance criteria and quantifiable metrics in key areas. There is typically an aggregation of single attribute criteria to assess a product or service on a life cycle basis. For instance single attributes such as recycled content, air emissions, renewable materials content, etc. are included as appropriate to help define “sustainability”. Prerequisite requirements and performance criteria typically found in sustainability standards fall into the following assessment categories: 

• Product Design and Materials Selection
• Water Use and Conservation
• Energy and Atmosphere
• Human and Ecological Health
• Social Responsibility/ Corporate Governance
• Disposal and End of Life

With this common template of criteria, credits are earned toward a minimum threshold of performance.

To develop a Sustainability Assessment standard for the water industry, NSF is utilizing a consensus-based process with a Joint Committee member body comprised of stakeholders in various categories. Experts in government, water and wastewater infrastructure and chemicals, non-government organizations, trade associations, along with the growing community of experts in sustainability attributes and life cycle assessments will meet to develop sustainability assessment standards for the water industry.