Washington, D.C., October 27th – Green Seal, the nation’s first independent nonprofit certifier of sustainable products and services, has announced that public comments are being accepted on a proposed standard for environmental innovation.

The proposed standard is intended to guide the creation of innovative products and technologies, and provide a basis for an independent certification or verification.

The standard will be limited to commercially available products, services, technologies or processes that provide significant overall benefits for human and environmental health compared to mainstream alternatives, and that are not covered by existing Green Seal or other Type 1 ecolabel standards available in the U.S.

The proposed standard is based on a multi-attribute evaluation of environmental aspects across key life-cycle stages.  It would provide the basis for two types of recognition. The first type would be Green Seal Certification for Environmental Innovation, granted to highly innovative initiatives. For the second type of recognition, Green Seal would use the framework defined by the standard to grant a Validation of specific environmental and human health benefits to eligible initiatives.

Public comments on the proposed standard are being accepted until November 7th.

Innovation will be defined by a product or technology’s ability to provide an environmental benefit such as:

· Improved performance or increased environmental value achieved in a way unusual for the market category

· Improved technical or environmental efficiency

· An alternative to an existing practice that avoids, reduces or eliminates hazards to human health and environment, reduces use of limited resources or reduces or eliminates waste and pollution discharges

· Conversion of waste materials into valuable resources

· Technologies or processes combined in innovative ways in order to solve a problem without increasing environmental impacts.

“We recognize that environmental innovation is vital to further our mission of increasing the sustainability of our economy,” says Arthur B. Weissman, Ph.D., President and CEO of Green Seal. “But with so many different categories of products and services in the market, it is a challenge to develop standards for them all. This standard uses a life-cycle approach to determine whether something could be certified as a genuine environmental innovation.”

Parties interested in commenting on the proposed Innovation Standard can do so by registering at collaborase.com/gs-environmental-innovation-2014.

ABOUT GREEN SEAL, INC.

The original “Green Seal of Approval” was founded in 1989 to help safeguard the health of people and the planet. As an independent, science-based standards developer and certification body, Green Seal identifies products and services that are environmentally responsible, and provides public education for creating a more sustainable world. Call (202) 872-6400 for more information, or visit www.GreenSeal.org for links to all Green Seal standards and certified products and services.