Why and how to meet the Gensler Product Sustainability (GPS) Standards

If you’ve ever walked around a major United States metropolitan city, you’ve likely seen, passed by, or even been in a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified building.

According to the United States Green Building Council, there are “197,000 LEED projects worldwide,” touching “186 countries and territories”, with over “29 billion +SF.” When you enter a LEED building, you can take a deep breath and realize that the building is not only healthy for you, but it is healthy for the environment.

Enter the Gensler Product Sustainability (GPS) Standards v1.1. Gensler is an “architecture, design, and planning firm” with a large global footprint. Gensler recently introduced their sustainability standards for their customers, including criteria in their specifications for clients.

How to use the Gensler sustainability standards

One tool that Gensler provides is an interactive table that one can use to narrow down requirements in two jurisdictions, Europe and the UK, and US and Canada. From there, there are a plethora of industries to narrow down the search. For instance, if you are in the flooring industry in the US, you can select your “Region” and “Product Category” – in this case “Resilient Flooring and Base” and a table will pop up that shows different categories including “Organizational Commitments,” “Life-Cycle Impacts” and more.

The default view shows the relevant Gensler Standard for each category. Interestingly, Gensler uses what might be considered the industry-best requirements – such as California state requirements – see “Indoor Air Impacts”.