Tuscany Gauges Green

The Green Home eco-label project, described on page one, requires in-depth analysis of materials and processes used in the Tuscan furniture industry. To accomplish this, the project applies Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methods, which generates a large inventory of environmental information on each product submitted for evaluation.

The collected data is assembled with Simapro 5 and analyzed with Eco-indicator 99. The software determines the amount of damage to air, water and soil caused by a component's production and/or machining processes and assigns an "ecological impact" value to it.

The project experts determined the following three areas of "damage" to the environment, each with a specific level of impact:

	[1]	Damage to human health - 50%
		Determined by the number of years of illness or deaths caused by the environmental effect
	[2]	Damage to the eco-system - 33%
		Determined by the threat of species extinction
	[3]	Damage to mineral/fossil resources - 17%
		Determined by the amount of energy required to extract

The chart shows the results of environmental assessment for some common furniture materials. Eco-system damage [2] (a relatively rare occurrence in practice) was assigned a high value (33%) for obvious reasons - a species cannot be recreated once lost. Green Home determined most damage occurs in groups [1] and [3]. Note: Because of transportation distances North American wood species receive a higher damage rating than European species.

LCA Comparison of Common Furniture Materials

The data in the chart uses a standard measurement of 1 kg of material. A similar method for comparing "apples with apples" was needed to compare different items of furniture, as weight would be inappropriate. The developed standards are as follows:

Item	Unit of Measurement
Sofas/chairs	per number of seats
Kitchens	per linear metre
Wardrobes	per cubic metre
Desks/Tables	per square metre
Beds	per number of sleepers

The complex LCA analysis (of which VCR has provided only a few examples) results in a final tally of all the ecological impact values. Products with less than 600 impact values receive an "A" rating; those with less than 200 receive the highest "AA" rating. Companies granted the "AA" rating and which have certification from other bodies, such as FSC and ISO 14001, can declare an "AA+" rating.

In the final analysis, only consumers making informed decisions can safeguard our environment. With its simplified A, AA, AA+ ratings, the Green Home label allows consumers to gauge the green of their purchases.