Building Products and Furnishings

Manufacturers in the building products and furnishings sector face ever-increasing requests from customers to provide information on performance aspects like water and energy use, air quality and recycling practises, social accountability, and human health and safety.

NSF’s sustainability standards for building products and furnishings cover multiple attributes across the life cycle of a product.

Certification levels are earned by meeting prerequisite and optional criteria in categories such as material use and management, manufacturing processes, corporate governance, end-of-product-life management, and innovation.

Certification can contribute toward sustainable building ratings such as LEED, WELL and the Living Building Challenge.

Three of NSF’s standards are included in the U.S. EPA’s federal purchasing recommendations, which help federal purchasers identify and procure environmentally sustainable products and services.

We certify to the following standards:

NSF/ANSI 140: Sustainability Assessment for Carpet. The Sustainability Assessment for Carpet standard provides a market-based definition and path to more sustainable carpet through performance requirements for the individual product and the manufacturing organisation. The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) requires all broadloom and carpet tile purchased by the U.S. government to be certified to NSF/ANSI 140 at the gold certification level. Certification is based on point totals to achieve a silver, gold, or platinum level.

LEVEL® offers an open and transparent means of evaluating and communicating the environmental and social impacts of furniture products in the built environment. The LEVEL programme has three performance tiers: LEVEL 1, 2 and 3. The higher the number, the more criteria are met.

ANSI/NSC 373: Sustainable Production of Natural Dimension Stone establishes criteria to measure the extent to which natural stone is produced sustainably using a life cycle approach. The standard is applicable to quarriers and processors of natural dimension stone.

The Sustainability Assessment for Wallcovering Products standard allows companies to evaluate and certify the sustainability of wallcovering products across their entire life cycle to certification levels conformant, silver, gold, or platinum. The standard covers materials such as textiles, vinyl, alternative polymer, paper and other natural fibre products.

The Sustainability Assessment for Resilient Floor Coverings standard is the foremost standard by which to evaluate and certify the sustainability of Resilient Flooring products across their entire product life to achieve Level 1 or Level 2 status.

Based on life-cycle assessment principles, NSF/ANSI 347 employs an easy-to-use point system to evaluate roofing membrane products against established prerequisite requirements, performance criteria and quantifiable metrics in five key areas: Product Design, Product Manufacturing, Membrane Durability, Corporate Governance, and Innovation.

This standard covers products that contact drinking water, wastewater, and recreational water and their packaging. The document includes relevant criteria across the product(s) life cycle from raw material extraction through manufacturing, use, and end-of-life management.