We have a product that has a Foorscore symbol on their cutsheet, however when we requesed the certificate number and dates we were sent a UL Certificate of Conformity (haven't seen this before).
The UL testing references NSF/ANSI 332-2011, Sustainability Assessment for Resilient Floor Coverings as the standard, however when reading this standard we can only see California 1350 referenced but cannot tell if the standad actually meets the testing requirements of 01350.
Anyone have any experience with this new player to the 3rd party certification game?
Josh Jacobs
Technical Information & Public Affairs ManagerUL Environment
515 thumbs up
July 12, 2013 - 2:06 pm
Donald - for transparency sake let me say that I am the Technical Information and Public Affairs Manager for UL Environment's division. The certificate of conformity does show compliance with this credits criteria and here is how.
The credit requires that the product shows compliance to a California test methodology that is refered to as CA 01350. This can be done in numerous ways - FloorScore, UL GREENGUARD Gold (previously Children & Schools), CRI Green Label Plus, or test report from product emission lab. As you have noted, the certificate of conformity was for NSF 332, which is a multi-attribute sustainability standard for resilient flooring. Within this standard there is a prerequisite that the product passes CA 01350 requirements simply to be certified to it. So by showing that the product is certified to NSF 332, you are also showing that it is certified to CA 01350.
I know that it is a couple of dots to be connected, but it is a legitimate connection, of which CA 01350 is the basis. I hope this makes sense for you and your team. Congratulations by the way, you are now taking the next step in sustainability by using a sustainable multi-attribute flooring opiton.
Peggy White
White + GreenSpec88 thumbs up
July 12, 2013 - 2:24 pm
@Donald - to clarify - the NSF/ANSI Standard is not a 3rd party verification - it is a standard develop by the resilient flooring industry.
For more clarification on FloorScore: http://www.rfci.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=80&Item...
Scientific Certification Systems Global Services (SCS)is a 3rd party verification provider who verifies FloorScore compliance.
Donald Green
Sr Project Manager / Operations ManagerProgressive AE
35 thumbs up
July 12, 2013 - 2:23 pm
Thanks Josh for such a quick and thorough response!
Josh Jacobs
Technical Information & Public Affairs ManagerUL Environment
515 thumbs up
July 12, 2013 - 2:25 pm
Peggy - as a voting member of that committee I have to correct you in the sense that it is an NSF ANSI standard, not an RFCI standard. RFCI members are voting members, but there are people outside of that industry that are voting members as well. Anyone is allowed to propose changes to the standard that the committee has to review and vote on.
Like almost all reputable sustainable standards it looks to 3rd party organizations to verify products to it. The certification Donald has talked about (to NSF 332) is a 3rd party verification of compliance with the standard by Underwriters Laboratories.
Peggy White
White + GreenSpec88 thumbs up
July 12, 2013 - 3:29 pm
Well, color me confused - you're saying that you are a member of the committee who developed the NSF/ANSI standard AND you are a 3rd party certifier? Could you please identify the members of the committee who developed the NSF/ANSI standard?
Thanks!
Josh Jacobs
Technical Information & Public Affairs ManagerUL Environment
515 thumbs up
July 12, 2013 - 3:56 pm
The committee listing is available here: http://standards.nsf.org/apps/org/workgroup/flooring_jc/members/roster.php
Some ANSI standards (as this one was) are voted on by consensus committees which are made up of members that are split in to stakeholder groups. This NSF standard breaks those groups down in to Public Health/Regulatory, Users, General Interest, and Industry. To meet ANSI requirements none of these groups can be in a dominant position (by # of voters) on the committee.