ATLANTA—The ever-daunting task of specifying products that meet a variety of environmental parameters has been an industry-wide frustration for quite some time. But, as of late, several manufacturers have eradicated these aggravations— wasted time and effort quantifying every product into the project spec, which is a requirement for certification in every rating system—by implementing ecoScorecard.

The Web-based software system allows mills to publish their products’ green attributes on their Web sites and calculates necessary requirements for seven different environmental rating systems—LEED Green Building Rating Systems, including New Construction, Existing Buildings Operations and Maintenance, Core & Shell, Commercial Interiors, and the retail and laboratory application guides; LEED Canada New Construction and Commercial Interiors Rating Systems; Green Guide for Healthcare; Collaborative for High Performance Schools; and residential systems that include LEED for Homes, NAHB’s National Green Building Standard and ReGreen—and produces product documentation for inclusion in the certification process.

“We’re passionate about the critical role of green buildings in our environment, and we see our role as helping knock down the obstacles in getting them built,” said ecoScorecard CEO Paul Shahriari. “Understanding how green a product is and how it fits into any of the rating systems has been one of those obstacles. This overcomes that.”

Developed by a team of experienced green building consultants, ecoScorecard has hit a homerun with several industry leaders, including Armstrong and J&J/Invision, who were the first hard and soft surface ecoScorecard users, respectively.

First utilizing the program in October 2007, J&J/Invision’s Mark Clayton, vice president of marketing, said the company was very impressed with its capabilities. “The technology of ecoScorecard far exceeds that of any other product available today,” he said. “It allows us to offer an ease of search capabilities to our customers that we could not have achieved via any other technology.”

Similarly, Armstrong announced its use of ecoScorecard for its commercial flooring line at GreenBuild in November 2007. The company quickly added residential SKUs in January.

Kent Clauson, general manager of marketing for Armstrong Floor Products, noted the company chose ecoScorecard because it felt the program was the best option. “Now, critical information on our entire hard surface portfolio is available at a click, covering all key industry rating systems. The system is able to deliver critical information on our entire product line 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” He added that making information accessible, easy to understand and keeping it constantly updated both in terms of product specs and in terms of rating system changes are powerful benefits in today’s market.

Clayton agreed, noting one of the key benefits of ecoScorecard is it’s easy and fast. “We understand our customers’ time is valuable and appreciate the frustration they have historically dealt with while attempting to research and document environmental criteria for various products. With ecoScorecard, our customers have the ability to search, evaluate and document products with little effort.”

He said once customers try it, they’re hooked. “We hear time and time again that we have removed a huge obstacle for our consumers and really helped to simplify their lives.”

The program has been working well, agreed Clauson, who said when Armstrong demos the tool, there’s a definite “wow” factor. “People understand immediately the savings in time, and more importantly the accuracy of information, which is one of designers’ biggest issues. The ecoScorecard software analysis package is probably the ultimate tool in this area.”

For more information on ecoScorecard and its abilities, visit www.ecoscorecard.com.