Leveraging Your NSF Certification: Now that you've received NSF Certification ... why not leverage the Mark to your advantage.
Service providers can now get a certification mark to prove their services are sustainable. The NSF General Sustainability Assessment Criteria for Services and Service Providers Protocol 391 (P391) addresses the environmental, economic and social aspects of services and service providers. It applies to all types of service organizations from interior design, architectural services and law firms to consultants and contractors to trades (such as plumbing, electrical, landscaping, and engineering) and maintenance and installation organizations.
Certification to P391 allows service providers to:
Certification is becoming increasingly important as the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) expands its focus on purchasing sustainable products and services and as corporations, institutions and other government branches focus on greening their supply chains.
The NSF P391, released in early 2012, was developed with a panel of experts including procurement professionals and service providers. NSF developed the protocol in response to Executive Order (EO) 13514 which requires federal agencies to establish an integrated strategy towards sustainability in goods and services purchased for the federal government. GSA has supported the NSF P391, stating the protocol – and an eventual standard created from it – could be used to provide recognition of services that comply with EO 13514.
Similar to LEED certification for buildings, P391 assigns points to prerequisite requirements and elective criteria. Service providers earn points for sustainable criteria, and with their combined totals earn certification for a level of achievement: Conformant, Silver, Gold or Platinum. Companies achieve certification points in three categories: environmental, labor and social responsibility.
In the environmental category, organizations that have a program to facilitate recovery of discarded products, equipment, or other materials at the end of their useful life could earn a point. For example, an interior design firm could develop a program to recycle, reuse or repurpose design samples and office supplies to reduce the impact on the environment.
In the labor category, an organization may earn a point if it allows flexible working arrangements such as varied work times, child care support, or working remotely. For social responsibility, a point may be awarded to firms that can prove they routinely evaluate a potential supplier’s ethical and social performance before beginning a business contract.
This “menu” approach makes the protocol easily adaptable to any type of service organization. To certify at a level above compliant, organizations must meet all prerequisites as well as optional criteria toward that level of achievement.
Service organizations must also ensure that partners, joint ventures and suppliers (directly related to the service) under long-term contract with the organization are certified at the Conformant level in order for the organization to achieve Platinum. Certification may involve audits of a facility (when appropriate) or review of documentation for a given criteria.
NSF’s National Center for Sustainability Standards is also soliciting stakeholders to take the protocol to the next step, an American National Standard. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) process requires a balanced stakeholder group that includes representatives from industry, academia, government and relevant NGOs. Interested service providers or their trade associations may become involved in the process by contacting ncss@nsf.org.
Organizations that have current valid certification to NSF P391 have the option to transition to the ANSI standard once it is finalized. For organizations wishing to certify to the P391 Protocol, they can contact Dennis Gillan at 734-476-2543 or dgillan@nsf.org.