and abroad, TCNA, its members, and the greater tile industry are well positioned to remain rel- evant as green building evolves in the years ahead,” added Eric Astrachan, executive director, TCNA. About Green Squared Green Squared connects one industry, one standard, and one mark and covers the full range of products used in a tile installation. As the first multi-attribute sus- tainability standard developed for tiles and tile installation materials, Green Squared uses the transpar- ency and consensus of the ANSI process, combined with third-par- ty certification, to evaluate, vali- date, and communicate products that have a positive impact on the environment and society. Green Squared covers product characteristics, manufacturing, end of product life management, progressive corporate governance, and innovation to establish sus- tainability criteria for products throughout their full lifecycle. About EPDs An EPD (Environmental Product Declaration) is a formal report of a material’s environmental foot- print. The tile industry has three separate UL-Certified industry- wide EPDs for North American- made ceramic tile, mortar and grout. Representing roughly 3.35 billion square feet of tile and 2.25 billion kg of grout and mortar produced annually, these EPDs represent the vast major- ity of these North American- made products. From data col- lected from North American manufacturers, each EPD reports the 60-year impact potential, per installed square meter, for each of six major environmen- tal categories: Global Warming, Acidification, Ozone Depletion, Smog Formation, Eutrophication, Elemental and Fossil Abiotic Resource Depletion. GREEN TIP –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– The Green Squared Certified program is getting more attention from the A&D community, designers, specifiers and pur- chasers. 30 TileLetter | August 2017