Overview of the NSF 375 Draft

Sustainability for the Water Treatment and Distribution Industry

October 30, 2012

Water Sustainability Draft

• Starting point for stakeholders to shape based on existing body of work

• Placeholders and questions posed in various sections to be decided by water industry stakeholders

• Baselines for various criteria appropriate for water industry to be decided

• Inclusion of existing water product performance criteria and durability standards

Sustainability Assessment

Scope and purpose

Section 5 – Product design

Section 6 – Product manufacturing

Section 7 – Durability, longevity, and use

phase

Section 8 – End of life management

Section 9 – Corporate governance

Scope of NSF Initiative

Drinking Water Treatment Units

Drinking Water Additives –

Treatment Chemicals and Systems Components

Plastics/Plumbing

Wastewater Treatment

Recreational Water Products

Purpose of a Sustainability Assessment

• Communication of data related to sustainability attributes for a product

• Transparency, credible and science based

• Inform a manufacturer’s decisions for design, supply chain modifications, material selection, performance improvements, end of life options

• Provide a means to track incremental improvements in the products’ sustainability profile

• Comparison of products that provide similar function

• Address more than environmental and human health impacts – includes Social Responsibility

Questions and Comments

Product Design

• What chemicals of concern are in typical products? Or packaging?

• Inventory of all materials at or above 1000 ppm of product

• Effort to reduce or eliminate chemicals of concern

• Supplier of materials – elimination or reduction of chemicals of

concern

• Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Environmental product declarations

(EPDs) and USEPA’s Design for the Environment (DfE) – Are these

appropriate for the industry?

• Environmental considerations in design of product

Material Selection

• Inventory of materials and chemicals of concern– 1000 ppm for hazardous chemicals– 10,000 ppm for other ingredients

• Environmentally sustainable inputs– Product– Packaging

• Chemicals of concern– Reduction– Elimination

• Material safety according to NSF drinking water standards– DWTU and DWA

• Suppliers criteria

Life cycle analysis and Design for the Environment

• Environmental considerations in design– Environmental assessment program for product design and

development• LCA or DfE

– Design for the Environment assessment of the product– LCA using ISO 14040/14044 with 5 impact categories

• Life cycle assessment improvement– Using the LCA, show improvements in 2 impact categories

• Contributing to US Life Cycle Inventory– In an effort to show support, data is supplied to the USLCI

database for LCA• Environmental Product Declaration (ISO 14025)

– A product category rule must exist in order to pursue an environmental product declaration

Questions and Comments

Product Manufacturing

• Corporate Policies for Environmental Management

• Energy use during production: Industry baseline or internal

improvements?

• Allowance of types of renewable energy? Onsite power

generated, carbon credits, green-e certificates, others

• Water use during manufacturing, water quality discharge

• Waste minimization, optimal use of resources, packaging

• GHG emissions, air resources protection, PBT reductions

Environmental Management

• Environmental policy

– Starting point for tracking environmental impacts and pollution prevention

• ISO 14001 Environmental Management System

– Points for having the EMS and having it third party certified

• EMS tracking

– Showing improvements based on EMS program

• Quality management system (QMS)

– Starting point for tracking quality management issues

• ISO 9001 QMS

– Points for third party certified QMS

Energy

• Inventory of energy sources, quantity– Transportation for raw materials– Production energy use– Should this include administrative energy use?

• Reduction of environmental impact of energy input– Measured reductions in consumption– Conversion of energy inputs

• Renewable energy use (facility and suppliers)– ICROA– Green-e

What percentages are reasonable for water products production for renewable energy or energy reductions?

Management of Water Resources

• Inventory of water use

– Tracking water used, consumed, and sources

• Reduced water consumption

– Percentage reduction versus year over year

• Water quality discharge

– Discharged water quality is better than receiving water

– Treatment is required before discharge

Optimization of material sources

• Waste minimization

– Operational waste minimization plan

• Manufacturing waste minimization

– Reduction 10% over 10 years

– Annual average rate over 10 years less than 2% on weight basis

• Packaging minimization

– Pallets waived if recycled or reclaimed

– Packaging weight less than 2% of product by weight

Protection of air resources

• World resources institute GHG protocol - Should this be added?

• Greenhouse gas (GHG) loadings

– GHG inventory according to ISO 14064

• GHG reductions

– Reduction from year 2000 or later OR

– Year over year reduction

• Persistent, Bioaccumulative and toxic chemicals (PBT) reductions

– Reduction of PBTs below reporting levels in Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA)

Questions and Comments

Durability and Longevity

• Fitness of purpose

• Recommended usage

• Durability-performance requirements such as in NSF and other product performance

standards

• Energy efficiency during product usage

• Water efficiency during product usage

End of Life

• Recyclability and compostability?

• Post consumer collection programs?

• Reclamation: post consumer, investment in reclamation

program

• During product design, are there materials that are

selected to meet recycled content requests?

QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS

Corporate Governance

• Community involvement

• No forced or child labor

• Employee turnover, injury rate, collective bargaining, prevention of

discrimination, living wages

• Local recruiting, financial investment and leadership

• Profitability, investment in R&D

• Vendor satisfaction

Public Disclosure and Employer responsibility

• Public commitment to sustainability

– Preliminary disclosure

– Comprehensive disclosure

– Prerequisite for a policy against child and forced labor

• Employee turnover

• Employee injury rate

• Collective bargaining (optional criteria)

• Prerequisite – prevention of discrimination

• Plant level – prerequisite against child and forced labor

• Living wages

Community Engagement

• Financial investment

• Employee participation

• Local recruiting

• Financial leadership

• Profitability

• Investment in research and development

• Vendor/supplier satisfaction

Questions and Comments