Architects seeking safe, sustainable materials for their buildings have often had to operate in either an information vacuum or wade through an array of rating systems that can be burdensome and baffling. The complexity of supply chains sometimes means that no one is certain what substances a product contains; in other cases, a known material passes muster with one program while raising red flags with another. Manufacturers, too, struggle with the discrepancies and redundancies of different programs' reporting requirements. Now, with support from the U.S. Green Building Council, four major green-manufacturing organizations are striving to simplify the process of assessing
