Use BEES to Pick Green Products

July 1, 2002
Professional Builder

With all the buzz about green products, it is difficult to make informed choices on building materials. Now, free, downloadable software de-veloped by the U.S. government helps evaluate more than 65 generic building products.

BEES (Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability) uses an internationally standardized approach to measure the life cycle of each product, including 10 environmental impacts. Economic performance is measured using the ASTM standard life-cycle cost method, which covers initial investment, replacement, operation, etc. BEES users set parameters to weigh the importance of economic and environmental performance of one product versus another.

The BEES program is available at www.bfrl.nist.gov/oae/bees.html.