UL, a global safety science leader, today announced a collaboration with Green Building Japan (GBJ) to make it easier for architects, designers and purchasers to identify building products that contribute to green building programs in Japan
The agreement advances UL and GBJ’s shared goal of providing architects, designers, consultants, building owners and other green building practitioners with relevant information on sustainable and internationally available green building products. To accomplish this, the organizations will develop digital tools that help architects, designers and buyers identify products in UL’s SPOT™ database that contribute to green building programs.
“The global footprint of SPOT is expanding through key partnerships in China, Italy and now GBJ in Japan, giving us the opportunity to help solve the universal challenge that architects, designers and purchasers face— finding products that contribute to sustainable building programs such as LEED,” said Alberto Uggetti, vice president and general manager of UL’s Environment & Sustainability division, which works to advance global sustainability, environmental health, and safety. “UL’s SPOT platform has grown to include more than 100,000 credible green products and we are pleased to work with a leading organization such as GBJ to promote green building products that can contribute to sustainable building in Japan.”
GBJ was established in 2013 with a goal to ingrain global green building activities in Japan and promote LEED. Capitalizing on Japan’s rich tradition of unique environment-friendly architecture, the organization works to create a society where environmental and sustainable efforts are fairly valued and compensated by leveraging LEED as a stepping stone in Japan. GBJ works in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council and serves as the only organization that promotes LEED from a user’s standpoint in Japan and has members ranging from corporate and individual members from a wide variety of industries including construction, manufacturing, real estate, consulting, architectural design, building management, testing and evaluation.
“GBJ is pleased to partner with UL to make access to Japanese-made green building products easier and achieving building certifications such as LEED more attainable for our users,” said Hiroki Hiramatsu, co-founding chair of Green Building Japan. “By leveraging UL’s SPOT platform, we can continue our mission to educate the Japanese market on the importance of green building and provide practical solutions to meet that goal.”
UL launched SPOT in 2016 and it has quickly grown into a credible resource for architects, designers and specifiers to identify sustainable products. SPOT features 100,000 product families and now includes Energy Star, Safer Choice, Cradle to Cradle Certified and EPEAT certified products, among other programs. UL has introduced free SPOT add-ins for AutoDesk® Revit® and Autocad, as well as Sketchup, which enable users to access product data from SPOT and assign it directly to their BIM project. The add-ins provide greater accuracy and streamlined reporting for green building rating schemes such as the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Certification.
About UL
UL fosters safe living and working conditions for people everywhere through the application of science to solve safety, security and sustainability challenges. The UL Mark engenders trust enabling the safe adoption of innovative new products and technologies. Everyone at UL shares a passion to make the world a safer place. We test, inspect, audit, certify, validate, verify, advise and train and we support these efforts with software solutions for safety and sustainability. To learn more about our UL Environment & Sustainability division, visit http://www.ul.com/environment.
About GBJ
In partnership with USGBC that operates LEED, Green Building Japan (GBJ) serves as the only organization that promotes LEED from user’s standpoint in Japan. We are consisted of corporate and individual members from a wide range of industries including construction, manufacturing, real estate, consulting, architectural design, building management, testing and evaluation. To learn about our activities in details, please visit https://www.gbj.or.jp/english/.
