A More Transparent Shade of Green: PCRs Drive Restrooms to the Lead in Green Design

By Amanda C Voss, MPP

Construction is going green. As both sustainability and efficiency advance in the built environment, architects, specifiers, and buyers are increasingly concerned with purchasing products that are environmentally friendly and can achieve project performance and client welfare goals. Architects and designers are, in essence, visionaries. Their ultimate success depends on choosing products that will accurately support and fuel their passion for possibilities.

Restrooms are not typically a part of the building immediately associated with green initiatives. Although restrooms are a necessary space, they consume resources and generate costs. High water usage, waste generation, and energy consumption for electrical and lighting can plague bathroom design. However, careful product selection and planning can turn this water, energy, and dollar-hungry real estate into a high-efficiency, cost-conscious space.

More green is good. But, hand-in-hand with the proliferation of green, it has become more difficult to determine exactly which products are environmentally preferable. Many industries do not have guidelines in place to delineate the environmental differences, or guidelines that exist are unclear or not universal. A clutter of claims confuses the marketplace. This means that, when it comes to choosing a product, it can be like comparing apples to oranges.

Decision-makers need an easier path for sorting through the confusion of marketing claims, thereby leveling the product playing field. They want to be able to clearly and consistently distinguish between green product attributes on eco-labels. They also need to know that the products selected to transform restrooms into efficient, energy- and welfare-conscious spaces are going to perform as advertised.

Defining Transparency

Therefore, along with the rise of green, there also needs to begin an age of transparency to avoid confusion in the marketplace. The only way to accurately compare products in an apples-to-apples approach rather than an apples-to-oranges one is by entering the decision-making process with balanced scales. The only way to achieve this balance is through transparency. A simple dictionary definition of transparency includes the concepts of something that is easily perceived or detected, along with those of honesty and openness. When applied to the process of choosing the best building product, transparency means the ability to evaluate the environmental impact of products using a common, easily perceived, and forthright approach. The result is less market confusion in this new age of transparency.

Today’s product declarations and eco-labels offer a standardized way of quantifying the environmental impact of a product by studying the raw materials and energy consumption during its production, its present use, and its future disposal. For buyers and specifiers, these disclosure tools help them better understand a product’s sustainable qualities and its environmental repercussions, allowing for more informed product selections.

The Toolbox: Getting to Know Labels And Certifications

Eco-labels and product declarations are the workman’s tools in the age of transparency. To wield these in the battle for clear, confident product evaluations, decision-makers need to get comfortable with an alphabet soup: PCRs, EPDs, and LCAs.

What Is a PCR?

A PCR, or product category rule, establishes a set of internationally recognized and consistent rules, requirements, and guidelines that all functionally equivalent products in a specific industry must use when creating environmental product declarations (EPDs). That means that in order for a product in a given industry to be transparent, it must be tested and evaluated in a clear, consistent way, allowing decision-makers to make better-informed choices. A global PCR allows manufacturers worldwide to evaluate the environmental impact of products using a common approach, resulting in less market confusion.

Testing guidelines and reporting methods are created through industry consensus and review. Using the same calculation, testing, and reporting methods allows for a more apples-to-apples comparison. A PCR levels the playing field for all products industry wide. By using an internationally recognized standard, every product in a given industry can have its environmental impacts evaluated in a clear, consistent manner.

PCRs minimize confusion among various types of environmental reporting by establishing a clear, consistent evaluation method by which the environmental impact claims of all products in that industry are evaluated. Once a PCR is established, an EPD can be created based on product evaluations. An EPD is based on the rules created in the PCR. “The resulting EPD allows for a more fair comparison of environmental impacts between similar products,” writes Anna Nicholson Lasso, product manager of environmental product declarations at UL Environment.

What Is an LCA?

PCRs are the first step in the development of an EPD, which is an important transparency tool. To produce an EPD, companies must first develop a life-cycle assessment (LCA) for their product that uses product-specific calculations and requirements specified in a PCR.

An LCA investigates a product’s total environmental impact from time of manufacture (beginning of life) to time of disposal (end of life), providing insight on the environmental impact of products from cradle to grave. The only truly valid LCAs are commissioned through an independent, third-party evaluator.

The LCA method examines a broad range of environmental impacts at all stages of a product life cycle, including all material, energy, and pollutant inputs and outputs, according to product rules.

What Is an EPD?

An EPD is a standardized way of quantifying the environmental impact of a product by studying the raw materials and energy consumption during its production, use, and disposal. For buyers and specifiers, an EPD becomes a disclosure tool that helps purchasers better understand a product’s sustainable qualities and environmental repercussions, enabling more informed product selections.

The First-Ever Global PCR—and for Hand Dryers

Leading hand dryer manufacturers initiated the first-ever global PCR in 2016, which was created for the hand dryer industry and published by UL Environment, a business division of Underwriters’ Laboratories. The rules established product evaluation methods used to determine key values such as dry time and energy consumption through industry consensus. Under UL protocol and the direction of a UL program operator, leading manufacturers of high-speed, energy-efficient (HSEE) dryers formed a committee to draft the rules by which all hand dryers will be evaluated and to report those findings for environmental impact in EPDs. Competitors sat together on the committee to establish industry consensus by agreeing on several key hand dryer elements.

Once those elements were selected and approved, the demanding process of drafting a PCR moved forward, bringing an open response period for other manufacturers in the industry and interested parties to comment. After receiving feedback, an expert review panel considered the draft and comments from manufacturers before finalizing and publishing the PCR.

At its conclusion, the hand dryer PCR is the culmination of more than a year-long process and is the first step toward the development of EPD eco-labels that govern one or more product category.

Applying the PCR to Product Selection

Now, with advent of the global hand dryer PCR, all hand dryer manufacturers seeking eco-labels are required to test for data such as dry times and energy use in exactly the same way, creating a new age of transparency. If products are not tested to the industry standards, then buyer beware.

Under this global rule, manufacturers submitted HSEE products for evaluations and had their environmental claims substantiated under the industry’s first EPDs.

“The hand dryer market, like so many others, is inundated with knockoff products and manufacturers making unsubstantiated claims. Architects and specifiers may approve ‘or equal’ products that are not true equivalents. The same is true for buyers looking to compare and purchase the best product for their facilities. All products need to be evaluated by the same set of rules and reporting guidelines—for hand dryers, that rule is the new global PCR from UL Environment,” says William Gagnon, vice president of marketing and sales for Excel Dryer.

Using an LCA in Product Evaluation

Leading manufacturers also obtain LCAs for their products. LCA studies should be peer-reviewed by an independent panel of LCA experts to ensure compliance with the standards contained in ISO 14040.

An LCA not only weighs a product’s energy efficiency but also measures to what degree its efficiency translates into significant environmental benefits over the full life cycle of the product. It also provides a valuable tool for comparing the product to alternative methods; for example, comparing HSEE dryers with other hand-drying alternatives, such as virgin or recycled paper towels.

The LCA method examines a broad range of environmental impacts at all stages of a product’s life cycle, including all material, energy, and pollutant inputs and outputs.

For example, assume that architects and decision-makers want to gather the full energy and environmental impacts of three proposed hand-drying methods: a leading manufacturer’s patented high-efficiency electric hand dryer, a conventional electric hand dryer, and paper towels containing between 0 percent and 100 percent recycled content. Employing an LCA, each system is evaluated to determine the environmental impact of providing 10 years of service (drying 260,000 pairs of hands). The results show that the HSEE hand dryer reduces the environmental impact of hand drying by 50 percent to 75 percent over the other two methods.

Then, a wide variety of environmental impact categories were evaluated, and yet again, the HSEE proved to provide an environmental advantage in each category. In addition to reducing climate change impacts (carbon footprint), the HSEE dryer also reduced the use of nonrenewable energy, impacts on ecosystems, and emissions that damage human health.

In comparison to paper towels, the combined environmental impact of producing the paper towels and associated materials far exceed the impact from the use of a hand dryer. Although the use of recycled paper fibers in the towels may reduce some of the impacts of this system, even at 100 percent recycled content, the HSEE dryer still maintains a significant margin of benefit.

A wide variety of sensitivity tests and scenario evaluations conducted under an LCA demonstrate that the margin of benefit for the HSEE dryer over other evaluated methods is quite substantial and not dependent on certain assumptions or conditions. A test of uncertainty in the results shows that the confidence in the benefit of the energy-efficient hand dryer, in comparison to the other systems, is quite high. Particularly in comparison to paper towels, the combined environmental impact of producing the paper towels and associated materials far exceed the impact from the use of energy-efficient dryers. Among the sensitivity tests that have been conducted are variation in the amount of recycled content for the towels, the methods for determining the impacts of recycled content, the assumed source of electricity, and the behavior of the user.

The LCA scenarios regarding user behavior reveal the important role that the user plays in determining the overall impacts of each system. “High-intensity” users will cause a significantly larger impact because the increase is nearly in proportion to the amount of dry time or amount of towels used. However, even “high-intensity” users of the HSEE system remained at a lower level of impact than “low-intensity” users of other systems.

Using Transparency To Create Greener Restrooms

Let’s face it—restrooms are challenging spaces to turn green. They’re zones of energy intensity, with high water usage and waste generation. However, careful product selection and planning can turn water, energy, and dollar-hungry real estate into a high-efficiency, cost-conscious space.

A variety of low-flow, water-conscious plumbing fixtures exist to aid in creating more efficient restrooms, with low-flow toilets and automatic, low-flow sinks ranking among the most widespread solutions. However, there is an often-overlooked area of energy consumption in restrooms that remains: how a user dries his or her hands after washing them.

Creating More Efficient and Green Hand-Drying Solutions

Today, the two choices for hand drying in commercial restrooms are either paper towels, made from virgin or recycled content, or electric hand dryers, both traditional and high-speed. Paper towels consume resources and generate waste. Electric dryers use energy. How can a buyer or specifier best sort through and compare these very different products and their environmental impacts?

Environmental Building News (EBN) commissioned a group of life-cycle analysis experts to perform a comparison of the four common methods of hand drying: 1) virgin paper towels, 2) recycled paper towels, 3) traditional electric hand dryers, and 4) high-speed, energy-efficient (HSEE) hand dryers.

The results of the EBN study overwhelmingly support HSEE hand dryers as a best solution for both total cost and efficiency. The EBN study concluded that HSEE hand dryers consume less energy than paper towels, with an 80 percent reduction of energy used per hand drying versus both virgin paper and recycled paper towels. For cost of use, the study showed that converting to a high-speed, energy-efficient hand dryer results in a 90 percent to 95 percent savings versus paper towel costs. With the cost savings from HSEE, a typical facility experiences payback on its investment in less than one year. In addition, the cost of ordering, storing, replenishing, collecting, and disposing of the paper towels is also eliminated, as well the resultant waste.

Quantis, an international life-cycle assessment research firm, undertook a complete beginning-to-end life-cycle assessment (LCA) in 2009 to compare the environmental performance of paper towels, 100 percent recycled paper towels, standard hand dryers, and HSEE hand dryers. The study was peer reviewed by an independent panel of LCA experts via ISO 14040 standards. The Quantis assessment accounts for the total climate change impacts, or global warming potential, over the entire life cycle of each system. It also measures the carbon footprint of each system in kilograms of equivalent carbon dioxide (Kg CO2 eq). Of the four types evaluated, HSEE hand dryers had a carbon footprint one-third to one-fourth the magnitude of the other choices.

Using Transparency to Create Sustainable Restroom Product Solutions

High-speed, energy-efficient (HSEE) hand dryers were developed to enhance a restroom user’s experience and to create a more sustainable product. In the U.S., the first HSEE was introduced to the industry in 2001 under patented technology. Traditional electric hand dryers typically take 30 to 45 seconds to dry hands versus the 8 to 10 seconds needed with paper towels. Because of the dramatic amount of time needed and the user congestion resulting from waiting for an available dryer, traditional hand dryers are an unpopular application and found in only 10 percent of restrooms. In response, HSEE was developed. HSEE dryers use a focused, high-velocity airstream that eliminates water droplets in 3 to 4 seconds and an additional stream of heated air to blow off any excess water film, completely drying hands in 8 seconds as tested to PCR guidelines. Using 80 percent less energy than conventional hand dryers and reducing a facility’s hand-drying carbon footprint by 50 to 75 percent, HSEE dryers can generate a huge environmental win for facilities and businesses. However, the hand dryer market, like so many others, has its own share of knockoff products and manufacturers making unsupported claims. Architects and specifiers may approve ‘or equal’ products that are not true equivalents or units that are not as reliable.

The development and publication of standards like environmental product declarations and life-cycle analyses reflect a manufacturer’s commitment to transparency and encourage other manufacturers to follow suit, allowing decision-makers a clear path when specifying products.

Building on Transparency to Obtain Certifications

Manufacturers committed to transparency and cognizant of the cradle-to-grave environmental impacts of the products they create offer the best allies to help facilities qualify for LEED, Green Globes, and other program credits, and to satisfy corporate and government sustainability goals.

Using EPDs, PCRs, and LCAs, an architect is equipped to accurately forecast the energy use, reduction in energy consumption, cost savings, and comparative environmental impact of a product. Held to third-party verification and international standards, an architect can place his or her confidence in the veracity of this information. The PCRs standardized evaluation guidelines and reporting allow for the specifying community and buyers to conduct a more apples-to-apples comparison of hand dryers and ultimately make a more informed decision based on credible, third-party testing.

For example, a leading HSEE manufacturer publishes independent, third-party-verified data that has been tested via a PCR, demonstrating energy use per hand dry, cost savings, and carbon footprint reduction. The product reports more than an 80 percent reduction of energy use versus recycled paper towels; a 98 percent cost savings per 1,000 uses versus paper towels; and a 75 percent reduction in carbon footprint versus recycled paper towels. The architect may confidently propose HSEE as an environmentally superior solution, in comparison to paper towels, as the combined environmental impact of producing the paper towels and associated materials far exceed the impact from the use of the HSEE dryer.

Given the verifiable product performance data, the architect also equips the project to easily qualify for environmental program credits. Under this example, when pursing LEED v4 certification, the HSEE could earn:

• Energy and Atmosphere (EA) Credit Optimize Energy Performance
• Materials and Resources (MR) Credits for Building Product Disclosure and Optimization
• Environmental Product Declarations for Sourcing of Raw Materials
• Materials and Resources (MR) Credit for Solid Waste Management – Ongoing (LEED O+M projects only)
• Indoor Environmental Quality (EQ) Credit for Green Cleaning – Custodial Effectiveness Assessment (LEED O+M projects only)

The following certifications increasingly require products with demonstrable sustainability and third-party certifications:

Rating Systems

• LEED: In March 2000, the U.S. Green Building Council formally released the LEED Green Building Rating System. Today, nearly 10,000 public and private building projects in the United States and abroad have used LEED as their certification standard.
• Green Globes: Green Globes, a product of the Green Building Initiative (GBI), is a green management tool for the building design and construction industry. Adapted from a Canadian protocol, Green Globes was introduced into the United States in 2004. Since that time, 450 buildings across the United States have successfully achieved Green Globes certification. Green Globes incorporates a whole-building design to calculate an energy performance value, as well as prescriptive criteria for individual labeled efficiencies.

Product Guides

• BuildingGreen Approved – Environmental Building News: A leading newsletter on environmentally responsible design and construction since 1992, EBN is independently published and advertisement free. The research and reporting is uncompromised by corporate or industry sponsorships.
• The GREEN CATALOG, Green Hotels Association: The Green Hotels Association researched environmentally friendly, energy, and water-saving products and lists recommendations of best products in this catalog for the lodging industry.

Voluntary Green Programs & Memberships

• Architecture 2030 for Products: Issued by Architecture 2030 in response to the climate change crisis, the Challenge seeks creative leaders from the global architecture and building community to adopt, design, and manufacture green and low-carbon products that reduce their carbon footprint by 30 percent below the product average by 2014 and then incrementally improve that reduction to 50 percent by the year 2030.
• U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC): USGBC’s mission is to transform the way buildings and communities are designed, built, and operated, enabling an environmentally and socially responsible, healthy, and prosperous environment that improves the quality of life.
• Green Building Initiative: The mission of the Green Building Initiative is to accelerate the adoption of building practices that result in energy-efficient, healthier, and environmentally sustainable buildings by promoting credible and practical green building approaches for residential and commercial construction.

Putting It All Together: Defining High-Efficiency Goals for Hand Dryers

When evaluating a hand dryer manufacturer’s information, defining benchmarks like performance and sustainability means meeting sustainability goals for the restroom space and ultimately the entire project. A specification list should include a review of the proposed product’s:

Performance

• Dry time (< 10 seconds is preferable)
• Availability to adjust speed and sound control
• Availability of adjustable heat control: high, medium, low, and off
• Externally visible service LED or other indicator
• Adjustable sensor range to prevent misfires
• The manufacturer’s performance or product failure rate (less than 1 percent is a target goal)

Verified Product Savings

• Quantifiable savings of time, money, and to the environment
• 80 percent less energy than conventional hand dryers (example)
• 95 percent cost savings versus paper towels (example)

Sustainability

• No more maintenance and upkeep from paper towel waste
• Certifications and program participation: e.g., building green approved and helps qualify for several LEED credits
• EPDs, PCRs, LCAs (additional LEED credit for EPD certification)
• Manufactured in USA (additional LEED credit)
• Published and independently verified forecast reduction in carbon footprint

Hygiene

• HEPA filtration systems with demonstrated performance, e.g., proven to remove 99.97 percent of potentially present bacteria at 0.3 microns from the air
• Technology, such as antimicrobial wall guards, designed to protect walls from water and inhibit the growth of bacteria

For hand dryers, hygiene is a vital final piece of the sustainability puzzle. An energy-efficient hand-drying system that reduces a facility’s carbon footprint but fails to hygienically dry restroom users’ hands will quickly be scrapped, rendering its effectiveness null and void.

As high-speed, energy-efficient hand dryers have grown rapidly in popularity, some concern has been raised about their hygienic properties. However, over the past 40 years, numerous scientific researchers have validated the hygienic efficacy of heated air as a drying medium. These independent, third-party studies were conducted with careful methodology at major academic or medical institutions.

In 2000, Dr. Franklin R. Cockerill III and his colleagues at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, conducted a randomized trial to determine the effects of four hand-drying methods for removing bacteria from washed hands. In a yearlong study of 100 people who volunteered to have their hands contaminated with bacteria before washing them, researchers found that proper hand washing got rid of the same amount of germs regardless of drying style. Results were reported in Mayo Clinic Proceedings (75:705 – 708). Scientist P.D. Meers and K.Y. Leong’s letter to the Journal of Hospital Infection stated: “[There is] no bacteriological reason to exclude [hand dryers] from the clinical areas.”

While high-speed hand dryers are regarded as a hygienic hand-drying choice in facilities around the world, specifiers and facility managers should research their options carefully, as all hand dryers are not created equal. Manufacturer designs vary between a traditional style with hands positioned under the air outlet or a trough-style in which hands are placed into a trough-like area or enclosure.

Putting Confidence in Green

“Restroom fixture technology has evolved significantly in the past 10 years,” says Ken Wilson, principal at Envision Design, the architecture firm that led the USGBC’s recent redesign project.

The technological developments that created the high-speed, energy-efficient hand dryer category and set a new standard for performance, reliability, and customer satisfaction are evidence of that evolution.

With the rapid pace of innovation, independent, third-party certifications and assessments provide the tools architects and decision-makers need to make a confident, accurate product decision. Life-cycle assessments, environmental product declarations, and product category rules level the playing field by creating transparency, allowing for real comparison of product efficiency and performance while helping projects achieve desired certifications, such as LEED or Green Globes. They allow leading manufacturers to celebrate product accomplishments while ushering in a new age of transparency. Designers and architects can more securely forecast cost savings, source reductions, and qualifications. Leading product manufacturers are now working closely with architects, interior designers, and specifiers to serve their visions and complement their designs, bringing the restroom up to the standards of the entire project.

Excel Dryer has manufactured American made hand dryers for more than 50 years, featuring XLERATOR®. A new expanded and enhanced product line featuring speed, sound, and heat controls and the most options in the industry design the best hand-drying solution for any restroom environment. www.exceldryer.com