Icons

In order to ensure that we are consistently striving to minimize our environmental impact we have devised a simple icon system to govern the products featured at Verde Home. These icon categories may be broken down by the major qualifications or categories that are most widely referenced when discussing green products. Those categories are: Materials Use, Manufacture Method, Transport, and Utilization.

All products distributed by Verde Home must meet one of the following criteria:

• The item satisfies one of the following Materials Use qualifications or
• The item satisfies any two of the following Manufacture Method, Transport, or Utilization qualifications.

Materials Use- takes into consideration the materials harvested, created, or reclaimed in order to produce a product along with any by-products that may be used in assembly. These are the most widely sited of the green product qualifications. At Verde we will use following labels to define the materials found in our product offerings.

Re-incarnate - The product makes use of recycled or repurposed materials.

Re-new - The product makes use of organic materials that can be re-grown, is readily biodegradable, or both.

Techno - The product makes use of man made substitute materials which may be less toxic, readily recyclable, or both.

Air Care - The product makes use of low off gasing and/or allergen minimizing materials.

Hypo - A subset of Air Care that denotes products which are not only low off gassing but also hypo allergenic

Good Wood - The product makes use of raw materials from managed growth, FSC-approved forests or utilizes Urban and Reclaimed woods

Manufacture Method - takes into consideration how a product is made. For instance is the company that makes the product using alternate energy sources or a producing in a way more efficient than the industry norm? Are they reducing the embedded energy in the product or employing fair trade practices? If so we will give the product the following label.

Clean Machine - The product is made in a way that minimizes waste or otherwise reduces the impact on the environment.

Fair Play - The product makes use of raw materials from fairly traded sources

Transport - takes into consideration how much energy is used to get a product to market. This includes both the obvious petroleum fuel costs as well as the sometimes hidden costs of the additional packaging used to bring a product to the market place.

Local or Lean - This label is used to recognize products that are either sourced locally to eliminate transportation or are transported in the most efficient, lean manner possible.

Utilization - takes into account the use of the product and its design. Was the product made to be substantially more energy efficient than the industry norm? Or was this product made of such high quality that its intended life is far greater than the norm thereby reducing its need for replacement.

E-Saver - products that use less energy than comparable products or products that are made using substantially less energy (less embedded energy)

Life+ - items whose life cycle are far longer than the norm (non displosable).