WQA Sustainability Mark To Launch At Convention
New certification to help companies demonstrate environmental commitment
To help companies meet consumer demand for environmentally-friendly products, WQA will launch its Sustainability Mark at WQA Aquatech USA in April. To begin it will focus on suppliers of activated carbon, as well as filtration products that utilize activated carbon, the association announced recently.
Products that meet the requirements of these new standards and receive certification – the first of its kind in the industry -- will be authorized to display the new WQA Sustainability Mark. WQA Aquatech USA will be held April 2-5 in Indianapolis, Indiana, where the new mark will be unveiled and explained.
“With this initiative, WQA is helping the industry distinguish itself and gives credibility to companies that want to demonstrate their environmental commitment,” said Dave Haataja, WQA executive director.
The standard for filtration devices that utilize activated carbon will be available beginning in April. The standard for activated carbon will be available in coming months. In addition, WQA will begin offering certification to the existing ISO 14001: Sustainable Management Systems Standard (applies to production facilities).
Efforts are already underway to add additional product categories for certification, initially including reverse osmosis, UV purifiers and filtration products that include non-carbon media. End point devices, softeners, ion exchange media, distillers, ozone, plumbing products, and chemical additives are also on the horizon.
The standards are going to be available according to product category. Each product standard will carry a requirement for certification to a prerequisite management system standard.
All the standards will operate on a “points-based” system giving manufacturers the freedom to choose from a menu of sustainability advancing criteria. This will allow them
In addition to looking at environmental sustainability, the standards incorporate basic corporate social responsibility (CSR) expectations.
A key factor in the success of the sustainability strategy will be acceptance and adoption of the mark by municipal, regulatory, and retail stakeholders in order to encourage
participation in this program by the product manufacturers, said Tom Palkon, CWS-VI Director of Product Certification for WQA
WQA is actively recruiting members from the municipal, regulatory, and retail stakeholder community to serve on its Retail and Regulatory Committee. We are also accepting applications from any relevant stakeholders interested in serving on the Sustainability Certification Task Force and various ad-hoc workgroups for individual product category standard development, as well as serving on WQA’s Sustainability Review Board (SRB), which will oversee the fairness of this new program.
About The Water Quality Association
The Water Quality Association is a not-for-profit international trade organization representing the residential, commercial, and industrial water treatment industry. Its membership consists of both manufacturers as well as dealers/distributors of equipment. WQA is a resource and information source, a voice for the industry, an educator of professionals, a laboratory for product testing, and a communicator with the public. For more information, visit www.wqa.org
Source: Water Quality Association