Terms used on Klar Cite

The words below have a particular meaning on this site. Wherever one appears with a dotted underline, such as Not recorded, tap it for the same explanation.

Credentials

Credential: A certification, ecolabel, declaration or verified footprint that a building product can carry.
Product credential: A credential that certifies or declares something about a product, such as an ecolabel or an environmental product declaration.
Rating tool or policy: Sets requirements for a building, a project or a buyer, such as Green Star, LEED, WELL, BREEAM or a government procurement policy. It often says which product credentials it accepts.
Requirements in Klar Cite: Klar Cite has read the credential's documents and recorded their requirements clause by clause, each cited to its page.
Some requirements in Klar Cite: Klar Cite has read some of the credential's documents, not all. The credential's page says which.
Read, outside the product range: Klar Cite has read the credential's documents, but they cover products outside the building products it covers.
Requirements not in Klar Cite: Klar Cite has not recorded this credential's requirements. That says nothing about what the credential requires.
Replaced by a newer version: The publisher has issued a newer edition. The older one is kept because products certified to it may still be in use.

Ratings & Policy

Ratings & Policy: Which product credentials each rating tool or policy accepts, quoted from its own document, with the level it asks for and any conditions.
Acceptance: A rating tool or policy saying it accepts a product credential, often at a minimum level and under conditions.
Minimum level: The level of the credential the rating tool or policy asks for, such as Gold, or a Green Star product score band.
Conditions: What else must be true for the credential to count, in the rating tool's or policy's own terms. Where its document states none, Klar Cite says none is recorded, not that there is none.
Source: Where the acceptance comes from: the rating tool's or policy's own document, or, for Green Star product scores, its Score Checker rather than its published text.
Green Star product score (RPV): Green Star's Responsible Products Value: a score, in bands from 0 to 15 or more, that sets how much a product contributes under Green Star's Responsible Products framework. Klar Cite shows the band; scores change, and Green Star's own Score Checker gives the current one.

Requirements

Product requirements: Requirements a product must meet to carry the credential, including those on its maker and factory. Clauses on the certifier, a service or a building project are left out.
Required?: Whether a clause must be met to carry the credential: always, only at a certain level, or as one of several options. Some clauses are only recommended, some are optional and earn points, and some are left to the assessor; Klar Cite says which, as the document does.
Type of requirement: What the clause asks for: to meet a limit or condition, to provide information, to have a system in place, or to check suppliers or materials.
Who checks it: Who confirms the requirement is met: the applicant itself, a party with a stake in the result, or an independent body with none.
Topic: The subject a clause addresses, grouped by the Common Materials Framework (CMF), an industry framework from mindful MATERIALS: human health, climate health, circular economy, social health and equity, and ecosystem health. Klar Cite assigns it clause by clause; it is not the credential's own claim. A credential that reaches a topic only through optional clauses is shown as optional only.
The publisher's words: The clause exactly as the credential's own document states it. Some publishers limit how much of their wording can be shown each day.

Klar Cite's own words

Klar Cite summary: A one-line summary of a clause written by Klar Cite. It is not the publisher's words.
Klar Cite note: A longer explanation by Klar Cite of how to read a clause or a credential. It is not the publisher's words.

Data

Data release: Klar Cite publishes its data in dated releases. Every citation names the release it came from, so it can be checked later; What changed lists what each release added, removed or amended.
Not recorded: The source document gives no value for this field, or Klar Cite has not read one. It never means the answer is no or none.

Bodies and marks often named

Memberships and endorsements: Bodies that endorse, audit or admit the credential's operator, for how it sets standards and checks products.
ISEAL: The global membership body for sustainability standards. ISEAL Code Compliant means ISEAL has assessed that a scheme follows its codes of good practice for setting standards, measuring impact and assurance.
Global Ecolabelling Network (GEN): The international association of Type I ecolabels: ecolabels run to ISO 14024 by an independent body.
ISO 14024 (Type I ecolabel): The international standard for ecolabels awarded by an independent body against published criteria covering a product's life cycle.
Environmental product declaration (EPD): A verified report of a product's environmental impacts over its life cycle, made to published rules (EN 15804 for construction products). It declares figures; it sets no pass mark.
PEFC endorsement: The Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification assesses national forest certification schemes and endorses those that meet its requirements.