About Our Directory FAQ

About Rate It Green's Green Building Directory

Rate It Green's Green Building Directory is the core of our site and community and started as an idea in 2005 when members of the Rate It Green team struggled to find the information needed to green a project.  We just wanted advice from people who had "been there" and could tell us what products and services worked best in certain applications.  We were originally looking to find a Rate It Green - little did we know we needed to invest a lot of time and energy into building this resource!  We are working towards two top goals with this directory, among other elements of our mission of encouraging information sharing, providing a place for community, and building industry confidence:  1) We are seeking to build the largest and most inclusive green building directory out there (free basic listings help!), and 2) we are looking to become THE peer-review resource for the green building industry.  We look forward to building this resource with you, and we thank you for your patience as we have been under construction!  Thank you for your feedback - keep sending your super ideas.

Rate It Green's Green Building Directory is a place to search for products, services, organizations, publications, and related resources.  We have also included areas for other providers who believe that their products and services will be beneficial to green building businesses or of interest to members of the green building community.  Current main tabs for browsing include: 

• Green Building Products
• Green Building Services
• Other Green Building Listings
• Related Industries - Products
• Related Industries - Services
• Find by Company
• Advanced Search

Each of these tables then has a host of Categories and Subcategories you can browse by  - send in a suggestion if you don't see the category or subcategory you are looking for!  

It is a core element of our mission to encourage the sharing of green building information, and it is our belief that those with experience can do a great deal of good by sharing what they know.  Please feel encouraged to rate/review the products, services and other items you have worked with. 

There is power in numbers.  As more companies register and more people share their thoughts, we have the potential to create a resource and welcoming community that can help many companies and individuals find the information and resources they need to build green.  If you see a listing for an organization that has not registered, please encourage them to do so.

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Building the Rate It Green Directory/Database

Q: How are items submitted to the Rate It Green Directory/database?
A: We add products and services into our system from time to time so that members may have basic information about products and services in the green building marketplace until we can provide additional information. These are very limited "temporary" listings in place so that our site can be productive for our members while we allow companies time to register.  You can identify these listings as they have a field that reads:  This company has not yet registered with Rate It Green. Feel free to contact this company via the web listing provided and let someone know you would like to learn more about this product/service on Rate It Green! ...." 

There are three ways a Company or Item (generally a Product or Service) can be listed on the Rate It Green site:

   1. Rate It Green Team Members learn about the product or service during our research
   2. Community Members suggest items for addition to the site, which Rate It Green will then research and add if appropriate
   3. Companies/Organizations register and/or add their own products and services through the registration process

Listed companies have an opportunity to  "take over" these listings during corporate registration so that they may provide more up to date and accurate information for you than we might be able to.  We view these listings as an opportunity for companies to speak directly to our Visitors and Site Members, and we therefore much prefer them to fill out their own content.

We encourage site Visitors and Members who have familiarity with unregistered companies in the directory to suggest to these folks that they go ahead and register and share more information with our community. 

Q: What are your Listing Criteria for green building products or services?
A:  Our goal is quite simply to list EVERY green building related product or service out there.  If an item is being sold as a green building related item, we want it listed on Rate It Green!  It may sound shocking to say this, but we therefore don't have listing criteria.  The idea is to create this inclusive list and get everyone talking.  What works best?  What needs improvement?  We believe that we can create the most helpful resource if we collect as much information as possible and help people share what they know.  Keep in mind that this is a peer-review resource - our goal is that we generate enough ratings so that people will get an accurate average sense of what it is like to use and item and to work with a company or organization.  

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Who can Post a Rating/Review?

Anyone who has worked with a product or service and is a fully Registered Individual Community Member who has taken our Registration Survey or is the Authorized Representative of a registered Corporate Member (registered with a basic Profile submitted) can complete a review/rating.  Individual ratings will show the Individual Member Identity created at Registration, and Corporate Ratings will identify the posting entity as follows;  "Company Name - Company Representative." 

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Submitting a Rating

To submit a rating, simply select a score on a scale of 1 to 10 where 10 represents the highest possible rating. You may also write comments that help explain or clarify your rating. You must complete at least an Overall score for the system to process your rating. Please consider filling out the more detailed review categories below if you have additional knowledge about this product/service. You can fill out as few or as many of these fields as you would like. Only providing an overall rating score is required. We encourage you to use the comments fields to make your ratings more informative. Try to provide information that you believe will really help who might be rely on your words and advice to assist in planning and purchasing decisions. Please also provide any feedback that you believe might be valuable for this company. As you rate, please make sure to be respectful of the organizations and companies, and other Rate It Green members (!) that make up our community. We welcome praise and advice and even criticism, but all ratings should be constructive in nature.

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How Ratings Are Calculated

The Composite/Overall Rating represents the average of all Overall reviewer ratings scores submitted for a product or service. Composite Detailed Ratings are averages of all scores submitted for a particular characteristic or attribute of a product or service. Members are only required to complete an Overall rating for each product or service for the system to process the entry, and answer a select few questions about their use of the product or service. All other ratings and information are optional. The highest possible score is "10," meaning the member had a high positive opinion while "1" is the lowest, meaning the user had the lowest negative opinion.

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Who can view a product/service/item?

Rate It Green's Green Building Directory is open for browsing to the public.  While the site has membership requirements for posting reviews, everyone is welcome to view them. 

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Editing and Replying to Ratings/Reviews

Q:  Can I post a reply to a rating/review?
A:   Right now we are working with companies to find a way for them to post a reply if they feel they need to comment on a rating/review.  We do not currently plan for Individual Members to do this.  We recommend completing a review if you believe you have something informative to say about a product or service.   We will also have a Forum/Communications area where people can express opinions on a variety of topics.  We believe keeping reviews as close to the original form as possible will protect the quality of information as much as is possible (as comments and replies that are more forum-like could get lost.  An additional review holds a more equal weight). 

Q:  What if I wish to change/edit a rating?
A:   You can edit a rating, but you need to do this through a Rate It Green Administrator.  Once content is posted of this type, we want to be very careful about modifying it and just make sure changes are consistent.  For example, it may not make sense to edit a year-old review that many people viewed, and perhaps in that case we might work together to come up with a better idea for conveying a perceived change in item quality.  Our team will work as hard as possible to balance the needs of all community stakeholders in this kind of a situation.

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Detailed Product Ratings Categories

Q: What crtieria do Rate It Green Members use to rate green building products?
A: Rate It Green offers ten crtieria for rating products.  An Overall Score is required, and the reminaing crtieria are optional for those who belive they can add in-depth information based on their experiences for the community's Visitors and Members to learn from:

• Overal Rating (required)
• Raw Materials
• Manufacturing and Shipping (including Packaging)
• Installation/Application
• General Product Quality and Durability
• Toxicity
• Resource Recovery
• Corporate Policies
• First Costs/Price
• Lifecycle Cost

For a definition of these categories, click here for additional information.

The order of Rate It Green's product rating criteria roughly approximates the lifecycle path of the product from resource generation to end use/recovery.

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Detailed Service Ratings Categories

Q:  What criteria do Rate It Green Members use to rate green building services?
A:  Rate It Green offers seven crtieria for rating services.  An Overall Score is required, and the remaining criteria are optional for those who belive they can add in-depth information based on their experiences for the community's Visitors and Members to learn from: 

• Overall Rating (required)
• How Green is this Service/Environmental Impact
• Quality of Service (end product)
• Customer Service
• Corporate Policies
• First Costs/Price
• Lifetime Cost/Overall Value

For a definition of these categories, click here for additional information.

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