Global GreenTag International Launches First Nature Positive Standard and Declaration

Posted by: Rate It Green Team

Global GreenTag International recently launched the first Nature Positive green building programs, the NaturePositive+ Standard™ and the NaturePositive+ Declaration™. Both programs call on product manufacturers, built environment and other industries to shift focus to biodiversity and nature repair as a priority rather than primarily focusing on carbon reduction. The idea is to move beyond climate change reduction or even mitigation to positive climate repair.

What does “Nature Positive” mean? Many sustainability efforts focus on reducing negative impacts, or “doing less harm,” where some more advanced programs, practices and standards aim for neutral or “net-zero” impacts, usually where a particular harm is reduced to the point at which there are no material negative impacts. Net positive programs produce more of a particular benefit than possible negative impacts, but nature positive means going beyond "not negative" to “restorative” products and practices which can create positive benefits and even potentially undo or change the effects of prior environmental or habitat damage. 

Global GreenTag NaturePositive+ products can meet the standard by delivering nature positive benefits as part of the product or products inherent operation, or a more convention product mat use nature positive offsets to create nature positive outcomes. 

One of the first NaturePositive+™certified products is the Thermal Haven Nest Box®, by Bird Habitats. The nest boxes are made from reformed Australian PEFC-certified hardwood timber (89% post-industrially sourced weatherboards that otherwise would have been burnt for energy-recovery), stainless steel fixings and beeswax. No formaldehyde, glues or plastics are used. But the next boxes aren’t just using less environmentally impactful materials.  They actually help restore habitats for hollow-dependent fauna. By mimicking the thermal performance of natural log hollows, the nest boxes achieved 100% nesting success even with multiple occupancies.

Forest restoration processes take 80 - 100 plus years to naturally create enough hollows to accommodate the necessary number and type of suitable bird and mammal nest hollows. Now, once planted trees are big enough to support a habitat structure (8-10 years or sooner if posts are used), the equivalent of those natural hollows can be brought back into the forest 80 to 90 years ahead of the natural processes.

The NaturePositive+ Standard™ incorporates and refocuses many of Global GreenTag's existing services but with some important additions delivered in an integrated package that simultaneously delivers an overall rating, key metrics and detailed transparency report. An NP+D incorporates reporting already recognized or compliant with leading rating tools like Green Star^®, the International WELL™ Building Standard, the IS Tool, and LEED^®, but also a recognized circular economy metric, and other essential elements required to truly measure and achieve circularity in people and planet healthy outcomes.

The NaturePositive+ Declaration™ provides a pathway for manufacturers to progress with; first to identify their current level of commitment in their processes to the protection of nature and climate – and a roadmap to move toward a NaturePositive+ profile for their products.

NaturePositive+ Metrics include

• Circularity
• Ecotoxicity
• Human Toxicity
• Biodiversity
• Climate
• Water
• Life Cycle Benefits/Impacts Ratio
• Ethical Supply Chains (factory ILO Compliance & Modern Slavery supply chain risk)
• Social Benefit (Social & Indigenous)
• Innovation

Program prerequisites include Proven Fitness-for-purpose, Greenwash-free marketing, and banned ingredient free content.

The NaturePositive+ system closes a significant gap in meeting one of the top three aims of circular economy by providing metrics that engage nature restoration and regeneration in the Circular Economy. The program tracks where and how products deliver climate and biodiversity restorative co-outcomes and conserve and protect resource flows whilst encompassing ethical labor and supply chain assurance. NaturePositive+ also provides third party assurance and information to the market pursuing circular economy projects and how a product is helping to restore biodiversity and assisting in regenerating climate and ecosystems.

For additional information, visit Global GreenTag International, or contact: media@globalgreentag.com.