Basic Description |  Scoring Protocols Summary |  Definitions |  Issues

Scoring this section is based upon

• the type of any recycled content
• the type of any bio-based content
• any certification programs that validate the sustainability of the cultivation and harvesting of biobased materials

The evaluation is derived from analyses of recycled ingredients and of biobased ingredients in both the product and its packaging. Top score for an ideal product is one in which all materials in the product and packaging system are either reused, salvaged, refurbished, post-consumer recycled or sustainably harvested bio-based materials. The higher the percent of content that meets these criteria, the higher the score.

Recycled ingredients are evaluated using the weighting system used in the USGBC’s LEED system - post-consumer content is weighted at 100% and pre-consumer at 50%. For example, a product may contain 34% post-consumer recycled paper and 16% pre-consumer scraps. Rather than a simple cumulative 50%, the recycled content calculation is thus 42% (34% post-consumer plus 8% pre-consumer – that is half of the 16% pre-consumer content in the product), Percentages are all based upon product weight.

The bio-based ingredients are evaluated with a similar type of weighting system. Pharos weighting system is based on two characteristics:

• inherent sustainability of the agriculture or forestry product – for example agricultural waste such as rice hulls or harvested non timber forestry products, such as cork, are given higher weight (75%) than regular non certified agricultural or wood products (25%) – and
• certifications of sustainability of the growing practices judged on their relative rigor – for example the relatively independent FSC certifications are given higher weight than the industry based certifications such as SFI.

For forestry timber products that are not certified by any program, Pharos has developed a library of wood species, coded for species that tend to be harvested from endangered forest habitats as identified the following organizations and the lists identified:

• World Wildlife Federation (WWF)
  • Photographic Guide to Identify Your Timber - Tropical Wood Images - Tropical Timber Guide
• Rainforest Relief
  • Guidelines for Avoiding Wood from Endangered Forests, Examples of Woods from Endangered Tropical Rainforests
  • Tropical Species to Avoid
  • Temperate Species to Avoid
• The Wood Explorer
  • Endangered Species Lists
  • Vulnerable Species Lists

Click here to see a table of all renewable characteristics and certifications and their weighting.

For each ingredient, the Pharos system multiplies the renewable percentage of the ingredient in the product by the weighting and then divides by 10 to convert the percentage to a 10 point scale. If an ingredient is both recycled and bio-based (such as recycled wood dust), then the biobased weighting is applied, unless the recycled weighting is higher.

All calculations are based upon an analysis of the actual ingredients reported to be in a product, and are not based on general manufacturer claims. If the manufacturer listed a minimum and maximum range for the amount of material contents product and/or listed alternative materials that may be used in a product, Pharos calculates the maximum percentage of non-recycled and non-bio-based contents that can be used in the product, then does a weighted average calculation using the minimums for each to determine an adjusted amount for each of the renewable materials.

Packaging is evaluated in the same way, then combined with the product score into a final point score using a weighted average approach with the product score providing 90% of the score and the packaging 10% (product score X 0.9 + packaging score X 0.1). See the scoring chart for details of how the final point score is translated into a Pharos level.

Putting this all together, a product with
50% content HDPE recycled from milk bottles
18% content HDPE recycled from a carpet factory
20% wheat straw
10% non organic soy oil
2% petroleum based binder
shipped in 100% post-consumer recycled paper packaging
would be scored as follows:

Product:
50% post-consumer content X 100% weight / 10 = 5.0
18% pre-consumer content X 50% weight / 10 = 0.9
Recycled component = 5.9

20% non certified agricultural waste X 75% weight / 10 = 1.5
10% non-certified agriculture X 25% / 10 = 0.25
Biobased component = 1.75

Total Product score = 5.9 + 1.75 = 7.65

Packaging:
100% post-consumer recycled content X 100 / 10 = 10.0

Total Packaging score = 10.0

Weighted average score:
Product 7.65 X 0.9 + Packaging 10 X 0.1 = Total 7.9