At Green Alberta, we recognize that there are numerous environmental and health issues on a global scale facing us today. One issue is no more important than the other. Therefore we leave it up to the consumer or design professional to select a product based on their individual needs or the needs of their client.

The founding principles of this initiative are based on the premise of transparency. Manufacturers and suppliers are asked to be accountable to the public to demonstrate how their products, manufacturing processes and company practices perform in relation to key sustainable indicators. The importance of this ensures that a company's impact on the environment and human health are not just meeting minimum requirements but are working towards bettering conditions for the future.

In turn, Green Alberta also exists to promote both trendsetting companies in the building and construction industry, and to those who are just starting to make this transition. This means manufacturers get access to resources and education to make this shift towards improved product sustainability.

Green Alberta is not in the business of saying one product is more sustainable than another. We evaluate products and materials based on the holistic Triple Bottom Line philosophy, whereby social, environmental and economic factors are taken into consideration when defining a product's sustainable performance.

Green Alberta recognizes that the market is constantly transforming, therefore each product and company is still growing, changing and developing as the market evolves.

Green Alberta has adopted the definition created by the World Commission on Environment and Development:

"Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable by ensuring that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

- Our Common Future. 1987. World Commission on Environment and Development

This definition aligns with Green Alberta's vision as it encompasses several key factors, which help us to understand what we are trying to achieve;

1. Sustainability is a long-term process to ensure our actions today are still accountable tomorrow.
   
2. It embodies the principle of embracing development, progress and change as part of this framework of thinking.
   
3. It is a statement of responsibility to our planet and its inhabitants.

• Eco-efficient Innovation: Making products in ways that minimize resource content, utilize biodegradable materials, extend durability, and save inputs during use.(Stahel, 1994; Fussler, 1996; Weaver et al., 2000)

• Industrial Ecology: Moving from the nineteenth century concept of linear growth, in which materials flow through the economy as if through a straight pipe, to a closed loop economy in which industrial materials are fed back into the production cycle. 
(Graedel et al., 1995; LTI-Research Group, 1998; Pauli, 1998; Cradle to Cradle)

• Products to Services: Shifting the entrepreneurial focus from the sale of hardware to the direct sale of services through leasing or renting to facilitate the full utilization of hardware, including maintenance and recycling. 
(Deutscher Bundestag, 1995; Hennicke and Seifried, 1996; Hawken et al., 1999)

• Eco-efficient Consumption: Changing patterns of consumption to achieve greater efficiency and to reduce waste and pollution in sectors such as transportation and housing. Dematerializing consumption may go hand-in-hand with a shift from resource-intensive goods to knowledge-intensive goods. 
(OECD, 1998; UNDP, 1998, p. 91)