CSI forms alliance with GreenWizard

GreenWizard Inc., Charleston, S.C., and the Construction Specifications Institute, Alexandria, Va., today announced that GreenWizard will adopt CSI’s formats, and the two organizations will promote a common approach to organizing green product information. GreenWizard is a web-based expert system that allows architects, engineers, and contractors to cross-search, compare, and purchase products for LEED commercial construction. With this alliance, GreenWizard will follow CSI’s MasterFormat and GreenFormat standards in GreenWizard’s online product database, a unique green-product database that allows architects, engineers, and contractors to search for green products, determine their LEED point eligibility, and order products for LEED commercial construction. CSI will work with GreenWizard to integrate product data in both databases to simplify search and access to information. In addition to incorporating the structure of MasterFormat and GreenFormat into its database, GreenWizard will make access to GreenFormat available as a source of extended green-product information. GreenFormat is a web-based format that allows building product manufacturers to accurately self-report the sustainable attributes of their products through an online questionnaire. “If a product is in GreenFormat and GreenWizard, GreenWizard will present it in our database with a GreenFormat designation,” said Jerry Lepore, President and COO of GreenWizard. “This alliance is really focused on promoting standards-adoption and bringing a level of predictability and consistency to green product databases, here at GreenWizard and throughout the industry.” “GreenFormat is a nice complement to GreenWizard,” said CSI Technical Director Roger Grant, CSI, CDT. “It extends the product acquisition services of GreenWizard with the full range of information about a product’s sustainable performance characteristics found in a GreenFormat listing.”