AHAM Announces Partnership with CSA Standards and UL Environment

The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) announced that it has partnered with two leading standards organizations, CSA Standards and UL Environment, to jointly develop voluntary sustainability standards for home appliances. The new standards will take a life cycle approach and are intended to be used by governments, retailers, and other initiatives to identify environmentally responsible products. This effort is intended to provide an objective and practical measurement tool to assist the public in evaluating the sustainability of home appliances. 

“Manufacturers are committed to providing this solution to their customers,” explained Joseph M. McGuire, President of AHAM. “This partnership provides the necessary expertise to produce credible sustainability standards for home appliances. A major element of appliance sustainability clearly is energy consumption. We will build on our expertise in the energy area but will also employ a life cycle approach to identify and measure other significant environmental aspects of appliances. UL and CSA Standards, leading North American standards development organizations for appliances, have the credibility and expertise for this initiative.”

Five Winds International, an internationally recognized sustainability consulting firm, has been selected as a project manager for the AHAM project. Five Winds brings thirteen years experience in developing and implementing sustainability strategy to improve the sustainability of companies and has been instrumental in helping to write international environmental standards.

As part of the standards development process, the group will engage a cross‐section of stakeholders to ensure that the standard is both credible and compatible with existing government and retailer initiatives. “Our ultimate aim is to develop a metric that will instill consumer confidence,” said McGuire.