| Environmental Stewardship Program (ESP) - learn more (PDF) | California Air Resources Board (CARB) Rule on Composite Wood Panels - learn more (PDF) | Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) - learn more (PDF) | NAHB Green Home Building Guidelines - learn more (PDF) |
| What is it? | A voluntary program for kitchen cabinet manufacturers to demonstrate that their products and manufacturing processes are based on practices and materials that benefit both the environment and the well being of society. | An air quality regulation which seeks to control the emissions of formaldehyde from composite wood panels and products made with such panels sold in the state of California.It covers plywood, particleboard & MDF.The rule is effective 1/1/2009, but phases all the various board products in a 4 year time frame. | A voluntary program which sets out criteria defining what a "green home" is. Builders submit their designs for review and if it earns a certain level of qualifying points it is awarded a certification plaque for display (Certified, Silver, Gold, Platinum).
LEED for Homes (January 2008). | A voluntary program which sets out criteria defining what a "green home" is. Builders submit their designs for review and if it earns a certain level of qualifying points it is awarded a certification plaque for display (Bronze, Silver, Gold).
Guidelines out in 2006. Green Home Building Standards to be launched in 2008. |
| Who owns it? | Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association | California Air Resources Board, an appointed regulatory body of the State of California | US Green Building Council | National Association of Home Builders |
| How does it affect us? | We use it to help market our cabinets. | We sell a sizeable amount of cabinets into the State and want to continue to do so. The board required is more expensive and there are costs associated with implementing the systems to comply. | More and more often our customers or prospective customers are asking what we can do for them in this program. | The ESP program was designed to dovetail with this and in the latest version two points are awarded for using cabinets that meet the ESP criteria. |
| Why is it important? | We are one of the largest cabinet manufacturers and we helped create and drive this program through KCMA. Many of our competitors are now in the program. | We value this market and our customers there and want to continue to serve them. | This movement is growing as builders look for a value added program to help sell homes. As a growing market for cabinets we want to be able to participate. | This is a program that recognizes the KCMA ESP cabinets. |
| What is our status today with respect to this program? | All of current product lines are qualified in the program. | The regulation becomes effective next year. We have a team working to make all our cabinet lines compliant with the program. | We don't have a product line that meets the specification for cabinets. It requires the use of materials which are more expensive and/or of limited availability. | We have cabinets which would earn two points for a builder. In about two years, when we have CARB compliant cabinets that will go up to three points. |
| How do we plan to deal with this program in future? | We are committed to keeping our cabinets qualified under this program. | We plan to comply with these regulations and offer our full line of cabinets to that market. | We are considering what we can do to produce a line of cabinets that meets the criteria. | We have been supporting them through KCMA, and will help promote their new program. |
| What do we have to do to qualify? | We have to qualify by looking at the materials we use to make our products and how we run our manufacturing plants to qualify. Points are available in 5 categories and it takes 80 points to achieve the certification. | We have to maintain documentation to show we used compliant CWP to fabricate our products sold in the State. We have to label them as compliant. | We have to fabricate cabinets with the types of materials called out in the LEED for homes (January 2008) standard. | Maintaining our ESP certification and moving all our products to the CARB compliance will help our home builder customers. |