Farewell Ecospecifier!

The Ecospecifier green products search engine is closing.

Dear Friends of Ecospecifier,

The time has come to honour and farewell the old Lady. After months of deliberation, we have decided to retire Ecospecifier Pty Ltd, the Grandmother of green product search engines and sustainable materials' verification.

Please note, her retirement will not affect the Global GreenTag Product Certification Program and future traffic to Ecospecifier's websites will be diverted by June 30th to www.globalgreentag.com

Ecospecifier started it all and won awards for us for being innovative and an industry leader! She essentially birthed the Global GreenTag Product Certification Standard and paved the way for the many green product research websites that now proliferate around the globe. When we launched Ecospecifier (when she was known as ecospecifier in 2003) there was no other service like it on the planet - supporting and promoting sustainable product claims by progressive, building product manufacturers, and uniquely providing access to niche, product research information for professionals in the emerging, green building industry of the time.

Indeed, more sophisticated search engines have arrived since Ecospecifier started, but in her heyday, Ecospecifier was a standout! She served all corners of industries with interests in protecting the environment, with services that ranged from her globally trusted, Ecospecifier Verified green product information to her educational arm that provided both manufacturers and building industry professionals with continuing professional development in materials intelligence.

Over the years, the product search engines of Ecospecifier have been widely sought and served thousands of product researchers from the green built environment industries, commercial, government and educational bodies. All of whom have subscribed at one point or other to Ecospecifier databases to explore information about green materials and find how they align and comply with global green building codes.

In many ways, Ecospecifier was a lighthouse at a time when an early green building industry was still finding its way. Founding Directors, Mary-Lou Kelly and David Baggs (who went on to co-found Global GreenTag) were committed to keeping that light shining to help the green, building movement accelerate. Mary-Lou and David even made a decision to cease all research subscription fees, making product listings free to air on Ecospecifier global websites, to encourage and motivate more people to take advantage of the product knowledge within the sites to help reduce environmental impacts.

It has been a magnificent journey with Ecospecifier and we thank you for your support over the years. We thank the incredible roll call of green manufacturers who joined us and, the thousands of professionals from architectural and design firms, construction companies and other related built environment professions who chose to research with us.

Finally, we want to thank the many people who have worked with us, including those who interned with Ecospecifier from all corners of the globe and who have ventured on to some amazing positions in sustainability.

We have immense pride in what we have managed to achieve – and inspire in others. We now move forwards!

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THE FUTURE IS HERE - AN ETHICAL MANUFACTUERS GROUP

Although we have closed the doors of Ecospecifier and her websites, with all traffic to the sites being re-directed to globalgreentag.com - we are excited to share that the light and intent behind Ecospecifier carries forwards.

We are in the formative stages of bringing together a new initiative – an Ethical Manufacturers Group - to work together and bring a greater, collective voice to act in the light of the same goodwill that started with Ecospecifier - for the benefit of the health of the earth and all living lifeforms.

We hope that you can join us in this forward adventure!

We have found that there is no initiative in Australia like an Ethical Manufacturers' Group and to the best of our knowledge, throughout the world that:

• Brings together like-minded manufacturers, suppliers and related stakeholders who can share experiences and knowledge to support, develop and expand Ethical Manufacturing Practices and Products.
• Enhances and supports the Green Building, Construction, Infrastructure and Procurement industries and, collectively works to influence and shape ethical manufacturing policy and legislation by lobbying local, state and federal governments.

We invite you to participate! If you represent a Product Manufacturer, a Supplier, a Building Industry Product Association, a Green Building Rating Tool or, are an Architect, Designer, Green Engineer, Sustainability or Green Building Consultant or similar.

Please consider contacting us to join the Ethical Manufacturers membership, when the group is formed.

Contact us at to register your interest in joining the working group and we will be in touch!

All the best,

The Team at Global GreenTag International