The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) recently launched TRUE v2—the latest iteration of the TRUE zero waste certification program.

The new version of the rating system emphasizes zero waste impacts and global applicability, and it helps organizations advance their decarbonization, business transformation, and circularity goals, USGBC says.

Launched a decade ago, TRUE (Total Resource Use and Efficiency) has certified more than 680 projects totaling 272 million sf that have diverted 8.9 million tons of waste from landfills.

“TRUE v2 takes the trusted standard for measuring zero waste efforts and makes the path to certification clearer, faster, and more valuable than ever,” according to a USGBC news release.

The rating system is delivered through Arc, the digital platform created by GBCI to collect, measure, benchmark and verify sustainability performance. Updates to the TRUE v2 rating system include:

• Rebalanced credit structure to support projects starting their zero waste journey while also rewarding high performers
• Improved global usability with clearer, internationally applicable language and approaches
• Greater rewards for higher-impact and harder-to-achieve actions.

“TRUE v2 comes as more organizations seek clarity on zero waste roadmaps, with waste volumes rising, landfill capacity tightening, and disposal costs escalating,” the release says.

The Global Waste Management Outlook 2024 projects that the direct cost of waste management could double by 2050, and the Environmental Research and Education Foundation found that commercial waste disposal costs in the U.S. have grown by 15-30% since 2016.