Green Seal is a non-profit corporation that creates science-based environmental standards and certifications in various sectors (cleaning products, paper, lodging properties, restaurants etc.) to empower consumers, purchasers, and companies to create a more sustainable world. Since it was first published in 1999, the GS-33 standard for lodging properties has represented environmental leadership in the industry, which is why the City of Los Angeles, the Tourism and Convention Board and the City of Los Angeles’s Better Buildings Challenge (LABBC) chose to partner with Green Seal as the City's official green certifier. Green Seal is the only certifier that requires a third-party independent scientific process as a prerequisite to certification.