The NIST Ontological Visualization Interface for Standards (NOVIS) was developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to provide an interactive visual interface to the terminology used in a variety of standards related to sustainable manufacturing. The area of sustainable manufacturing is rapidly evolving and includes a network of information standards that define the language of discourse for this new area. Traditional document style standards and dictionary style definitions are very limiting when it comes to getting a holistic picture of the sustainability landscape for manufacturing.