Perspectives on greener product development and manufacturing from Sustainable Minds, our partners, customers and contributors.

Strategies

Transparency is the New Green in Product Selection and Specification Part 17: GAF & Isolatek

By Sustainable Minds on September 27, 2020

Recorded September 24, 2–3pm

Welcome to our webinar series featuring building product MFRs making credibly greener & healthier products. Whether you're a MFR or an AECO you'll find value in hearing these product and marketing leaders share stories about their transparency journeys, strategies and innovations.

This week's stories are particularly interesting to hear together, one that's been investing in transparency for years and one that's more recently started.

Sustainable Minds Announces Transparency Catalog v3.0: Now with all Declare® labels AND all HPDs and environmental product declarations (EPD) for building products in North America, with even more powerful MasterFormat® filtering

By Sustainable Minds on September 14, 2020

Do even more in 1 click. Now with 1,500+ brands, across 25 CSI MasterFormat® divisions and 800 sections, Transparency Catalog v3.0 provides deeper and more useful integration of partner data plus new tools that make it even easier to work the way you want, to get the best results – fast.

Cambridge, MA, September 14, 2020 – Sustainable Minds today announced the availability of the Transparency Catalog v3.0, continuing the company’s commitment to deliver simple, easy to use and powerful tools. With this release, architecture, engineering, construction professionals and owners (AECOs) can now find all manufacturers and the Declare labels and Living Product certifications for their products in each CSI MasterFormat® division and section – in 1 click.

Ecodesign Challenge: BOAST YOUR TOAST! Reinvent the toaster - Meet the winners!

By Sustainable Minds on August 11, 2020

Recorded Tue, Aug 11, 11–12pm ET

Sustainable Minds and the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) created an ecodesign challenge for its inaugural Sustainability Deep Dive Conference (June, 2020) to engage the industry in an opportunity for hands-on learning. SM provided our Eco-concept + LCA Software along with a well-defined design process and ambitious submission requirements.
There were 52 entries. The results will amaze you!

Transparency is the New Green in Product Selection and Specification: Using the EC3 tool & Transparency Catalog to make lower embodied carbon decisions

By Sustainable Minds on April 8, 2020

Recorded Thu, Apr 2, 2–3pm ET

Using EPDs to make decisions about which products have better environmental performance isn't simple, but now there’s the EC3 tool.

Since going live at Greenbuild 2019, 5,000+ people have signed up for Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3) accounts! The EC3 tool is a collaborative, open-source industry-led sustainability platform that helps professionals make better decisions about embodied carbon in construction, and enables supply chain accountability.

Transparency is the New Green in Product Selection and Specification, Part 13: BASF & USG

By Sustainable Minds on March 6, 2020

Recorded Wed, Feb 26, 2–3pm ET

Welcome to our webcast series featuring manufacturers making credibly greener and healthier products. Learn how they are working to understand and improve the environmental performance and material health of their products.
Check out the BASF and USG listings.

Transparency is the New Green in Product Selection and Specification: 2020 Product Transparency Trend Report

By Sustainable Minds on February 25, 2020

Recorded Tue, Feb 18, 2–3pm ET

From Early Mainstream to Specification Requirement

Today, there are 1,270+ MFRs producing thousands of transparency disclosures (EPDs & material ingredient) across 21 CSI MasterFormat® divisions.

Since the 2016 launch of the Transparency Catalog, Sustainable Minds has tracked the demand for, and creation of, product transparency disclosures. Increasingly, architects, contractors, engineers and owners have become more knowledgeable about what the disclosures mean. Environmental performance and material health are performance criteria. To design and construct actually higher-performing buildings, actually higher-performing products must be specified.

Transparency is the New Green in Product Selection and Specification Part 12: CIMA–CIMAC deliver the first industry EPD for Loose-Fill Cellulose Insulation, a carbon-storing material

By Sustainable Minds on January 22, 2020

Recorded Mon, Jan 20, 2–3pm ET | 11–12pm PT

Welcome to our webcast series featuring manufacturers making credibly greener and healthier products. Learn how they are working to understand and improve the environmental performance and material health of their products.

The Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator Tool methodology: Not just what, but why? Not just how, but how big can the impact be?

By Sustainable Minds on November 18, 2019

The Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3) tool methodology takes several bold steps to use what program operators, LCA providers and manufacturers have worked very hard to produce. Product category rules (PCRs) using different parameters to define product categories or groups; inconsistent content and data in an environmental product declaration (EPD), and PDF delivery in non-standardized layouts all make it very complicated to machine read and digitize to put today’s available data to use. Notwithstanding, this methodology delivers, for the first time, a scalable way to compare a single product’s embodied carbon impacts to all other similar products in a category.

Join us to meet experts on embodied carbon & EPDs @ our Greenbuild booth talks

By Sustainable Minds on November 18, 2019

We’re excited to be announcing several important new partners. Sign up for booth talks.

Sustainable Minds offers the opportunity for demos and discussion F2F with the people doing the work! If you're in Atlanta, come to Booth #1713 to learn from our partners.
Check out the schedule and RSVP >

Sustainable Minds Announces Transparency Catalog v2.1: Now with all Health Product Declarations® (HPD) AND all environmental product declarations (EPD) for building products in North America, with powerful MasterFormat® filtering

By Sustainable Minds on August 13, 2019

HPDs and EPDs increasingly becoming specification requirements for greener and healthier high-performance buildings

Cambridge, MA, Aug 13, 2019 – Sustainable Minds today announced the availability of the Transparency Catalog v2.1, continuing the company’s commitment to deliver simple, easy to use and powerful tools. With this release, architecture, engineering, construction professionals and owners (AECOs) can now find all manufacturers and the published Health Product Declarations® (HPDs) for their products in each CSI MasterFormat® division and section – in 1 click.

The Transparency Catalog now includes access to all v2.0, 2.1 and 2.1.1 HPDs — a total of 3,175 from 332 manufacturers in 18 MasterFormat (MF) divisions adding ~195 more sections to the Catalog across divisions 03 Concrete, 04 Masonry, 07 Thermal and Moisture Protection, 09 Finishes and 12 Furnishings.