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

  • SM Transparency Products: ‘Business Insights’ featured article US Builders Review, Winter 2017

    by Sustainable Minds on February 21, 2017

    From hurdle to marketing tool, making money with product transparency

    With 450-plus brands — representing hundreds of categories and thousands of products — the SM Transparency Catalog™ brings together all manufacturers who have made the commitment to product transparency. Most importantly, it presents their information in a well-designed, simple and standardized way, making it easy for green building professionals to find credibly greener and healthier products to meet rating system requirements and build higher performing buildings.

    Categories: In the press, Marketing
  • Webinar: Partnership with Collaborative for High Performance Schools to promote product transparency in healthy, high-performance schools

    by Sustainable Minds on February 6, 2017

    Webinar recorded Thu, Feb 2 @ 2pm ET

    Learn more about the SM/CHPS partnership along with Ecore International, CHPS member and SM Transparency Catalog customer.

    SM and CHPS announce a partnership to promote the use of products with environmental and material health disclosures in K-12 educational facilities.

    CHPS is a leading national organization working to improve student performance by building the best possible schools, incorporating integrated design, sustainable products, and leading construction practices. Sustainable Minds is the first cloud software solutions provider and program operator to deliver simple, understandable and meaningful product environmental reporting.

  • CUSTOMER STORY WEBCAST SERIES: Transparency is the New Green, Part 2: TOTO & View Dynamic Glass

    by Sustainable Minds on January 25, 2017

    Webinar recorded Tues, Jan 24 @ 2pm ET

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

    Visit their SM Transparency Catalog listings:

  • Collaborative For High Performance Schools & Sustainable Minds partner to promote product transparency in healthy, high-performance schools

    by Sustainable Minds on January 18, 2017

    Green building organization for K-12 schools retiring its High Performance Products Database and introducing the SM Transparency Catalog in its place.

    January 19, 2017 – The Collaborative for High Performances Schools (CHPS) and Sustainable Minds® (SM) have partnered to promote the use of products with environmental and material health disclosures in K-12 educational facilities. CHPS is a leading national organization working to improve student performance by building the best possible schools, incorporating integrated design, sustainable products, and leadingconstruction practices. Sustainable Minds is the first cloud software solutions provider and program operator to deliver simple, understandable and meaningful product environmental reporting.

    October 2016 saw the release of the SM Product Transparency Catalog™, a simple, cloud-based catalog for AEC professionals to easily find products with product transparency information that qualify for the CHPS Criteria and other green building systems. In 2013, the CHPS Criteria incorporated credits for both EPDs (MW 7.1) and material health reporting (MW 10.1), in recognition of the importance of product transparency in helping to create sustainable, healthy school environments.

    Categories: In the press
  • CUSTOMER STORY WEBCAST SERIES: Transparency is the New Green, Part 1: GAF and Knauf Insulation

    by Sustainable Minds on December 10, 2016

    Webinar recorded Thu, Dec 8 @ 2pm ET

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

    Join us to learn about:

    • Which products have disclosures and why
    • What they learned from creating disclosures
    • What they've been doing to improve
    • How to use product transparency information to make better informed specification decisions
  • Sustainable Minds Introduces new SM Transparency Catalog™

    by Sustainable Minds on October 18, 2016

    Celebrating All Brands Making Credibly Greener & Healthier Products for the Built Environment

    CAMBRIDGE, MA – OCT 18, 2016 -- Sustainable Minds, the first cloud software solutions provider and program operator to deliver simple, understandable and meaningful product environmental reporting, has introduced the SM Transparency Catalog™ – another first in its suite of Transparency Products. Launching with 350+ brands, representing hundreds of categories and thousands of products, the SM Transparency Catalog brings together all manufacturers who have made the commitment to product transparency – and presents their information in a simple, standardized and consistent way. The SM Transparency Catalog is the only source:

    • Of products with transparency disclosures ever assembled — in the cloud
    • To provide BOTH environmental and material health disclosures that qualify for LEED v4, Green Globes, the Well Building Standard and the Living Building Challenge –- from all manufacturers, all program operators and all material disclosure rating systems
    • To make products with transparency disclosures easy to find for AEC professionals — free access, no login
    • Designed to send users to manufacturers’ websites for more information
    Categories: In the press
  • Sustainable Minds and GAF introduce new SM Performance Fact Sheet™

    by Sustainable Minds on October 5, 2016

    Cloud-Based Reports Make It Easier Than Ever to Select Products with Transparency Information

    LOS ANGELES, CA/Parsippany, NY, October 5, 2016 -- 
    Cloud software and services company, Sustainable Minds, is proud to introduce the SM Performance Fact Sheet™ with North America’s largest roofing manufacturer and product transparency leader, GAF. The SM Performance Fact Sheet™ is the latest in Sustainable Mind’s suite of Transparency Products. This strategic marketing and lead generation tool allows building product manufacturers to help the design and construction community make safer and healthier purchase decisions.

    Categories: In the press
  • Leading Green Building Consortium Expands on First Anniversary

    by Sustainable Minds on October 4, 2016

    Program Operator Consortium welcomes Canadian standards developer CSA Group and global software and LCA services provider thinkstep

    Los Angeles, October 5, 2016 — The green building industry’s first and leading consortium of program operators announced today at Greenbuild the addition of two new members and an enhanced technical advisory board. CSA Group is now a member, while thinkstep is an affiliate member.

    This marks the first anniversary of the Program Operator Consortium (POC), which launched last year to provide simpler, standardized and more useful environmental product transparency solutions and to reduce complexity in the marketplace. The consortium serves as an expert resource and advocate for creating product category rules (PCRs), reviewing life cycle assessment reports (LCA), and verifying and publishing environmental product declarations (EPDs).

    Categories: In the press
  • SCS Global Services Joins Consortium Promoting Product Environmental Transparency

    by Sustainable Minds on September 7, 2016

    EMERYVILLE, CA Sep 8, 2016 SCS Global Services (SCS), a leading third-party certifier of environmental, social, and quality performance claims, is pleased to announce that it has joined the Program Operator Consortium (POC). The Consortium is comprised of standards developers and certifiers specializing in the development of Product Category Rules (PCRs) and the certification of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), working together to advance environmental product transparency in the marketplace.

    Categories: In the press
  • Introducing the North American PCR Catalog, v1.0

    by Sustainable Minds on August 18, 2016

    Take a look! Is there an expiring PCR in your industry or one you’d like to create?

    Sustainable Minds created the North American PCR Catalog for 2 reasons: