Apr 25, 2012 Author: Stacy Glass
While we have long been fans of Bill McDonough’s work and the design philosophy espoused in the book, “Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things”, we’ve had our reservations about fully embracing Cradle to Cradle (C2C) Certification as the eco-label of choice, but NO MORE! Over the past two years, C2C Certification has quietly transformed into a non-profit, third-party verified, multi-attribute assessment that rewards exceptional design for sustainable and healthy materials.
The catalyst of this change was the creation of the non-profit Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute with the mission of exponentially increasing the number of certified products through education, training independent assessors, administering a process for third-party auditing and issuing certifications.
This is timely given the materials revolution happening in the green building industry. The USGBC has recently revamped the Materials and Resource section for LEED 2012. While still in draft form, a few things are clear. There is a move towards greater transparency, multi-attribute assessment vs. single attribute, closed-loop recycling, and a more comprehensive approach to valuing certifications according to depth, transparency, and rigor. These changes move LEED a little closer to the process involved in Cradle to Cradle Certification.
The first stage of Certification requires companies to define every ingredient in their product down to the parts per million. This might seem simple enough, but when you consider the layers of a supply chain and concern about proprietary ingredients, this can be a time consuming task. However, the market is demanding this level of transparency as evidenced in the Healthy Product Declaration Forum and the new LEED 2012 MR credit: Material Life Cycle Disclosure and Assessment. This first step in C2C Certification meets the demand for transparency.
Once the product ingredients have been fully defined, each ingredient is assessed for its risk to human health and the environment. This takes a chemist/toxicologist type expert but the outcome is a full assessment of the product down to the parts per million. Just knowing if the ingredient is harmful is not enough. If there are persistent bio-accumulative toxins present in the product, it cannot be certified. Eliminating “Chemicals of Concern” is a mantra being advanced by several organizations including: LEED 2012 MR credit: Disclosure of Chemicals of Concern and MR credit: Avoidance of Chemicals of Concern, Perkins + Will’s Transparency initiative, the Living Building Challenge Red List and the ongoing work of the Pharos project to name only a few. At this stage, in addition to human and environmental health, products are also assessed on multiple attributes involving manufacturing and organizational processes including material reutilization, renewable energy, water stewardship, and social responsibility.
Once the product and manufacturing processes have been fully defined and assessed, the manufacturers work towards optimizing their processes and product by increasing their efforts to ensure material reutilization, renewable energy, clean water, and social responsibility as well as by eliminating or replacing undesirable ingredients with safer alternatives or redesigning products to eliminate the need for the chemical altogether. As they achieve greater optimization, they are granted higher and higher levels of certification (Basic, Silver, Gold, Platinum).
The level of rigor embodied in Cradle to Cradle Certification is unprecedented in the marketplace and requires companies to make a serious investment in innovative sustainability strategies. As such, it is time to revisit Cradle to Cradle Certification as a standard for measuring sustainable materials.
Full disclosure: Stacy Glass is serving as an Executive in Residence for the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute and is advising on accelerating certified products for the built environment.
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Nov 21, 2011 Author: Carrie Moore
CaraGreen TV is now on YouTube! Our first video tests if red wine will stain Durat solid surface material (spoiler alert, it doesn't). In the video, CaraGreen's own Barbara Ford, Inside Sales Manager, makes the stain disappear with a little elbow grease. And, the video is filmed in a gorgeous kitchen that has Durat countertops. To watch it, click here. We welcome your video test ideas, email us.
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Oct 19, 2011 Author: Carrie Moore
Greenbuild wrapped up on Oct. 7th in Toronto. This was CaraGreen’s fifth year attending the conference and despite the lack of growth in the overall building industry, there is a growing green building economy and there was plenty of excitement and inspiration to be had.
The theme of the conference and expo was “NEXT” and based on what I saw (admitting a bias towards interior non-structural materials), materials seem to be the next frontier for the USGBC. The Materials and Resource section of LEED is getting a complete overhaul for the next release in 2012. With the changes proposed, we can expect real innovation from manufacturers as they work toward material optimization from a health, environment, and social perspective.
The MR section of LEED is evolving toward transparency, the avoidance of chemicals of concern, responsible sourcing of raw materials, and end of life considerations. Overall, LEED 2012 is adopting a preference for multi-attribute assessment of materials vs. single attribute assessments. This is a leap forward for our industry expanding the definition of what is ‘green’. As most of us know, just because a product doesn’t off-gas or just because it has recycled content, doesn’t mean that it is sustainable, healthy, or manufactured under safe and fair conditions.
The call for transparency is coming from owners, specifiers, and occupants who want to know exactly where the product is coming from, what’s in it, what’s its impact during use, and what will its impact be at the end of its useful life. Credits have been drafted to address many of these questions and it looks like we can expect Life Cycle Assessments to take a major role in the future of materials.
One area of transparency that can be difficult to make sense of is the ‘chemicals of concern’. Various groups from the EPA to Healthy Building Network and large firms like Perkins+Will and Google have lists of chemicals they want to eliminate to improve indoor air quality and human health. The problem is, lists can vary from one organization to the other, manufacturers don’t consistently know their chemical make-ups down to the parts per million (often due to the depth of their supply chain), and reporting formats vary so comparing products is very difficult.
A promising solution, The Health Product Declaration (HPD) Forum, a group of building designers, specifiers, owners and users, have developed the HPD Open Standard. This form is a voluntary, open standard for the communication of product content and associated health information for building products. Establishing protocols for reporting this information in a consistent manner will help building professionals quickly and easily find the information they need. It will help manufacturers by standardizing the information they need to provide to answer the increasing number of inquiries on these issues. It will also facilitate the integration of building product data into certification programs, product databases and design software.
The open process and database has the potential to encourage widespread industry participation and adoption. Check out the form here and let us know if your firm is moving in the same direction.
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Aug 22, 2010 Author: Carrie Moore
-Differentiate between traditional and emerging insulation materials, trends, and uses.
-Examine and recognize the different ways that insulation addresses energy losses in a building envelope.
-Compare and contrast the acoustic properties of insulation against its energy saving properties.
-Analyze and assess multiple other qualities of insulation that can contribute to green and sustainable building design.
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Jul 11, 2010 Author: Carrie Moore
CaraGreen is committed to sharing our knowledge of green building materials. And soon, we'll be able to do this in book form. Traci Rose Rider of Trace Collaborative, along with Stacy Glass and Jessica McNaughton from CaraGreen, have written a book titled Understanding Green Building Materials, which is now available for Pre-Order through Amazon. The book explains green building products - what they are and how to choose them. From eco-friendly sheetrock to sustainable paint finishes, the green building movement is gaining momentum. But with new products, manufacturers, and standards being introduced routinely, how are architects or designers to know what's best for their projects? This book summarizes what is available and the considerations for selecting sustainable materials.
To reserve your copy, click here.
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