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

Materials & processes

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 >

Transparency is the New Green in Product Selection and Specification Part 11: Sloan & Hunter Panels

By Sustainable Minds on September 29, 2019

Recorded Thu, Sep 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.

Transparency is the New Green in Product Selection and Specification: Using EPDs to create actionable information about embodied carbon in construction

By Sustainable Minds on September 13, 2019

Recorded Tue, Sep 10, 12–1pm ET

Using EPDs to make decisions about which products actually have better environmental performance isn't simple. Introducing the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (“EC3”) tool.

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. The EC3 tool is part of an integrated ecosystem of data, tools and knowledge that empowers, informs and inspires low carbon solutions. The EC3 tool is set for formal release in the fall of 2019.

Transparency is the New Green in Product Selection and Specification: Introducing Transparency Catalog v2.1: All Health Product Declarations®

By Sustainable Minds on August 22, 2019

Recorded Wednesday, Aug 21, 2–3pm ET | 11–12pm PT

AND all environmental product declarations (EPDs) in North America, with powerful MasterFormat® filtering

Join us to learn about HPDs and v2.1 capabilities.
HPDs and EPDs are increasingly becoming specification requirements for greener and healthier high-performance buildings. Now in one place, AECOs can find products with environmental performance & material ingredient disclosures in 25 MasterFormat divisions and ~710 sections.

Innovating a Greener Future: Radical Plastics & Techstyle Materials

By Sustainable Minds on May 17, 2019

Recorded Tue, Apr 30, 11–12pm ET

The Cleantech Open runs the world’s largest clean technology accelerator program. Meet 2018 National Winner, Radical Plastics and Northeast Finalist, Techstyle Materials.

Sustainable Minds is proud to be a national in-kind sponsor, offering a free subscription to our SM Eco-concept + LCA software to the 2018 CTO Cohort to improve their products' environmental performance by integrating life cycle thinking and LCA into their product development processes.

Sustainable Minds Announces Transparency Catalog v2.0: Powerful MasterFormat® Filtering and Every Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) in North America

By Sustainable Minds on January 23, 2019

The first cloud-based productivity solution for Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Owners (AECOs) to make it super easy to find & specify greener and healthier products for high-performance buildings — and reward manufacturers for making them.

Cambridge, MA — January 23, 2019 — Sustainable Minds® (SM), recognized leaders in customer-centered product sustainability cloud solutions, today announced the availability of the Transparency Catalog v2.0, continuing the company’s commitment to deliver simple, easy to use and powerful tools. Flexible MasterFormat® number filtering, aligned with MasterSpec® sections, enables AECOs to find exactly the brands, products and transparency disclosures, in each division and section, to meet project and green building rating system requirements. This makes it possible to do in minutes what today takes weeks, or wouldn’t even be possible to do at all.

Transparency is the New Green Part 10: Project Builder / Configurator & Library Making product transparency understandable, meaningful & actionable

By Sustainable Minds on August 6, 2018

recorded Thurs, Aug 2 | 2pm ET, 11am PT

Dear design professional, We are inviting you to attend this webinar because you are involved in making material selection and specification decisions.

Designed specifically with you in mind, we will demo and discuss the benefits of using the Knauf Showroom with Project Builder / Configurator and Library in the SM Transparency Catalog.

We are extremely proud to be a 2018 Cleantech Open national sponsor.

By Sustainable Minds on July 16, 2018

As an in-kind sponsor, Sustainable Minds is offering a free 6-month subscription to its SM Eco-concept + LCA software for all members of the 2018 CTO cohort.

https://cleantechopen.org/en/page/national-sponsors-en

We kicked things off with the webinar: “Hands-on Training in Life Cycle Thinking & LCA for Cleantech Entrepreneurs.” The webinar provided an introduction to life cycle thinking and LCA and how to use the software in early stage product development to make informed trade-off decisions that can dramatically reduce impacts and drive innovation — in products, business models and systems.

Knauf Insulation North America Partners with Sustainable Minds to Make Product Transparency Understandable and Actionable

By Sustainable Minds on November 12, 2017

Knauf Insulation North America is the first fiberglass insulation manufacturer to provide comprehensive environmental and material disclosures all in one place with Sustainable Minds Transparency Reports and Material Health Overviews

Shelbyville, Ind. (November 9, 2017) – Knauf Insulation North America (KINA) is simplifying the process of researching and specifying building products that meet today’s most stringent green building rating systems through an innovative partnership with Sustainable Minds (SM).