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

In the press

TOTO Announces The Plumbing Industry's First Products To Earn The International Living Future Institute's "Red List Free" Declare Labels

By Sustainable Minds on November 17, 2015

Company Dramatically Raises the Bar for Health Material Evaluation and Product Transparency with 19 New Declare Labels and Eight New Sustainable Minds Material Health Overviews, Helping Building Industry Professionals Achieve the Highest Standards for Healthy, Environmentally-Responsible Designs

MORROW, Ga., Nov. 18, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- TOTO, the largest plumbing manufacturer in the world with $5.1 billion in annual sales, announced today that its high-efficiency commercial wall-hung toilet, two ultra high-efficiency urinals, and wall-hung commercial lavatory have no Red List ingredients and are listed in the International Living Future Institute's (IFLI) Declare Products Database as "Red List Free."

First Program Operator Consortium Launched for Environmental Product Declarations Market at Greenbuild 2015

By Sustainable Minds on November 17, 2015

WASHINGTON, November 17, 2015 — On Wednesday, four key green-building stakeholder organizations (ASTM International, ICC Evaluation Service, NSF International and Sustainable Minds) will launch the first Program Operator Consortium in the industry. The signing will take place at Greenbuild 2015 at the ASTM International booth (#3313) at 10:30 a.m.

The consortium will serve as an expert resource and advocate for creating product category rules (PCRs), reviewing life cycle assessment (LCA) reports, and verifying and publishing environmental product declarations (EPDs). The consortium members will pool resources, leverage existing relationships, jointly conduct outreach, marketing, education and communications, and promote the overall use of PCRs, LCAs and EPDs in the marketplace.

Manufacturers, design professionals and others will begin to see co-branded, verified EPDs from the consortium members, providing value to decision makers when specifying materials and products while helping manufacturers gain greater visibility for their product transparency work.

TOTO Is The First Plumbing Manufacturer To Earn The International Living Future Institute's Prestigious Declare Label And Offer Sustainable Minds' New Material Health Overview

By Sustainable Minds on September 16, 2015

Company Continues to Set the Standard for Plumbing Product Transparency and Material Health Evaluation

MORROW, Ga., Sept. 17, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Committed to transparency in the manufacture of products that contribute to a healthy, sustainable environment, TOTO announced today that it has achieved another plumbing industry first by offering material health evaluations for an initial six high-efficiency toilets (HETs). TOTO is now the only plumbing manufacturer whose products have earned the International Living Future Institute's (IFLI) Declare label and are listed in the Declare Products Database.

Declare Labels
Often compared to the nutritional labeling found on packaged food, Declare labels focus on specific information important to consumers and building industry professionals by offering a transparent platform for the disclosure of materials, chemicals and elements known to pose risks to human health or the environment. After a thorough investigation of their constituent materials, TOTO's initial six HETs have been listed in the Declare database as Living Building Challenge Compliant or "declared."

New SM Material Health Overview standardizes material health reporting to drive healthier building product purchase decisions

By Sustainable Minds on September 12, 2015

Announcing Partnerships with Leading Material Health Evaluation Organizations

(Cambridge, MA) SEP 14, 2015 – Sustainable Minds, the first cloud software provider and program operator to focus on simplified and understandable environmental reporting, has introduced the SM Material Health Overview — the next in its suite of Transparency Products. The SM Material Health Overview (MHO) is a strategic marketing and lead generation tool for building product manufacturers to inform safer and healthier purchase decisions. They make material health information understandable and meaningful by distilling the essential technical information from a disclosure, providing plain language interpretation and describing what the manufacturer is doing to improve. Based on the award-winning SM Transparency Report, an innovation in environmental product declaration (EPD) design and delivery, the SM Material Health Overview also includes functional performance information and product specifications.

Sustainable Minds Transparency Report Program™ Earns Top Product of the Year Award from Environmental Leader

By Sustainable Minds on April 24, 2015

CAMBRIDGE, MA, APRIL 2: Sustainable Minds®, a B2B cloud provider of environmental product transparency applications, data and services, today announced that the Sustainable Minds Transparency Report™ Program received a Top Product of the Year Award in the Environmental Leader Product & Project Awards. Judges considered it to be an exemplary product.

The Environmental Leader Product & Project Awards is a program recognizing excellence in products and services that provide companies with energy and environmental benefits, or in projects implemented by companies that improved environmental or energy management and increased the bottom line.

“We had more entries than ever this year, and competition was tough. The winners showed innovation and the ability to help transform the fields of energy and sustainability management,” says Paul Nastu, publisher of Environmental Leader. “Entries that were awarded Top Product or Project of the Year are those that should be carefully considered by companies seeking to improve operations and boost the bottom line.”

Sustainable Minds introduces the 2015 SM Transparency Report™ Framework and Program

By Sustainable Minds on February 26, 2015

Company continues to accelerate impactful innovation in product transparency reporting by integrating environmental performance and material health information into product marketing

Cambridge MA – Feb 25, 2015 – Sustainable Minds®, a B2B cloud provider of environmental product transparency applications, services & data, introduces the 2015 SM Transparency Report™ Framework and Program bringing major advancements to the entire process of creating and delivering product transparency reports. Sustainable Minds (SM) will introduce the 2015 Program to manufacturers and industry stakeholders on Tuesday, March 3, 2015, 2:00pm EST.
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Sustainable Minds and TOTO Accelerate Impactful Innovation in Product Transparency Reporting to Drive Greener Purchase Decisions

By Sustainable Minds on November 4, 2014

Emerging software company innovates a global standards process into a market-driven, user-friendly solution

NEW ORLEANS, L.A., Oct. 22 /CSRwire/ - (Greenbuild, Booth #616) - Sustainable Minds (SM), a cloud software and services company whose mission is to operationalize environmental performance in product development and manufacturing, continued to demonstrate market leadership by launching today ten new SM Transparency Reports™ from TOTO, the largest plumbing manufacturer in the world, for select high-efficiency commercial products, showcasing 15 products across four categories. TOTO's SM Transparency Reports, verified by NSF, can be viewed in the TOTO Showroom, in the SM Manufacturers Showroom.

With the introduction of the SM Transparency Report Program, Sustainable Minds continues to realize the intent of the ISO 14025 standard for Type III environmental declarations (aka EPDs) and the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED v4 (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design), a green building certification program that recognizes best-in-class building strategies and practices: to encourage demand and supply of products with better environmental performance communicated with verified information that stimulates potential for market-driven continuous environmental improvement – and then to reward project teams for selecting products from those manufacturers.

TOTO Takes The Next Step And Verifies Its Commercial Products' Environmental Performance With Sustainable Minds Transparency Reports

By Sustainable Minds on November 4, 2014

Company Makes Building Industry's Green Purchasing Decisions Easier by Providing Functional and Environmental Performance Information in Easy-to-Understand Cloud-Based Reports

MORROW, Ga., Oct. 22, 2014 -- TOTO, the largest plumbing manufacturer in the world with $5.1 billion dollars in annual sales, announced today that it has strengthened its position as a leader in sustainable product design and marketing by introducing ten new Sustainable Minds (SM) Transparency Reports for select high-efficiency commercial products. The company's new SM Transparency reports showcase 15 products across four categories—toilets, sensor faucets, sensor flush valves, and ultra high-efficiency urinals.

Harnessing the life cycle assessment (LCA) results of TOTO's new commercial products, TOTO's SM Transparency Reports are the first to demonstrate this innovation in the design of ISO 14025 Type III environmental declarations. The objective of ISO 14025 environmental declarations is "to encourage the demand for, and supply of, products that cause less stress on the environment, through communication of verifiable and accurate information that is not misleading, that stimulates the potential for market-driven continuous environmental improvement."

Sustainable Minds launches the SM Transparency Report™ Program

By Sustainable Minds on June 17, 2014

A complete solution for manufacturers to Design and Market greener products.

CAMBRIDGE, MA – June 12, 2014 – Sustainable Minds launches the SM Transparency Report™ Program, the alternative to the product category rule/environmental product declaration (PCR/EPD) process with equivalent credibility and verification – plus much more. Sustainable Minds will introduce the program to manufacturers and industry advocates on Tuesday, June 17, 2014, 2:00pm EST. 

The SM Transparency Report Program:
1. Provides options for easier adoption of transparency reporting
Re-engineers the PCR process providing a more efficient and cost-effective way to standardize reporting and create product group definitions.

2. Delivers a strategic marketing and lead generation tool – SM Transparency Reports
Drives greener purchase decisions by making life cycle assessment (LCA) and environmental performance information understandable and meaningful; enables a manufacturer to describe how they are making products greener. A third-party certified SM Transparency Report exceeds the ISO 14025 requirements for type III environmental declarations.

3. Helps market greener, and promotes greener design
More than just a report, deliverables include the manufacturer’s product data in a private dataset in Sustainable Minds’ flagship Eco-concept & LCA Software, used in over 750 locations in industry and education world-wide.

NSF International and Sustainable Minds Partner to Accelerate Product Transparency Reporting

By Sustainable Minds on June 11, 2014

Sustainable Minds Transparency Report™ Program offers an innovative market solution to the growing need for product transparency reporting and verification

ANN ARBOR, Mich. and CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Sustainable Minds has partnered with NSF Sustainability, a division of global public health organization NSF International, to provide life cycle assessment (LCA) verification and report certification for Sustainable Minds Transparency Reports™.

Sustainable Minds (SM), a software and services provider founded to operationalize environmental performance into mainstream product development and manufacturing,will introduce the complete SM Transparency Report™ Program to manufacturers and industry advocates through a webinar on Tuesday, June 17, 2014, at 2:00 pm EST.  Sign up at sustainableminds.com/weekly-webinar.

SM Transparency Reports, third party verified by NSF Sustainability and based on ISO 14044 compliant LCAs, are an alternative transparency reporting tool to environmental product declarations (EPDs). NSF Sustainability’s extensive background in certifying environmental reports and sustainable products and services provides additional credibility for the contents of the transparency reports.