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.

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

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).

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: