INFORMED PRODUCT SELECTION

Responsible product selection in today’s market requires careful consideration of the impacts that product content have on people and planet throughout a product’s life cycle. Green building certification programs, including the Living Building Challenge, the WELL Building Standard, and LEED v4, each reward various levels of product disclosure and optimization. While designers cannot be responsible for fully analyzing this disclosed information, just the fact that it is being disclosed can help inform product selection and move the industry forward.

THE CHALLENGE

How do manufacturers share product content information, in a standard format, effectively and efficiently across the building industry?

THE SOLUTION

mindful MATERIALS is an initiative developed within the design industry to provide a common way for manufacturers to clearly communicate transparency and optimization information for their building products.

Through mindful MATERIALS, manufacturers enter product information directly into an online database, indicating which disclosure documents and certifications apply to each product. This database, managed by GIGA, gives designers a single place to search for product information. In parallel, the database corresponds to a labeling system that is physically represented in design resource libraries, placing this material attribute information at designers’ fingertips.

“Many certifications and transparency declarations reference multiple products. mindful MATERIALS makes it feasible to use these declarations in practice by linking HPDs, Declare labels, C2C certifications, and other documents to specific products.”

– Nadav Malin
BuildingGreen