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AEC/O CMF Implementation Toolkit
Designing and building projects that not only meet sustainability goals, but also are streamlined in time, energy, and money.
A connected and scalable materials ecosystem doesn’t happen by chance—it’s built through alignment, consistency, and collaboration. That’s why mindful MATERIALS has outlined key steps for architects, engineers, contractors, designers, and owners to begin implementing the Common Materials Framework (CMF) within their workflows. By integrating the CMF into your materials requirements and aligning around a Common Ask to manufacturers, you move from good intentions to automated materials vetting and reporting.
Why This Matters
The CMF Implementation Toolkit is designed to cut through the noise: adopt and signal a common language, integrate it into materials requirements, use shared templates to streamline communication with manufacturers, and go digital to automate. The result? Faster, clearer, more confident decisions that make impact measurable and actionable.
Watch Laurel Chadzynski, VP of Engagement at mindful MATERIALS, share how the Toolkit empowers teams to simplify workflows, strengthen trust, and scale alignment across the value chain.
“When data is connected and consistent, it becomes powerful. The Toolkit helps every stakeholder, from architect to designer to contractor to owner, work smarter, not harder, toward a more sustainable built environment.”
— Laurel Chadzynski, VP of Engagement, mindful MATERIALS
AEC/O Implementation Steps
Step #1: Signaling Your Alignment With the Common Materials Framework
A connected industry starts with a shared language. The CMF provides that foundation—helping teams align terminology, expectations, and impact goals across design and construction. Use our endorsement materials to signal your participation and demonstrate your commitment to alignment, transparency, and shared progress across the industry.
If you do this, you are signaling that you are about to take action. If you don't take action, you run the risk of greenwashing.
Step #2: Integrating the Common Materials Framework Consistently in Material Requirements
Our guidance in this section is broken out into two categories: 1. For those that have yet to create a material decision-making program (Creating), and 2. For those that already have one (Existing). Based on your organization's progress, either guidance can be used to align your program to the CMF to be able to leverage and use the resources in Step 3 most effectively.
Step #3: Leveraging Common Ask & Common Give Templates
Alignment only works when communication flows both ways. Our Common Ask and Common Give templates help streamline how you request and share product sustainability data—using consistent, CMF-aligned language across projects, partners, and tools. To truly scale automated materials vetting, we need consistent, high-quality data integrated into workflows. The best way to make that happen is through a shared, common request that reduces redundancy, saves time for manufacturers, and turns collaboration into action.
Step #4: Selecting a Workflow Tool, Going Digital with Your Materials Vetting
Bringing your materials process into the digital age starts with choosing the right tools. By selecting workflow platforms aligned with the CMF, your team can vet, compare, and manage product data more efficiently. Explore our integration guidance for AEC/O workflows and software tools—paired with insights from your peers in the Large Firm Roundtable—to support your transition to connected, CMF-ready systems.
Case Studies
Putting the Framework into Practice
See how industry leaders are adopting the CMF, aligning requirements, sharing data, and digitizing workflows. These stories show what implementation looks like in action and what’s possible when we all work from the same foundation.
The Foundation: CMF Prioritization v1.0
Turning the Common Materials Framework into a Practical, Shared Priority
The Common Materials Framework (CMF) is intentionally comprehensive—spanning hundreds of factors, thousands of data points, and hundreds of ecolabels and standards.
But to make the framework usable today, mindful MATERIALS and our Forum Members collaborated across the industry to identify where to start.
CMF Prioritization v1.0 represents that collective focus: a curated subset of the most relevant and widely used certifications, factors, and metrics shaping the market now—and in the next three years.
This prioritization turns complexity into clarity, enabling measurable, digitized product data to move efficiently across the value chain.
CMF Implementation Toolkits
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