Subhead

Further Together

No one ever said achieving the materials easy button would be … easy. But by aligning around a common language and clear market signal we can move further together.

Your Role in This Future

Read the Guide

Learn More

Solving our shared materials challenges

Together, We Can

Welcome to mindful MATERIALS. We’re working to make holistic sustainability a reality for every project, every product, every time. Whether you’re here to learn or share about material embodied carbon, circularity, social equity, ecosystem impacts—or all of the above—you’re in the right place.

Learn How

Owners

If you have materials standards that include criteria relevant to the CMF, can you use the specific language of CMF's factors and metrics in defining your requirements?
If you have materials standards, are they available for manufacturers and AEC and other Owners to view?
If you are collecting materials information from manufacturers, are you asking that they manage it in platforms that can connect to broader ecosystem tools?

Alignment on Standards: Using a common language to express our criteria is a huge first step in aligning on standards. This will allow us to clearly understand how closely aligned we already are, and identify differences that need to be resolved.
Expediting Adoption: The clearer it can be that we are all asking for the same things, the easier it will be for others to adopt standards and ask for the same things. If we aren't using the same language, we won’t know if we’re asking for the same thing.
Amplified Voice: Using the common language of the CMF to express your criteria makes it clearer when you and other owners are asking for the same thing, which amplifies your voice and sends a stronger market signal.
A Clear Target for Optimization: Sharing your criteria allows manufacturers to optimize products towards it. If they don’t know what you’re asking for, they won’t know what to work toward.
Reduced Data Management Burden: Advocating that manufacturers make CMF-aligned product data openly available in connected platforms alleviates you from having to collect and manage all this information independently.
Knowledgeable Project Teams: When architects and project teams have to follow different standards for each client it is difficult to build knowledge and develop best practices. The more we are aligned and consistent in standards, the more transferable and replicable architects' knowledge becomes, making it easier us to find architects with specific expertise.

A/E/C + D

If you have firmwide materials standards or specification language that includes criteria relevant to the CMF, can you use the specific language of CMF's factors and metrics in defining your requirements?
If you are involved in industry initiatives related to developing materials standards (such as developing pledge reporting metrics, advising on versions of building standards, advising on product standards) can you advocate that those standards utilize the CMF's defined factors and maintain alignment with its language and structure?
If you have materials standards, make them available for manufacturers to view, and communicate them to your clients, along with the rationale behind them.
If you're investing in proprietary software or database systems to track products and documentation, support the development of the SPDH to leverage a much broader, consistent data set.

Amplified Voice: Using the common language of the CMF to express your materials criteria makes it clearer when you are asking for the same thing as hundreds of other A+D firms, which amplifies your voice and sends a stronger market signal.
Reduced Data Management Burden: Advocating that manufacturers make CMF-aligned product data openly available in connected platforms alleviates you from having to collect and manage all this information independently.
Streamlined Workflows: The more your own firm standards are aligned with the language and structure of Owners' standards and the AIA Materials Pledge, the more it streamlines your project research, tracking, and reporting workflows. Efficient and streamlined tracking processes give your firm a significant competitive advantage.
Replicable Research: If you are consistently using the CMF for tracking materials research, that research can be more replicable project by project, and you don't need to redo research when starting new projects.
Firmwide Education: The CMF can be an approachable framework for educating your firm about different topics, starting with the high-level buckets and gradually unpacking the details. It is much easier to learn concepts of a framework than it is to memorize the nuances of hundreds of different certifications. Having a shared understanding across different roles and disciplines throughout your firm engrain the information into company culture and values.

Manufacturers

Can you align and organize your product sustainability data with the specific language and structure of CMF's factors and metrics?
If needed, can you advocate with data management platforms you’re using that they build structured fields for Common Materials Framework’s First Factors so you can express information in this way?
Can you make this CMF-aligned sustainability data clear and easy to find with any given product?
Can you make it clear what data and/or certifications are associated with your specific product lines?
Can you enable architects, designers, owners, and specifiers to filter your products based on specific CMF factors so they can more easily find products that meet their sustainability criteria?
If you have product certifications where more details on the specific credits and metrics achieved could be shared, could you share those scorecards (and if needed, advocate that the certification bodies enable sharing more details)?
Can you manage your product data in platforms that will share the CMF-aligned data with other platforms and project workflow tools?
If needed, can you advocate with any data management platforms you’re using that they create this ability to connect your data with other tools and platforms?

Clear Compliance: Having your product sustainability data aligned with the same format architects and owners are using is the clearest way to demonstrate compliance with their requirements (which increases likelihood of getting spec'ed).
Respond Once, to Everyone: Rather than needing to interpret and respond to dozens of different asks from each unique organization, you could save inordinate amounts of time by having your CMF-aligned product data available for any of them to use.
Save Time Managing Data: Connected data reduces the manual effort needed to manage it in different places. This also ensures data consistency, making it easier for you to make updates, and reduces any confusion and inconsistencies.

Data Management Platforms

Can you build structured fields aligned with CMF's First Factors and metrics so manufacturers can manage and align their product data?
If you have a front-end database platform, can you make CMF-aligned sustainability data clear and easy to find with any given product?
Can you enable architects, designers, owners, and specifiers to filter products based on specific CMF factors so that they can more easily find products that meet their sustainability criteria?
Can you share the CMF-aligned data manufacturers are managing in your platforum with other platforms and project workflow tools?

Adds Value to Your Services: This is something everyone in the industry will be asking for, notably manufacturers. If you can provide this value to manufacturers, that is a big selling-point in them choosing your services for data management.
Consolidates Focus on Which Fields to Build: We know you get requests to build all different types of fields and factors, which is a huge scope of work, and would largely result in mostly empty data in many of those fields. The CMF consolidates these asks to the top priority factors the industry is collectively asking for today. If you can build these fields, that alleviates many of the other requests.
More Robust Data: The collective endorsement of these priority fields to focus on means manufacturers have an incentive to complete data for these fields, resulting in more robust and focused data sets, which also makes the data and front-end tools more valuable to users.
More Useful Front-End Databases: If you make these factors filterable for users in front-end database platforms, it is helpful to their workflows, which makes your tools more valuable, increasing users and usage. More users and usage also increases the value of your platform to manufacturers.

Workflow Tools

Can you build structured fields aligned with the CMF's First Factors and metrics so you can receive this data from data management platforms or directly from manufacturers?
If you have a front-end database platform, can you make the CMF-aligned sustainability data clear and easy to find with any given product?
Can you enable architects, designers, owners, and specifiers to filter products based on specific CMF factors so they can more easily find products that meet their sustainability criteria?
Can you work with data management platforms to receive data from them, where manufacturers have put effort into cleaning up and deduplicating their data, rather than receiving it from certification bodies or other sources that require additional cleaning and deduplication?
Can you create abilities for AEC to export/sync CMF-aligned data out of your platform so that they can bring it into all the places it needs to be communicated throughout design and construction processes, and streamline their efforts in reporting?

Reduced Data Cleanup: Less work if you are receiving data that has already been cleaned and deduplicated by data management platforms.
More Useful and Valuable Tools: If you make this data available and the factors filterable, that is very helpful to your users' workflows, which makes your tools more valuable, increasing users and usage.
Focus on Building What's Next: Instead of spending time and resources on data cleanup just to accomplish the bare minimum of what is needed (which does not differentiate you from competitors), invest in shared data management through the SPDH, and spend your time and resources focused on the next things that can improve your platform.

Reporting Bodies + Certifications

If your current standards use language that is different than the CMF when they are intended to mean the same thing, can you identify the 'cross-walking' of how your standard can be expressed through CMF?
In future versions of standards, can you use CMF's language and structure in defining the requirements?
Can you make the specific factors and metrics that manufacturers are acheiving or disclosing through your standard available? Manufacturers could still have the option to opt-out of sharing details.
Can you make these specific factors and metrics searchable and filterable on your platforms? If these factors aren't filterable, it is difficult for architects to find the products that manufacturers have put so much effort into getting certified.
Can you make as much detail as possible that goes with your standards (factors, metrics, credits, imperatives, fields, benchmarks, standards, etc.) available in an API so that it can be brought into other platforms?
Can you allow data management platforms that manufacturers are using to consolidate product info from multiple certifications to then share that cleaned-up info with other platforms (rather than requiring tools and platforms to get that API directly from you, which means they need to redo that clean-up and consolidation)?

Recognition for the Facors Addressed: The more your standards are aligned with the language and structure of the CMF, the more clear it is that they contribute to these metrics, allowing your standards to be recognized for addressing more factors and impact areas.
Added Value to Manufacturers:The more your standards can be recognized, the more value it adds to manufacturers, making it more likely that they pursue your certifications.
Increased Utility: If you make it easy for architects and designers to find the information they're looking for from your standard, or filter product libraries for those attributes, they are more likely to use and look for your standard. If they can't find the info they need from your standard, they're going to look to other standards that make this data more available and useful.

Intro the Forums

Meet mindful MATERIALS Forums?

mindful MATERIALS’ Forums assemble proven materials leaders in the building industry, from the Owners, AEC and Manufacturig sectors, to find common ground, identify alignment opportunities, build shared resources and knowledge, and accelerate impact by sending a clear market signal. Over the past year they have come together to learn from one another and align around the the common language of the Common Materials Framework. Their next step? To benchmark and create resources that will allow you to implement the the asks listed above.

They are ready for more, and we know you are too. Below are resources that allow you to learn, endorse and advocate for this work along side us. Together, we can.

Learn More

Here is what you can do TODAY

Join Us In This Work

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Hendrerit sem nibh suspendisse tellus et nullam arcu aliquam. Risus cursus sollicitudin sodales non arcu. Neque blandit dui eget libero. Nibh dignissim. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Hendrerit sem nibh suspendisse tellus et nullam arcu aliquam. Risus cursus sollicitudin sodales non arcu. Neque blandit dui eget libero. Nibh dignissim. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Hendrerit sem nibh suspendisse tellus et nullam arcu aliquam. Risus cursus sollicitudin sodales non arcu. Neque blandit dui eget libero. Nibh dignissim. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Hendrerit sem nibh suspendisse tellus et nullam arcu aliquam. Risus cursus sollicitudin sodales non arcu. Neque blandit dui eget libero. Nibh dignissim.

AEC + Owners

ENDORSE + COMMUNICATE

Publicly endorse the vision and priorities of this work.
Communicate with your value chain leveraging the Aligned Ask over the coming year+

Your public endorsement will focus the building industry on a common path to materials market transformation. This endorsement is necessary to ensure cross-industry stakeholders recognize their roles in this work. Your endorsement does not mean implementation–yet. To get to the future state we first need to publicly endorse the vision and priorities of this work.

For Owners ➔ For AEC+D ➔

Manufacturers

COMMUNICATE + ADVOCATE

Share your progress to the Owners and AEC in your journey in supporting this work
Advocate for consistently digitized and connected data to your data management and ecolable/standards partners.

Advocating for this work will enable an opportunity to streamline your data management process and respond to sustainability requests into the future. It is essential to ensure digitized data can flow to where decisions are actually being made. Advocate for consistently digitized and connected data to your data management and ecolabel/standard partners.

For Manufacturers ➔

Milestones and Resources Over the Coming Year

From Endorsement + Advocacy to Implementation

Placeholder for new graphic

Placeholder Button

CTA

Now you know who we are, what we do, and who all the other Materials Cool Kids are (everyone on this page, plus you) — if you want to get involved, learn more about how to Connect here.

Get Involved