Why This Matters
You’re under pressure to deliver consistent, credible data to customers who all seem to ask for the same thing—just in slightly different ways. Over time, requirements shift, formats change, and keeping up can feel impossible.
Watch how Jen Levisen, Communications Director at mindful MATERIALS, shares how the CMF Implementation Toolkit cuts through the noise. It helps you align your data once and use it everywhere—reducing duplicative requests, connecting sustainability investments to market demand, and accelerating specification opportunities.
“When manufacturers and specifiers finally speak the same language, progress stops feeling impossible—and starts feeling inevitable.”
—Jen Levisen, Communications Director, mindful MATERIALS
Manufacturer CMF Implementation Toolkit
Together, we can reduce duplication, streamline ROI tracking, and accelerate measurable impact reduction across the built environment.
A connected, 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 manufacturers to align their sustainability investments, documentation, communications, and data with the Common Materials Framework (CMF). By speaking the same language as your customers—architects, designers, contractors, and owners—you make your sustainability efforts easier to find, trust, and use.
Manufacturer Implementation Steps
Step #1: Signaling Your Alignment With the Common Materials Framework
This guidance is meant for those manufacturers who have already invested in at least one ecolabel/standard as referenced within the CMFPv1.0. If you have not started your sustainability journey, consider how to take action and join the movement now to not be left behind tomorrow.
A connected industry starts with a shared language. The Common Materials Framework (CMF) provides that foundation—helping manufacturers align product data, documentation, and goals with what architects, designers, and owners are asking for. Use our endorsement materials to signal your alignment and demonstrate your commitment to transparency, consistency, 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: Aligning Your Sustainability Program & Communications with the CMF
Consistency drives progress and how you communicate it matters. Aligning your sustainability data, actions, and messaging with the CMF helps customers clearly connect action to impact. Use our resources to position your brand and product story in alignment with the CMF, showing how your efforts directly support AEC/O teams.
Step #3: Leveraging a Common Give Templates (in response to a Common Ask)
Alignment only works when communication flows both ways. The Common Ask and Common Give templates help manufacturers share sustainability information using the same CMF-aligned language their customers use in material requirements. By adopting these templates, you’ll reduce redundant requests, save time, and make it easier for AEC/O partners to specify your products with confidence. Access ready-to-use Common Give assets and guidance to strengthen communication and streamline collaboration across the value chain.
Step #4: Data Management Guidance for Manufacturers
A connected industry runs on connected data. Aligning your product information with the CMF ensures it flows seamlessly into the digital tools your customers use to vet and specify materials. Use our Data Management Guidance to structure, verify, and share your data efficiently—reducing manual effort, improving accuracy, and boosting visibility where product decisions are made.
Case Studies
Putting the Framework into Practice
See how manufacturers are using the CMF to align data, streamline reporting, and strengthen collaboration with AEC/O partners. These stories show CMF implementation in action—and what’s possible when the industry builds 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.
Implementation Toolkits
