Cradle to Cradle Report Highlights Certification Benefits

SAN FRANCISCO — The Cradle to Cradle Certified Program, which was integrated into the new LEED Version 4 rating system, may be the next rating system for product manufacturing companies in the school construction market to consider.

Earlier this month, San Francisco-based Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute released a report, titled “Impacts of the Cradle to Cradle Certified Products Program,” with London-headquartered Trucost, an environmental data and research company. The report highlights the business benefits for those who undertook the Cradle to Cradle Certified Product Standard, and it offers a framework for measuring the value of the certification.

Cradle to Cradle certification focuses on material health, material reutilization, renewable energy water stewardship and social fairness. The certification requires looking at the raw material of a product, whether it has two, 10 or 20 components, and determining if it is a healthy product to use, especially in schools where children makeup the majority of occupants.

The study assesses the business, environmental and social impacts of 10 companies — AGC Glass Europe, Aveda, Construction Specialties, Desso, Ecover, Mosa, Puma, Shaw Industries, Steelcase and Van Houtum — that have undertook the Cradle to Cradle Certification Program. Benefits that the businesses saw include reduced costs, improved product value, new revenue streams and avoided risks. The study shows the structural cost reduction through reusing product material and increasing resource efficiency.

The newly developed framework was based on best practice assessment techniques, ranging from traditional quantitative and qualitative methods, such as lifecycle analysis, to more advanced natural capital valuation assessment that quantifies the business, environmental and social impacts of products.

The EcoWorx Tile from Shaw Industries, a carpet manufacturer based in Dalton, Ga., was a prime example. The report shows that the energy efficiency measures and the switch to renewables initiated in the Cradle to Cradle-certified version of the product, compared to the uncertified version previously manufactured, cut the environmental cost of making carpet tiles by more than half. The water and energy savings for the total production carried out in 2012 equaled a cost savings of $2.5 million.

“Approximately 65 percent of Shaw’s sales are from Cradle to Cradle-certified products. Our goal is to design all our products to Cradle to Cradle protocols by 2030,” said Paul Murray, vice president of Sustainability and Environmental Affairs for Shaw Industries, in a statement. “Our company, our customers and our communities benefit from this rigorous, holistic approach, which includes designing with the end in mind and maintaining an extensive take-back program that has resulted in Shaw recycling more than 700 million pounds of carpet since 2006.”