New SM Material Health Overview™ Standardizes Material Health Reporting To Drive Healthier Building Product Purchase Decisions

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 14, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Sustainable Minds, the first cloud software provider and program operator to focus on simplified and understandable environmental reporting, has introduced the SM Material Health Overview™ -- the next in its suite of Transparency Products. The SM Material Health Overview (MHO) is a strategic marketing and lead generation tool for building product manufacturers to inform safer and healthier purchase decisions. They make material health information understandable and meaningful by distilling the essential technical information from a disclosure, providing plain language interpretation and describing what the manufacturer is doing to improve. Based on the award-winning SM Transparency Report™, an innovation in environmental product declaration (EPD) design and delivery, the SM Material Health Overview also includes functional performance information and product specifications.

Photo- http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150914/266073
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Available as a standalone report, an MHO can also be included in an SM Transparency Report. Sustainable Minds the first program operator to combine an EPD and material health evaluation into one easy to use, cloud-based report to help manufacturers win more business by integrating product transparency into product marketing to build a credibly safer brand.

Reporting product material health is becoming essential. Manufacturers are being asked to report how they are making safer products that contribute to healthier buildings. To accelerate the manufacture and specification of inherently safer products, green building rating systems, such as the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED v4, specify types of material health evaluations and disclosures manufacturers can provide customers to earn points towards a certification. However, manufacturers are challenged to produce these reports, and architecture, engineering and construction professionals are challenged as to what the data means and how to use it to make healthier design and purchase decisions. Today, specifiers largely use these to check a box to earn points, but it doesn't satisfy the real demand for transparency. The SM Material Health Overview directly addresses this problem.

New strategic partnerships with leading material health evaluation organizations. Sustainable Minds has partnered with the leading providers to create Material Health Overviews for manufacturers to leverage their investments in material evaluation and turn disclosure into brand value by creating credible and cost-effective marketing tools:

• Health Product Declaration Collaborative, Health Product Declaration®
• International Living Future Institute, Declare™
• Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, Material Health Certificate
• Green Circle Certified (with Clean Production Action), LEED v4 compliant Manufacturer Inventories using GreenScreen®

Sustainable Minds has produced an excellent interpretive report, based on the information disclosures in an HPD. The MHO puts the data in a context and provides interpretation to make the disclosure information understandable," said Wendy Vittori, Executive Director, Health Product Declaration® Collaborative.

"Manufacturers are being asked for many types of product data, each delivered in a broad range of formats and not always found in the same place. This makes design and purchase decisions exponentially more complex. Further, manufacturers and AEC professionals are not convinced that all this data is needed or how to use it to make decisions," said Terry Swack, Sustainable Minds CEO & Founder. "Our Transparency Products address these challenges. They can be co-branded, private labeled and customized for trade organizations, NGOs and retailers. Any standard or report type can be used to create a new Transparency Product."

Visit www.sustainableminds.com/blog to learn more about how building product manufacturers can:

• Understand and prioritize reporting needs – transparency level, brand, third-party verification and costs
• Choose the right material evaluation program(s) for your needs
• Create SM Material Health Overviews

Register for the webcasts to learn about the benefits of our partners' programs and how the SM Material Health Overview can transform disclosure into brand value by integrating product transparency into product marketing. www.sustainableminds.com/weekly-webinar

Thu, Sep 24: Health Product Declaration Collaborative | Wendy Vittori, Executive Director
Tue, Sep 29: International Living Future Institute | James Connelly, Director, Living Product Challenge 
                        TOTO USA | Kristen Girts, Associate Quality Engineer

Tue, Oct 6: Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute | Stacy Glass, VP Built Environment
Tue, Oct 13: Green Circle Certified | Annie Bevan, Certification & Operations Manager 
                    Clean Production Action | Mark Rossi, Interim Executive Director

About Sustainable Minds® Sustainable Minds is a B2B cloud provider of environmental product transparency applications, data and services to help product manufacturers across the value chain, design and market greener products. The company is dedicated to operationalizing environmental performance in mainstream product development and manufacturing in an understandable, empowering and credible way. Sustainable Minds' easy-to-use, standardized solutions make it possible for manufacturers large and small to drive revenue and growth through greener product innovation. www.sustainableminds.com

Contact: Terry Swack, CEO | 617 877 5416 | Email
High-resolution files of Material Health Overviews available.

SOURCE Sustainable Minds