The first cloud-based productivity solution for Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Owners (AECOs) to make it easy to find & specify greener and healthier products for high-performance buildings — and reward manufacturers for making them.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 28, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Sustainable Minds® (SM), recognized leaders in customer-centered product sustainability cloud solutions, today announced the availability of the Transparency Catalog v2.0, continuing the company’s commitment to deliver simple, easy to use and powerful tools. Flexible MasterFormat® number filtering, aligned with MasterSpec® sections, enables AECOs to find exactly the brands, products and transparency disclosures, in each division and section, to meet project and green building rating system requirements. This makes it possible to do in minutes what today takes weeks, or wouldn’t even be possible to do at all.

  • One page: See EVERY building product manufacturer in North America investing in product transparency, from EVERY material ingredient disclosure program and EVERY program operator – 1060+
  • One place: Now the single source for ALL EPDs for building products used in N. American: 9 program operators, 1790+ EPDs from 625 manufacturers in 20 MasterFormat divisions.
  • One click: Find EVERY brand investing in product transparency in each MasterFormat division and section.

For building product manufacturers (MFRs), the Transparency Catalog is an educational marketing, sales enablement and lead generation solution. Now reps and distributors can:

  • Find ALL products from the MFR’s brands, with all associated transparency disclosures, organized by MasterFormat section – on one page. Products links go to product pages on the MFR’s web site, where they want AECOs to go, eliminating the need to manage a lot of content someplace else.
  • Do great demos online, at lunch & learns and on a tablet on-site. MasterFormat filtering, aligned with MasterSpec, lets AECOs source products and disclosures for projects, office masters and submittals.
  • Be knowledgeable about product transparency – understand what disclosures mean, how to use to meet rating system requirements and tell the stories about what the MFR is doing to improve – to get products into the spec.

The purpose of the Transparency Catalog is to help accelerate the transformation of the built environment. It is the most inclusive product transparency solution in the market. Designed, curated and continually updated by Sustainable Minds customer experience and product transparency experts, the Transparency Catalog delivers the best user experience throughout the construction process, from design to build. It’s free to use, no ads, no login and no selling data or analytics, ever.

“This version signals that product transparency is reaching a tipping point. There are enough MFRs across the majority of commonly used MasterFormat divisions for filtering to provide a great user experience. We get continuous input through the close relationships with our MFR customers, and their customers. This product has been researched, road-mapped and developed based on a deep understanding of what will bring value to all users in this industry,” said Terry Swack, Sustainable Minds Founder & CEO.

“Manufacturers haven’t been great at providing product transparency documents on their websites. Further, the documentation is fragmented across websites. Individuals preparing project specs are time-constrained and accustomed to electronic catalogs that group products by MasterFormat numbering,” said Brian Wolf, VP Specifications, Grimm + Parker Architecture. “The Transparency Catalog will be a game changer in evaluating products for specifications AND address manufacturers’ concerns about the cost of product transparency now that it is easier to find their products.”

Webinars: Jan 31 and Feb 6
MFRs   11am ET Register >
AECOs   2pm ET Register >

Read the full story >

ABOUT SUSTAINABLE MINDS®
Sustainable Minds cloud-based product transparency applications and services help manufacturers design and market greener products. Launched in 2009, SM Eco-concept & LCA software was the first streamlined LCA tool for industry and education, now used in 90+ countries worldwide. In 2013, the company introduced its award-winning SM Transparency Report™, an innovation in ISO 14025 Type III environmental declarations that make product transparency understandable