Cradle to Cradle Certification is an eco-label that signals to companies and customers products pursuing credible and tangible human health, environmental health, material reutilization and social considerations into product life cycle design, based on measurable achievement. The product certification system is derived from the Cradle to Cradle framework and its criteria for incorporating its three design tenets: waste equals food, use current solar income and celebrate diversity.

Successful certification requires achievement in the following five areas (complete list of criteria).

1. Materials

• Collect complete ingredient data from suppliers (much greater detail than required by law or typical supply chain disclosures)
• Assess material formulations using peer-reviewed research data for the following criteria:

2. Material Reutilization/Design for Environment

• Establish a plan for complete recyclability or compostability of a product's materials
• Use recyclable/compostable materials, even if they are not yet widely reutilized, to help encourage the development of a recovery infrastructure
• Design products to be easily disassembled into dissimilar component materials following their use
• Create and participate in systems to collect these materials and recover their value through recycling/composting

3. Energy

• Characterize energy use and sources for product manufacture
• Maximize use of renewable energy within manufacturing

4. Water

• Create or adopt water stewardship principles/guidelines
• Understand current impacts of product manufacture on water use and quality
• Implement innovative measures to enhance water conservation and water quality

5. Social Responsibility

• Enact corporate ethics and fair labor statements
• Complete third-party accreditation/certification for social responsibility

Cradle to Cradle Certification promotes continuous improvement of products and manufacturing processes across four tiers of increasing achievement—Basic, Silver, Gold and Platinum.

At the Basic and Silver tiers, organizations gain an in-depth understanding of their products' material chemistry and begin to pursue sustainable manufacturing. With this knowledge, companies can move along a trajectory towards Gold and Platinum tiers by optimizing material chemistry and manufacturing processes for human health, the environment, social responsibility, and Cradle to Cradle product life cycles.

For a complete list of Cradle to Cradle Certified^CM products, please visit our certification page.

More information:

USPS and Cradle to Cradle
Cradle to Cradle Framework

Cradle to Cradle Certified^CM is a certification mark of MBDC.
Cradle to Cradle^SM is a service mark of MBDC.