In April 2007, as part of their an effort to help stimulate the development of environmentally focused product evaluation and certification tools for use by building professionals, the U.S. Green Building Council sought to establish an innovation point for specification of products certified under the Cradle to Cradle&8084 (C2C) Certification program.

This program, described in detail here, provides manufacturers with a means to measure achievement in environmentally intelligent design and helps customers purchase and specify products that are pursuing a broader definition of quality. Within the terms of the C2C program, this means

• using environmentally safe and healthy materials
• design for material reutilization, such as recycling or composting
• energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy
• efficient use of water, and maximum water quality associated with production; and
• instituting strategies for social responsibility

If a candidate product achieves the necessary criteria, it is certified as a Silver, Gold or Platinum product and can be labeled as Cradle to Cradle.

The USGBC has suggested the following Intent, Requirements and Submittals for this Innovation in Design application:

Intent
Help stimulate the development of environmentally focused product evaluation and certification tools for use by building professionals.

Requirements
Use Cradle to Cradle Certified building materials and products for 2.5% of the total value of all building materials and products used in the project, based on cost. The "cost value" of products for the purposes of this calculation will be discounted by 50% for Silver level products and doubled for products certified at the platinum level:

• Cost value of products = (Silver x 0.5) + Gold + (Platinum x 2)

Submittals
Spreadsheet matrix using "Default Materials Value," calculating

• Total construction costs
  (hard costs for CSI Master Format 1995 Divisions 2-10 only)
• Default materials cost
  (total Divisions 2-10 construction cost x 0.45)

OR using "Actual Materials Value," calculating

• Actual materials cost (excluding labor and equipment)
  (hard costs for CSI Master Format 1995 Divisions 2-10 only)
  • Material Name/Description
  • Manufacturer
  • Total Material Cost ($)
  • Percent Of Product C2C Certified (% by Weight)
  • Compliant Product Value
  • Adjusted value (Silver and nutrients x 0.5, Platinum x2)
    
    
• Total "cost value" ($) of C2C certified materials
  C2C certified material value as a percentage of total materials cost

To qualify for this Innovation in Design credit, the percentage of C2C certified materials must be at least 2.5% of the total materials cost.

For further information, consult the U.S. Green Building Council.