The Cradle to Cradle Certified Product Standard has been recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in its new recommendations of standards and ecolabels for federal sustainable purchasing.
Cradle to Cradle Certified is recommended at the highest level across seven building materials and construction product categories, including adhesives, carpet, ceiling tiles (acoustical), fiberboard and wallboard, flooring, insulation and interior latex paint. Cradle to Cradle Certified is also recommended at the highest level for furniture.
“EPA recognition of Cradle to Cradle Certified as a rigorous multi-attribute third-party standard for product sustainability is a tremendous vote of confidence in the significance and value of both the Cradle to Cradle® product design methodology and the product certification itself,” says Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute President Lewis Perkins. “70% of Cradle to Cradle Certified products fall under the built environment and furnishings categories. We believe the new EPA recommendation of Cradle to Cradle Certified as a preferred standard for greener purchasing within those product categories stands to create additional competitive advantage for those manufacturers should they seek to provide their products to federal agencies.”
The recommendation comes as part of the EPA’s newly released guidelines for identifying which private sector standards and ecolabels federal purchasers should use when buying greener products. The guidelines are intended to establish a cross-sector framework for use in recognizing non-governmental multi-attribute environmental standards and ecolabels, and consequently environmentally preferable products meeting those standards for use in federal procurement.
The guidelines recognize environmental performance that is better than standard industry practice and provide a framework that filters out standards or ecolabels that are not appropriate for federal procurement, do not support environmentally preferable purchasing, or do not address the key environmental or health impacts of a particular product category.
Approximately 350 building materials, construction, and furnishings products from 159 manufacturers have achieved Cradle to Cradle product certification to date. Click here to see the full list.
