Perspectives on greener product development and manufacturing from Sustainable Minds, our partners, customers and contributors.

Sustainable Minds and GAF introduce new SM Performance Fact Sheet™

By Sustainable Minds on October 5, 2016

Cloud-Based Reports Make It Easier Than Ever to Select Products with Transparency Information

LOS ANGELES, CA/Parsippany, NY, October 5, 2016 -- 
Cloud software and services company, Sustainable Minds, is proud to introduce the SM Performance Fact Sheet™ with North America’s largest roofing manufacturer and product transparency leader, GAF. The SM Performance Fact Sheet™ is the latest in Sustainable Mind’s suite of Transparency Products. This strategic marketing and lead generation tool allows building product manufacturers to help the design and construction community make safer and healthier purchase decisions.

AEC professionals are currently going to manufacturers’ websites to find products with environmental and material health disclosures. While these products can be used to earn credits in green building rating systems, AEC professionals typically face two challenges. First, the design of today’s websites makes it difficult to find these products. Second, the disclosures are difficult to understand and use to make informed specification and purchase decisions. The SM Performance Fact Sheet addresses these challenges by combining product information and disclosure information all in one location. It was created expressly for manufacturers who have been transparency early adopters and have created many disclosures. It also provides explanation and sustainability improvement eff­orts that disclosures don’t report – in an understandable and meaningful way for non-technical readers.

“We really see the value of making our products with transparency information easy to find, but also making the disclosure information understandable” said Martin Grohman, director of sustainability for GAF. “The SM Performance Fact Sheet solves the problem of combining our technical information with all our transparency information in one location.”

Since the announcement of LEED v4, Sustainable Minds has been a proponent and driving force behind making product transparency information simple, understandable and meaningful. With LEED v4 now upon us, making products with transparency information findable is critical for AEC professionals to specify enough products to satisfy the credit requirements. GAF has been a strong advocate for product transparency and sustainability. The SM Performance Fact Sheet enhances GAF’s ability to make its product transparency information readily available to the design and construction community, and helps to tell GAF’s continuous improvement stories. All of GAF’s products with transparency information can be found on GAF’s Brand Showroom, www.sustainableminds.com/GAF

Terry Swack, Founder and CEO of Sustainable Minds said, “The market is becoming more educated and is transitioning from just ‘checking a box’ to select products with transparency disclosures, to wanting to understand what the information means with the confidence that the manufacturer does too. Sustainable Minds is proud to provide solutions to the design and construction community that makes product transparency simple, understandable and useful.”

Both companies will be located in the Red List Free Pavilion at Greenbuild this week. Design and construction professionals can find GAF’s new SM Performance Fact Sheets through gaf.com/green.

About GAF
Founded in 1886, GAF has become the largest roofing manufacturer in North America. The company’s products include a comprehensive portfolio of steep-slope and commercial roofing systems, which are supported by an extensive national network of factory-certified contractors. Its success is driven by its commitment to Advanced Quality, Industry Expertise, and Solutions Made Simple for contractors, specifiers, and property owners alike. In 2011, GAF was the first roofing manufacturer to offer a Lifetime limited warranty on all of its laminated shingles and, in 2012, it introduced the GAF Lifetime Roofing System.
CONTACT: Megan Filiaggi, senior manager marketing communications, 973.628.3046, mfiliaggi@gaf.com

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 the first cloud software provider and program operator to focus on simplified and understandable environmental reporting. Sustainable Minds is dedicated to operationalizing environmental performance in mainstream product development and manufacturing in an understandable, empowering and credible way. Its 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, founder and CEO, 617.877.5416, terry@sustainableminds.com,
www.sustainableminds.com | www.transparencycatalog.com