As an in-kind sponsor, Sustainable Minds is offering a free 6-month subscription to its SM Eco-concept + LCA software for all members of the 2018 CTO cohort.

https://cleantechopen.org/en/page/national-sponsors-en

We kicked things off with the webinar: “Hands-on Training in Life Cycle Thinking & LCA for Cleantech Entrepreneurs.” The webinar provided an introduction to life cycle thinking and LCA and how to use the software in early stage product development to make informed trade-off decisions that can dramatically reduce impacts and drive innovation — in products, business models and systems.

Recorded Wed, June 20 | 11am ET / 8am PT

Environmental performance as a criteria for product design is here to stay.

Evaluating, measuring & reporting on environmental performance has become an ordinary cost of doing business.

Recorded Tue, May 9, 2–3pm ET | 11–12pm PT

Product transparency is causing information anxiety.

"Information anxiety is the human cost of information overload. It is produced by the ever-widening gap between what we understand and what we think we should understand. It is the black hole between data and knowledge, and what happens when information doesn't tell us what we want or need to know. Raw data can be information, but unless it can be made to inform, it has no inherent value. It must be imbued with form and applied to become meaningful information. Yet, in our information-hungry era, data is often allowed to masquerade as information."

– Richard Saul Wurman, acclaimed architect, TED conference founder, author of Information Anxiety, defined the discipline of information architecture

Release notes

Now in its fifth annual release, the SM Transparency Report™ / EPD Framework Part A 2018 has integrated key rulings from the new ISO 21930:2017, as determined by the SM Technical Advisory Board (TAB) and public comments.

What is ISO 21930 and why is it important? ISO 21930: Sustainability in buildings and civil engineering works – Core rules for environmental product declarations of construction products and services is one of the primary standards for product category rule (PCR), life cycle assessment (LCA), and Type III environmental declaration development for building materials. It is specifically named in LEED v4 as one of the two standards for creating conformant Type III environmental declarations. Outside of Europe, this international standard (ISO 21930) is more likely to be used than the European standard (EN 15804), as it applies internationally.