Christine Esposito, Managing Editor03.16.21
The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute has released Version 4.0 of the Cradle to Cradle Certified Product Standard. The Institute calls this new version the “most ambitious and actionable standard yet for designing and making products today that enable a healthy, equitable, and sustainable future.”
The new Cradle to Cradle Certified Version 4.0 standard is a comprehensive framework that enables companies to:
1. Prioritize action across five sustainability focus area:.
• Material Health: ensuring materials are safe for humans and the environment
• Product Circularity: enabling a circular economy through regenerative products and process design
• Clean Air & Climate Protection: protecting clean air, promoting renewable energy, and reducing harmful emissions
• Water & Soil Stewardship: safeguarding clean water and healthy soils
• Social Fairness: respecting human rights and contributing to a fair and equitable society
2. Enact change, from product innovation to operations.
3. Transform business models, systems and collaboration throughout the value chain.
4. Verify performance and measure progress towards sustainability commitments.
5. Lead industry transformation towards a safe, circular and equitable future.
“Cradle to Cradle Certified has long been regarded as the most trusted and advanced science-based standard for designing and manufacturing products that maximize health and wellbeing for people and our planet,” said Peter Templeton, president and CEO, Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute. “The fourth version of Cradle to Cradle Certified builds on this legacy by equipping brands, retailers, designers and manufacturers with actionable guidance and best practices for choosing safer materials, driving meaningful innovation, and creating products, systems and business models that have a positive impact on humans and the environment today, and in the future.”
Cradle to Cradle Certified Version 4.0 features new and enhanced requirements in all performance categories, including:
• New frameworks for Product Circularity and Social Fairness that define global best practices.
• More rigorous requirements in Clean Air & Climate Protection that promote urgent action to address climate change.
• Expanded requirements in Water & Soil Stewardship to ensure clean water and healthy soils are available to people and all other organisms.
• Improved alignment of Material Health requirements with leading chemical regulations and other standards, including a new Restricted Substances List.
“The fourth version of Cradle to Cradle Certified reflects significant advancements in our knowledge and understanding of what it takes to make products with a positive impact,” said Dr. Susan Klosterhaus, Institute vice president of science and certification, whose team led development of the new standard. “The result is an ambitious set of actionable requirements for guiding companies to make safer materials choices, create intentionally circular products and processes, and do so in a fair and equitable way – ultimately pushing beyond compliance with regulation to innovation and leadership.”
The first products certified to Cradle to Cradle Certified Version 4.0 will be announced this spring.
The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute will begin accepting new applications to certify products to the Version 4.0 standard in July 2021.
The new Cradle to Cradle Certified Version 4.0 standard is a comprehensive framework that enables companies to:
1. Prioritize action across five sustainability focus area:.
• Material Health: ensuring materials are safe for humans and the environment
• Product Circularity: enabling a circular economy through regenerative products and process design
• Clean Air & Climate Protection: protecting clean air, promoting renewable energy, and reducing harmful emissions
• Water & Soil Stewardship: safeguarding clean water and healthy soils
• Social Fairness: respecting human rights and contributing to a fair and equitable society
2. Enact change, from product innovation to operations.
3. Transform business models, systems and collaboration throughout the value chain.
4. Verify performance and measure progress towards sustainability commitments.
5. Lead industry transformation towards a safe, circular and equitable future.
“Cradle to Cradle Certified has long been regarded as the most trusted and advanced science-based standard for designing and manufacturing products that maximize health and wellbeing for people and our planet,” said Peter Templeton, president and CEO, Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute. “The fourth version of Cradle to Cradle Certified builds on this legacy by equipping brands, retailers, designers and manufacturers with actionable guidance and best practices for choosing safer materials, driving meaningful innovation, and creating products, systems and business models that have a positive impact on humans and the environment today, and in the future.”
Cradle to Cradle Certified Version 4.0 features new and enhanced requirements in all performance categories, including:
• New frameworks for Product Circularity and Social Fairness that define global best practices.
• More rigorous requirements in Clean Air & Climate Protection that promote urgent action to address climate change.
• Expanded requirements in Water & Soil Stewardship to ensure clean water and healthy soils are available to people and all other organisms.
• Improved alignment of Material Health requirements with leading chemical regulations and other standards, including a new Restricted Substances List.
“The fourth version of Cradle to Cradle Certified reflects significant advancements in our knowledge and understanding of what it takes to make products with a positive impact,” said Dr. Susan Klosterhaus, Institute vice president of science and certification, whose team led development of the new standard. “The result is an ambitious set of actionable requirements for guiding companies to make safer materials choices, create intentionally circular products and processes, and do so in a fair and equitable way – ultimately pushing beyond compliance with regulation to innovation and leadership.”
The first products certified to Cradle to Cradle Certified Version 4.0 will be announced this spring.
The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute will begin accepting new applications to certify products to the Version 4.0 standard in July 2021.