Page 6 - Green Builder March-April 2016 Issue

Green Building NEWS

The latest on sustainability and renewable energy

Certified Product Choices for

Builders and Architects Expand
The number of Cradle to Cradle certified communicate information

products in the built environment about the chemicals present

category grew by 36 percent last year.RCHITECTS AND DESIGNERS have even more options in theirASpSESSrEDoducts and supply Carpet XYZ SILVER
APPLICATIONS
than ever to specify healthy, safe products, as the Cradle ISSUED TO: Carpet Company Name
to Cradle Certified program continues to expand. chains. There are four levelsManufacture,
Installation, Use as
A In 2015, the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation insulation, Collection,
Institute issued 71 new certifications under the Built Recycling.
Environment banner, bringing the total up to 268. These represent 1,630
product variations sold by 129 companies. The new certified products of certification. The most
include EcoWorx tile carpets, W.F. Taylor’s line of flooring adhesives, CREDIT: ORNL
Steelcase’s B-Free furniture and Saint-Gobain’s Gyproc (Bronze). CREDIT: CRADLE TO CRADLE PRODUCTS INNOVATION INSTITUTEbasic level requires thatASSESSED BY:EXPIRES: January X, 2017
Assessor STANDARD: v3.0
In 2015, Cradle to Cradle also launched the Material Health certificate.
This stand-alone certification option, which draws from the program’s manufacturers list all of a ASSESSED SCENARIOS:
Material Health section, gives manufacturers a way to transparently product’s “ingredients,” and Manufacture, Installation, Use as insulation, Collection, Recycling

PRODUCTS COVERED:
Carpet A. Carpet B, Carpet C

products can’t contain any PRODUCT OPTIMIZATION SUMMARY
components found on C2C’s Cradle to Cradle Certified™ Banned List compliant
“Banned List” of chemicals Material Health optimization strategy developed
(above relevant thresholds). No exposure from carcinogens, mutagens, or reproductive toxicants
Meets VOC emissions testing requirements
Since May of 2015, Cradle to Product is fully optimized - does not contain any GREY or x-assessed chemicals
Process chemicals have been identified and none are GREY or x-assessed

PERCENTAGE OF ASSESSMENT RATING PRODUCT OPTIMIZATION
MATERIALS ASSESSED BY WEIGHT
BY WEIGHT

Cradle has issued 17 of these 99-100% A or B: 15.3-25% C: 60-67.3%

new stand-alone certificates. A or B C X GREY
Examples of certified products
Inventory threshold for chemicals 61 Materials
in each material = 100 ppm
X: 13-17.3% GREY 0-.1%

SAMPLE CERTIFICATE CERT NO. MHC2315

include GAF’s EverGuard Extreme TPO roofing membrane and Owens

Corning’s PB Binder unfaced ceiling board.

Large-Scale 3-D Printing for Cheaper
Wind Turbine Blades
The Department of Energy is working with additive manufacturing tool,

several partners to manufacturer wind turbine called the Big Area Additive

Tblade molds with “additive technology.”HE METHODS CURRENTLY used to make utility-scale Manufacturing (BAAM)
wind turbine blades are complex, energy-intensive
and time-consuming. First, a “plug” must be created, machine, is being tested
which is then used to form a mold, out of which
fiberglass blades can subsequently be created. These at ORNL’s Manufacturing
blades average over 150 feet in length, and the trend
is toward even larger turbines. Demonstration Facility. It

The DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has partnered with is 500 to 1,000 times faster,
Cincinnati Incorporated to develop a large-scale 3-D printer which
can create the molds directly, eliminating the “plug” step. This new and can print polymer

components 10 times larger

than today’s industrial

Micro Plant. The BAAM in action. machines. This technology
holds the potential for

drastically cutting the cost of manufacturing turbine blades, and

can potentially be scaled up to print even larger components.

Source: DOE

4 GREEN BUILDER March/April 2016 www.greenbuildermedia.com