Cradle to Cradle Product Standard Releases Version 4.0
Oakland, CA, March 16, 2021-The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute has released Version 4.0 of the Cradle to Cradle Certified Product Standard, the most ambitious and actionable standard yet for designing and making products today that enable a healthy, equitable, and sustainable tomorrow.
How companies design and make products today has a direct impact on the world we will inhabit tomorrow. For more than a decade, leading brands, designers and manufacturers have relied on the Cradle to Cradle Certified Product Standard to optimize products for immediate and long-term positive impacts.
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 areas:
● 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 roadmaps for change, from product innovation to operations.
3. Transform business models, systems and collaboration throughout the value chain.
4. Verify sustainability performance and measure progress.
5. Lead industry transformation towards a safe, circular and equitable 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 Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute developed the new standard through a multi-stakeholder process informed by diverse technical subject matter experts, leading manufacturers, independent assessors, and other market representatives serving on the Institute’s Standards Steering Committee, as well as its Stakeholder Advisory Council and Technical Advisory Groups.
Drafts of Version 4.0 were made available for public comment during two separate review periods, and the standard has been tested in the market through the Cradle to Cradle Certified Version 4.0 Pilot Program. Eight market-leading companies have participated in the program by working to certify products to draft requirements of the new standard. The first products certified to Cradle to Cradle Certified Version 4.0 will be announced this spring.
Version 4.0 of the Cradle to Cradle Certified Product Standard and supporting reference documents are now available at c2ccertified.org/v4.
The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute will begin accepting new applications to certify products to the Version 4.0 standard in July 2021.
For information on how to certify, visit c2ccertified.org/getcertified.