living product challengesm 1.0 guide: handprinting

LIVING PRODUCT CHALLENGESM 1.0

A Visionary Path to a Regenerative Future

LIVING PRODUCT CHALLENGESM 1.0 GUIDE: HANDPRINTING APRIL 2015

Copyright © 2015 by International Living Future Institute. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be modified, nor elements of this document be used out of existing context without written permission. For information, contact the International Living Future Institute at [email protected].

Living Product Challenge™ (the LPC) is a servicemark of the International Living Future Institute™ (the Institute).

THE INTERNATIONAL LIVING FUTURE INSTITUTEThe International Living Future Institute™ is a non-profit organization offering green building and infrastructure solutions at every scale—from small renovations to neighborhoods or whole cities. The mission of the Institute is to lead and support the transformation toward communities that are socially just, culturally rich and ecologically restorative.

INTRODUCTION 4

STRATEGIC GUIDANCE 5

INTRODUCTION TO HANDPRINTING 8

HANDPRINTING TOOLS 10

03: NET POSITIVE WATER 12

04: NET POSITIVE ENERGY 15

05: NET POSITIVE MATERIAL HEALTH 18

10: NET POSITIVE CLIMATE CHANGE 22

18: POSITIVE HANDPRINTING 25

IMPERATIVE 03: NET POSITIVE WATER

IMPERATIVE 04: NET POSITIVE ENERGY

IMPERATIVE 05: NET POSITIVE MATERIAL HEALTH

IMPERATIVE 10: NET POSITIVE CLIMATE CHANGE

IMPERATIVE 18: POSITIVE HANDPRINTING

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTIONThe Living Product Challenge is an attempt to dramatically raise the bar from a paradigm where simply doing less harm is laudable to one in which we seek to be restorative, giving more than we take. The Challenge defines the most advanced measure of sustainability for the creation of all products possible today and acts to rapidly diminish the gap between current limitations and the positive endgame solutions we seek. It aims to transform how we think about every single act of product design and production as an opportunity to positively impact the greater community of life and the cultural fabric of our human communities.

The Living Product Challenge is a philosophy first, an advocacy tool second and a certification program third. It is intended as a beacon to guide the manufacturing of all the thousands of things we surround ourselves with on a daily basis, and to give direction and support to those who make the goods we use. Within the larger Living Future Challenge framework that covers the creation of Living Buildings, Communities and Food Systems, the Living Product Challenge focuses on humanity’s most ubiquitous creations—its manufactured goods.

Because the Living Product Challenge StandardSM is continuously informed by the work that teams are doing in developing Living Products and applying the Standard, guidebooks such as this clarify and consolidate the rules at a set point in time to provide a unified reference for the Living Product Challenge Standard.

HOW TO USE THIS HANDBOOK

This guide describes the principles and methodology of handprinting, and how to generate and calculate handprints in order to address each of the handprint-related Imperatives within the Living Product Challenge. It should be used in conjunction with the Living Product Challenge Standard.

This guide explains what handprints are and how to calculate them, and it also includes descriptions of how to use each of the handprint-related tools offered by the Institute: the Handprint Calculator, the Footprint Calculator, and the Product Life Database

Each Imperative section includes an intent statement, a list of requirements, clarifications, and a handprinting case study. Collectively, the case studies illustrate different ways that product manufacturers can create and estimate handprints, and how to compare these handprints with the product footprints in order to assess whether and when the product becomes Net Positive.

Section 1 | 2

Section 2 | 3

STRATEGIC GUIDANCE

STRATEGIC GUIDANCEFor Living Product Challenge teams seeking further guidance, the International Living Future Institute offers several avenues for additional support. In addition to the specific services noted below, the Institute will also fashion customized opportunities to match a company’s needs during product development. Companies may inquire about or schedule Living Product Challenge strategic guidance by emailing [email protected].

IN-HOUSE WORKSHOPSThe Institute offers customized training as a service for organizations to ensure that everyone has a shared fundamental understanding of the Living Product Challenge. Whether there is a specific area of interest or a desire for a private presentation of an established curriculum, the Institute can deliver customized educational sessions. The most commonly requested workshop is a one-day, in-depth introduction to the Living Product Challenge that addresses each Imperative, the certification pathways and how to use the supporting tools for footprinting and handprinting. This service can be delivered in person or online. Additional workshops are offered to help companies understand the context of manufacturing trends, and regulatory, financial, behavioral and technological barriers and incentives to manufacturing a Living Product.

Section 2 | 4

CHARRETTE FACILITATION To steer manufacturers toward innovative yet feasible solutions for their products to meet the Living Product Challenge, the Institute offers an optional service to lead the kick-off meeting, or “charrette,” and to help define fundamental, strategic goals to guide the company through transformation of a product to Living Product Certification. The Institute can review products at critical points during the product development cycle, such as during beta testing, manufacture retooling, supply chain innovation, or wherever there is an opportunity to rethink the direction of a product and how it is made. A charrette should take place soon after registration has been completed, when the potential to explore a Living Product concept is at its fullest. A one-day meeting focuses on fostering an interactive dialogue that allows employees of the company to engage with the Institute and outside experts to consider each area of impact. A two- or three-day format allows time for a deeper examination of promising ideas. The Institute designs the agenda, facilitates the session and provides a follow-up document.

Custom engagement areas of focus include:• Meeting the four Core Imperatives that are required for base Certification. • Conducting Life Cycle Analysis using the Institute Footprint Calculator. • Handprint creation in supply chains to reduce environmental impact through supply chain innovation. • Handprint creation in the use phase, including customer engagement, to extend lifespan or improve product use or performance through innovation. • Achieving Net Positive production relative to water, energy, climate and/or waste. • Living Building Challenge design and retrofit guidance for manufacturing facilities.• Conducting a toxic chemical inventory and implementing safe chemical use in production and supply chains. • Exploration of specific Petals in pursuit of Petal Certification. • In-depth training on the Declare and/or JUST program.

PRODUCT DESIGN GUIDANCEThis optional service is intended to improve a product’s potential to comply with the Living Product Challenge. The Institute performs a private review with the manufacturer’s design or product development team to learn how the product accounts for each Imperative of the Living Product Challenge. Following a review, the Institute will issue a report outlining our guidance to confirm that the company is on the correct path and to improve their ability to succeed. It is possible to receive feedback on the Imperatives within a single Petal, select Petals, or all seven Petals of the Living Product Challenge.

Section 2 | 5

ADDITIONAL TOOLS AND SUPPORT

The Institute works continually to create resources that advance the understanding and implementation of the principles of the International Living Future Institute, and there are many ways to participate in and learn more about the evolution of the program. This section lists several offerings that expand the role of the Living Product Challenge beyond a framework for development, to an overlay for education, outreach and advocacy.

THE LIVING PRODUCT CHALLENGE WEBSITE The online resource for manufacturers, product designers and others provides the Living Product Challenge standard document and resources that support the certification process—including educational resources, detailed case studies and fee schedules for certification. In-depth Living Product Challenge resources are available to International Living Future Institute members. living-future.org/lpc LIVING PRODUCT 50A group of 50 leading manufacturers collaborating to transform the materials economy through transparency, green chemistry and supply-chain innovation. Members of the LP50 commit to meeting in person at least three times a year to collaborate, share lessons learned and find ways to cross-pollinate ideas between industries and disciplines in order to create and market the world’s first Living Products. LP50 members will be invited to exclusive education events about the program and have an opportunity to shape and provide input on the Living Product unExpo and feature Declare and Living Products on the Living Marketplace website.living-future.org/lpc/lp50

LIVING PRODUCT CHRYSALISA select group of companies drawn from the LP50 that are committed to devoting time and resources to developing and launching a Living Product in the next three years. The Chrysalis will also serve as the pilot companies attempting Challenge and will provide feedback from their practical experience with program implementation to inform ongoing development and future versions of the Standard. The Institute will provide members of the Chrysalis with custom strategic guidance on the regenerative design principles within the Living Product Challenge, including a Living Product charrette facilitated by the Institute and including outside experts as needed. Companies participating in the Chrysalis will be able to showcase their work-in-progress toward the creation of the world’s first Living Products through media outlets or in-house publications, the Living Product website and the future Living Marketplace website.living-future.org/lpc/lp-chrysalis

LIVING PRODUCT UNEXPOThe Living Product unExpo is a groundbreaking new event curated by the International Living Future Institute to inspire a revolution in the way materials are designed, manufactured and delivered. Leading manufacturers and sustainability consultants, as well as sustainability directors from the world’s leading design firms, will gather to learn about game-changing innovations in product design and to gain the tools, knowledge and network needed to effect positive change in their organizations and supply chains. The conference will assemble a diverse group of people, industries and disciplines to engage in a transparent, transdisciplinary and transformative experience to inspire, create and build markets for the world’s first Living Products. The Living Product unExpo will be open to the public for a limited time to educate, inspire and solicit crowdsourcing votes on the “People’s Choice” award for the Living Product Prize.living-future.org/unexpo15

1.0 Living Product Challenge Guidebook | April 2015

Section 3 | 6

INTRODUCTION TO HANDPRINTING

WALK THE TALKThe Living Product Challenge calls on manufacturers to walk the talk of restorative sustainability by making their own operations Net Positive with respect to impact categories such as water, energy, climate, waste, and ecological impacts. While this goal is lofty in its own right, we also know it falls far short of what humans are capable of achieving and what the planet needs.

The footprint of an organization or even a person is the sum total of negative impacts caused by the processes that sustain the organization or person. The footprint of producing a product is likewise the sum total of negative impacts caused by the processes necessary to produce the product. The scope of the processes whose negative impacts are accounted for in a production footprint is called “cradle to gate”: it includes both the manufacturer’s operations, and all of the processes in the supply chains of all the inputs of energy, materials, equipment and even services needed by the manufacturer in producing the product.

Most of this footprint occurs upstream of the product manufacturer, through supply chains of energy and raw materials. Additionally, for products that require or influence the consumption of energy or materials during use, the majority of the total life cycle negative impacts will occur during use. For both of these reasons, the Living Product Challenge calls on manufacturers to build on the inspiration of making their own operations Net Positive, striving to make their product supply chains and life cycles Net Positive as well. Achieving life cycle Net Positive requires the creation of handprints.

A NEW PARADIGMSmaller footprints are still footprints. Designers of Living Products must go further, using human creativity and ecological inspiration to design products that create positive handprints along with shrinking their negative footprints.

Handprints measure the positive that a product causes across its life cycle, such as harvesting more water and generating more energy than was required to make it. While a product can never have a zero footprint, it can still be Net Positive if its handprint is bigger than its footprint.

One way that a company can create a product-related handprint is by innovating the product in ways that reduce its cradle-to-gate footprint. This can start by reducing the on-site impacts of product manufacturing. The handprint can grow by using greener or lower-impact materials and/or energy sources inputs to make the product, and/or by using these inputs more efficiently. Reducing product packaging and materially streamlining the product itself are good examples of ways to use inputs more efficiently.

To create handprints, a product manufacturer can share sustainable innovations within its supply chains and potentially even beyond them to competitors or consumers at large. Handprints can also result from engaging the users of products to use them in more ecologically restorative ways, creating real and demonstrated ripple effects that may even spread beyond the boundaries of the life cycles of the Living Product itself.

UPSTREAM HOTSPOTS AS HANDPRINTING OPPORTUNITIESWhen a company assesses the cradle-to-gate footprint of its product, it will identify the key “hot spots”—the processes that make major contributions to one or more impact categories— in the supply chain. For example, some upstream processes may be responsible for the bulk of the product’s cradle-to-gate water footprint, and other processes may be responsible for the bulk of the product’s energy or carbon footprints.


Section 3 | 7

These upstream processes are the best places to look for improvement opportunities, such as more efficient use of water or energy. If the innovation implementation would not have happened without the impetus of the manufacturer, then the improvements are part of the manufacturer’s handprint.

And handprints are all about ripple effects; if a manufacturer spreads an innovation beyond the boundaries of its own supply chain by enabling or encouraging widespread implementation of the innovation, the full scope of the resulting benefits is part of the manufacturer’s handprint.

DOWNSTREAM HANDPRINTSAfter looking on site and upstream, it’s time to look downstream, at the portions of the product life cycle that occur once the product leaves the factory. Downstream life cycle phases include distribution (transportation, wholesaling and retailing), the use phase and end-of-life management.

For products that consume energy during use, making them more efficient is a major handprint opportunity. For products that affect energy use (e.g., detergents that enable cold-water washing), making them more effective is a major handprint opportunity. And for products whose use phases require other materials (e.g., printers using paper) or influence the use of materials (e.g., surfaces needing cleaning), use-phase innovations present handprint opportunities.

While product innovation is one way to address the use phase, another potent way to do so is through customer engagement. If a company can engage with its users to encourage them to use its products more sustainably—e.g., washing clothes less frequently, washing them in cold water, line-drying them when possible—the resulting benefits are all handprints. The impacts of users’ behavior change need to be tracked, of course, and this can be done with tools like Handprinter.org, which the Institute is working to expand and improve. An exciting aspect of customer engagement is that it too can create massive ripple effects as customers spread the behavior changes to their friends, and as customers’ engagement with handprinting grows from one action to many.

It is important to not accidentally skip over the distribution phase. For some products, such as furniture and food, the distribution phase can make a surprisingly large contribution to total life cycle burdens—and thus again offers a key place to look for handprint opportunities. Finally, there is end-of-use management. Can a company increase recycling of its product, and perhaps of similar products manufactured by others? The benefits of doing so will contribute to its handprint.

CALCULATING HANDPRINTSHandprints are calculated using the databases, software tools, and metrics used to calculate footprints. These databases, software and metrics come from the field of life cycle assessment (LCA). Indeed, working with handprinting doesn’t double the work already involved in footprinting; rather, it largely amounts to getting more value out of existing LCA resources and results by processing them through a new lens, the lens of handprints.

That said, there are also some new twists and turns to handprinting that do not appear in footprinting. Specifically, handprinting takes account of new causal pathways, new forms of influence that are invisible to or neglected by traditional LCAs and footprinting.


Section 3 | 8

CHANGE RELATIVE TO BUSINESS AS USUALA footprint is what you “take” from the world. For a product, a footprint is what it takes to produce a product and deliver it to market. A handprint is what you give to the world—specifically, how you change the world for the better: how you reduce pollution or waste, and how you bring benefits and positive impacts. For a product, a handprint is what the product manufacturer gives to the world, directly and indirectly related to the life cycle of the product.

All change occurs relative to some baseline. We call this baseline “business as usual,” or BAU. And for a product, the definition of BAU is simple: it is responding to this year’s demand for the product with last year’s version of the product and its cradle-to-gate production processes. Thus, the bigger the sales of an improved (e.g., more eco-efficient) product, the bigger the handprint. You use LCA results for the product before and after improvements, together with sales data, in order to calculate the handprints achieved by product improvements.

CRADLE TO GRAVE

DOWNSTREAMUSER IMPACT

PRODUCTION SCOPE

MANUFACTURINGSITE

UPSTREAMSUPPLY CHAIN

HANDPRINTING SCOPECRADLE TO GATE SCOPE OF LIFE CYCLE ANA

LYSIS


Section 3 | 9

HANDPRINTING TOOLSSome manufacturers are already making extensive use of life cycle assessment (LCA) to understand the footprints of their products and to reduce those footprints. The Living Product Challenge invites manufacturers to make use of the results of LCAs they have already conducted. In addition, The Institute provides a set of tools to help manufacturers get started quickly and make rapid progress in handprinting. These tools include the Footprint Calculator, the Handprint Calculator, and the Product Life Database. Each of these tools is described below.

THE FOOTPRINT CALCULATORBefore you start to create handprints, it is highly useful to know what is driving your product’s footprint. This is because reductions in the greatest impacts give you some of your big leverage for handprint creation. If you haven’t already studied your product using LCA, this is where the Footprint Calculator comes in.

The Footprint Calculator combines the open source LCA software OpenLCA together with an open, input/output database for LCA called OpenIO. Ithe calculator enables companies to generate rapid yet comprehensive assessments of the footprints that their products’ life cycles generate. It enables users to address a comprehensive set of impact categories, including climate change, water consumption, human health impacts, ecosystem impacts and more.

The Footprint Calculator works under both Windows and Mac operating systems. To get started, download and install the latest version of the OpenLCA software using the links provided in the LPC website. Then download and install the Footprint Calculator database, also available via the LPC website, and import it into OpenLCA. From there, you are ready to begin product footprint assessment.

You will want to begin by using the Footprint Calculator to gain a quantitative “first look” at your product’s footprint, highlighting the hot spots (key processes in the supply chain and life cycle) that make major contributions to total impacts. You do this by assessing the life cycle impacts of the broader product category containing your specific product. Use the “Process Contributions” tab to identify the top five hot spots (the top five processes in the cradle-to-gate product life cycle that make the highest contributions to the selected impact category).

Using data obtained from the Product Life Library, you can consider not only the upstream footprint of your product manufacturing and supply chains, but also look downstream at the distribution and use phases of the product’s life cycle, and consider the impacts of closing loops in product end-of-use management as well.


Section 3 | 10

THE HANDPRINT CALCULATORThe Handprint Calculator is a tool that enables manufacturers to begin to estimate the handprints that they can generate by improving the life cycle environmental performance of their products. As with the Footprint Calculator, users can consider a comprehensive set of impact categories including climate change, water consumption, human health impacts, and ecosystem impacts.

Use the Handprint Calculator to assess the handprints caused by innovations that occur somewhere in the life cycle of a product. The Handprint Calculator allows you to upload LCA results for the product before and after the handprint-creating innovation or action, and for each of four phases of the product life cycle: upstream (supply chain), production, use, and end-of-use. And it allows you to assess the impacts of multiple innovations, one at a time—and to compare their impacts. You can set the Impact Categories to match the life cycle impact assessment method you use. If you need support in doing an LCA of your product, please contact us. The results buttons allow you to assess the timing of your handprints in one of two ways. Sales-based results assign the (life cycle) impacts of an innovation to the year in which the innovated product was sold. Impact year-based results take the timing of the actual impacts into account; for example, the benefits of energy efficiency occurring in the 10th year of a product’s life occur 10 years after it was sold.

THE PRODUCT LIFE DATABASEThe Product Life Database is a transparent compendium of data on the use phase of hundreds of detailed product categories. The database includes the energy input requirements of products, their expected lifetimes, and their costs. These data are needed in order to address use-phase impacts of products in the Footprint Calculator, and they are also used elsewhere in the Living Product Challenge.


Section 3 | 11

03

NET POSITIVE WATER

WATER

IMPERATIVE

HANDPRINTING IMPERATIVE

03 Net Positive Water | 12


REQUIREMENT

Water use and release from manufacturing the product must work in harmony with the natural water flows of the site and its surroundings. 100% of the product’s manufacturing water needs must be supplied by captured precipitation or other natural closed loop water systems and/or by recycling industrial water. Furthermore, all water used must be purified as needed without the use of chemicals.

All stormwater and water discharge at the manufacturing facility where the product is made must be treated on-site and managed either through reuse, a closed loop system or infiltration. Excess stormwater can be released onto adjacent sites under certain conditions.

The manufacturer must use the Institute’s Footprint Calculator to assess and document the water footprint and identify the five processes (key drivers) that make the largest contributions to the product’s cradle-to-gate water footprint. The footprint assessment can be based on a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) for the product, performed by or for the manufacturer, or use the Institute Footprint Calculator. If a prior LCA is used, the LCA should follow the ISO 14044 standard for a Life Cycle Assessment being used in a third-party communication.

The manufacturer must develop and publicly share a three-year plan to reduce the product’s water footprint and create a water handprint greater than the footprint through one or more of the following strategies:

• Innovate to conserve or recapture more water across the life cycle of the product, compared with the base case.

• Innovate within supply chains to conserve or capture water.

• Engage with users to achieve water conservation and/or restoration through improved use of the product.

03 Net Positive Water | 13


HANDPRINTING CASE STUDY A toilet manufacturer innovates the design of a toilet to reduce the gallons per flush from 1.4 to 1.28, without any other change in functionality (actual or perceived) for the customer. The estimated savings in water use per year is 650 gallons per year, or 2550 liters per year. There are minor impacts to the manufacturing of the toilet required to implement the design innovation, which must be taken into account using life cycle assessment (LCA).

An LCA of the toilet pre- and post-innovation shows that the pre-consumer water footprint is 9800 liters, and the post-innovation water footprint is 9950 liters—an increase of 150 liters. There are other impacts of the innovation on other pre-consumer footprints (e.g., for energy and climate and other impact categories) but those are not part of the Net Positive water assessment.

The new water footprint of the toilet is thus 9950 liters. The water handprint of the innovation accumulates during each year of product use, at the rate of 2550 liters per year. After four years of use, the cumulative handprint reaches 10200 liters, which exceeds the manufacturing footprint and makes the toilet Net Positive.

CLARIFICATIONS

SITE WATER CLARIFICATIONS Refer to the Living Building Challenge 3.0 Water Petal Handbook for clarifications and exceptions.

CRADLE-TO-GATE A manufacturer’s “gate-to-gate” impacts are those of its own operations. The first “gate” is the in-gate, while the second gate is the out-gate. The “upstream” impacts are those of the entire supply chains of all the inputs the manufacturer needs to use to make a product. “Cradle-to-gate” is the sum of the upstream and gate-to-gate impacts.

LIFE CYCLE ANALYSIS ISO 14044:2006 covers life cycle assessment (LCA) studies and life cycle inventory (LCI) studies. The ISO 14044:2006 specifies requirements and provides guidelines for life cycle assessment (LCA) including: definition of the goal and scope of the LCA; the life cycle inventory analysis (LCI) phase; the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) phase; the life cycle interpretation phase; reporting and critical review of the LCA; limitations of the LCA; relationship between the LCA phases; conditions for use of value choices and optional elements.


Section 3 | 14

04

NET POSITIVE ENERGY

ENERGY

IMPERATIVE


04 Net Positive Energy | 15


REQUIREMENT

105% of the energy used to produce the product in its final form must be generated from on-site renewable energy on a net annual basis.

The manufacturer must use the Institute Footprint Calculator to assess and document the energy footprint of producing the product, and identify the five processes (key drivers) that make the largest contributions to the product’s cradle-to-gate energy footprint. The footprint assessment can be based on a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) for the product, performed by or for the manufacturer, or use the Institute Footprint Calculator. If a prior LCA is used, the LCA should follow the ISO 14044 standard for a Life Cycle Assessment being used in a third-party communication.

The manufacturer must develop and publicly share a three-year plan to reduce the product’s energy footprint and create an energy handprint greater than the footprint through one or more of the following strategies:

• Innovate to conserve energy or generate renewable energy across the life cycle of the product.

• Innovate within supply chains to conserve energy or generate renewable energy in the supply chain.

• Engage with users to achieve energy conservation through improved use of the product.

CLARIFICATIONS

Cradle-to-Gate A manufacturer’s “gate-to-gate” impacts are those of its own operations. The first “gate” is the in-gate, while the second gate is the out-gate. The “upstream” impacts are those of the entire supply chains of all the inputs the manufacturer needs to use to make a product. “Cradle-to-gate” is the sum of the upstream and gate-to-gate impacts.

Life Cycle Analysis ISO 14044:2006 covers life cycle assessment (LCA) studies and life cycle inventory (LCI) studies. The ISO 14044:2006 specifies requirements and provides guidelines for life cycle assessment (LCA) including: definition of the goal and scope of the LCA; the life cycle inventory analysis (LCI) phase; the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) phase; the life cycle interpretation phase; reporting and critical review of the LCA; limitations of the LCA; relationship between the LCA phases; conditions for use of value choices and optional elements.

HANDPRINTING CASE STUDY A manufacturer of a truck transmission has redesigned its product in ways that make it lighter in weight and lower in friction so that it enables the trucks in which it is deployed to improve their baseline fuel efficiency of 6.5 miles per gallon by 4-5%. The redesign also reduces the frequency with which the lubricating fluid needs to be replaced.

A life cycle assessment of the product before and after the innovation shows that the innovation roughly doubled the energy footprint of product manufacture (from 480 MJ per unit to 970 MJ per unit), due primarily to the substitution of aluminum for steel. With an average annual usage of 125,000 miles, the use phase energy reduction of just 4.5% yields an annual energy handprint that is equal to 20 times the new product footprint! And this handprint grows with each year of product use, over an expected product lifetime of 10 years.

05 Net Positive Material Health | 16


NET POSITIVE MATERIAL HEALTH

05

PLACE

IMPERATIVE




REQUIREMENT

The product must be safe for human exposure during manufacturing, use and end-of-use.

There have been no reported deaths or serious injuries related to the final manufacturing of the product within the last 12 months.

The manufacturer must identify the total mass of chemical substances contained in the product and used during final manufacturing in each of five hazard categories in order to determine the Material Health Footprint. The manufacturer must develop and publicly share a three-year plan to reduce the product’s Material Health Footprint, and create a Material Health Handprint greater than the reduced footprint through one or more of the following strategies:

• Innovate to reduce the amount of toxic chemicals in the product or used in its manufacture.

• Reduce the amount of toxic chemicals used in a company’s operations through preferential purchase of Red List Free materials.

• Publish the results of a hazard assessment of a chemical that was not already publicly available, or publicly share a green chemistry innovation.

CLARIFICATIONS

Determining Serious Injuries The product is manufactured in a facility that has had, during the past year: no fatal injuries, and no injuries with greater than 0.5 Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) <http://www.who.int/healthinfo/global_burden_disease/ metrics daly/en/> over the expected duration of the injury. If expected duration is permanent, use life expectancy in your country.

Process Chemicals Process chemicals include only those chemicals used in manufacturing the product, as inputs to processes within the manufacturing facility controlled by the company, and whose mass input is greater than 1g per kg of product manufactured.

Chemical Hazard Bins The Living Product Challenge defines five categories or “Bins” of materials based on health hazards harmonized with the GreenScreen List Translator and Cradle to Cradle Certified Standard and the ILFI Red List. They are color-coded, where Red is worst and Green is best. The total mass of chemical substances in the product, including process chemicals per hazard category per kg of product, is defined as the Material Health Inventory.

Red: Known to be of high concern, or else unable to rule out high concern. This includes chemicals found on the ILFI Red List; The GreenScreen List Translator LT1, and LTP1; The GreenScreen Benchmark BM1, Substances on the Cradle to Cradle Certified Banned List of Chemicals and Cradle to Cradle Certified x-assessed substances (due to Carcinogenicity Mutagenicity Reproductive Toxicity (CMR) concerns)

Grey - LT-Unknown and Cradle to Cradle Certified grey-assessessed substances

Orange: BM2, and Cradle to Cradle Certified x-assessed substances (non CMRs)

Yellow: BM3, and Cradle to Cradle Certified c-assessed substances

Green: BM4, and Cradle to Cradle Certified a/b-assessed substances



Material Health Inventory The Material Health Inventory for the highest hazard category or “Red Bin” (not to be confused with our Red List, which is a smaller list of banned chemicals) is considered the product’s Material Health Footprint. It can only be altered by a reduction in the quantity of one or more Red Bin chemicals, which are not accompanied by an addition or increase in the quantity of any other Red Bin chemicals. This restrictive approach is intended expressly to avoid incentivizing regrettable substitutions as companies move away from Red List materials to other materials while not on the Red List, yet are still among Red Bin chemicals, and rather to incentivize shifts to reliable, lower-hazard chemicals that are clearly marked improvements in material health.

HANDPRINTING CASE STUDY Knauf Insulation is a manufacturer of insulation products. One of the primary products they produce is fiberglass insulation. They created a Material Health Handprint when they replaced the formaldehyde binder in their product line with a bio-based alternative called ECOSE® Technology. Formaldehyde is a known human carcinogen and asthmagen, with particular impact to vulnerable populations. As insulation, it can off-gas into the indoor environments of building occupants and impact the health of construction workers and manufacturers. Over time, those exposed to formaldehyde can become sensitized and experience increasingly severe reactions. Formaldehyde is both a Red List chemical and a chemical in the Red Bin since it is identified as the Green Screen List Translator as Benchmark 1.

Knauf replaced this Red Bin chemical with dextrose, commonly known as sugar. This switch from a Red Bin chemical to a Yellow Bin chemical (dextrose has been fully assessed and determined to be a GreenScreen Benchmark 3 chemical) without a corresponding increase in another Red Bin chemical, created an uncompensated reduction that decreased the manufacturer’s Material Health Footprint and created a Material Health Handprint.

Subsequently, all the major fiberglass insulation manufacturers in the US have replaced formaldehyde as a binder in fiberglass insulation with bio-based binders. Thus, Knauf’s green chemistry innovation has helped to transform the entire insulation industry.


Section 3 | 19

RESOURCES

Declare A voluntary product labeling program where manufacturers disclose ingredient and material health information. declareproducts.com

Health Product Declaration Standard reporting format for product ingredients and identification of health hazards. hpdcollaborative.org

Pharos A chemical and materials database and research tool that allows side-by-side comparison of products and chemical formulations. pharosproject.net

GreenScreen GreenScreen® for Safer Chemicals is a method for comparative chemical hazard assessment. greenscreenchemicals.org


Section 3 | 20

NET POSITIVE CLIMATE

10

MATERIALS

IMPERATIVE

CORE IMPERATIVE

2110 Net Positive Climate | 21


REQUIREMENT

Manufacturers must demonstrate that they have a three-year plan to achieve handprints that will be bigger than the full greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint of producing the product.

The manufacturer must use the Institute Footprint Calculator to assess and document the carbon footprint of producing the product, identifying the five processes that make the largest contributions to the product’s cradle-to-gate carbon footprint. The footprint assessment can be based on a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) for the product, performed by or for the manufacturer, or use the Institute Footprint Calculator. If a prior LCA is used, the LCA should follow the ISO 14044 standard for a Life Cycle Assessment being used in a third-party communication.

The manufacturer must develop and publicly share a plan to reduce the product’s cradle-to-gate climate footprint and then create a climate handprint greater than the footprint through one or more of the following strategies:

• Innovate within the supply chain of the product to reduce GHG emissions.

• Innovate within the manufacturing process of the product to generate fewer GHG emissions.

• Engage with users to reduce GHG emissions through improved use of the product.

• Purchase a carbon offset equivalent to the cradle-to-gate GHG footprint of the product after other options have been depleted.

CLARIFICATIONS

Cradle to Gate A manufacturer’s “gate-to-gate” impacts are those of its own operations. The first “gate” is the in-gate, while the second gate is the out-gate. The “upstream” impacts are those of the entire supply chains of all the inputs the manufacturer needs to use to make a product. “Cradle-to-gate” is the sum of the upstream and gate-to-gate impacts.

Life Cycle Analysis ISO 14044:2006 covers life cycle assessment (LCA) studies and life cycle inventory (LCI) studies. The ISO 14044:2006 specifies requirements and provides guidelines for life cycle assessment (LCA) including: definition of the goal and scope of the LCA; the life cycle inventory analysis (LCI) phase; the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) phase; the life cycle interpretation phase; reporting and critical review of the LCA; limitations of the LCA; relationship between the LCA phases; conditions for use of value choices and optional elements.

GHG Reducations For example, by reducing the energy use throughout the product’s life cycle.

Acceptable Offsets Carbon offsets must be CERs or VERs and be certified through an approved carbon offset program.

GHG Footprint Calculation Calculated from the prior year sales, less the Positive Handprint Impacts.

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HANDPRINTING CASE STUDY Owens Corning manufacturers water heater blankets, which reduce standby energy losses from storage water heaters. While the cradle-to-gate life cycle of each blanket requires energy and generates emissions of greenhouse gases, the blankets save considerably more energy and emissions during their useful life than their manufacturing generates. For a typical residential application in the US, the climate “payback time” (time by which the greenhouse gas emissions savings have fully compensated for the greenhouse gas impacts of the full pre-use life cycle) ranges from 1.4 to 3 weeks. And the blankets can last as long as a water heater itself, for which 13 years is an average lifespan.

In this handprinting example, no changes were made to the product itself, but a change with respect to business as usual is introduced by the company in a different way. The change is introduced by a product donation, combined with a novel “pay it forward” program design. The program enables additional blankets to be purchased and installed using money captured from a small portion (nine months) of the energy cost savings achieved by the initially donated blankets, and it requires that subsequent blanket installations follow the same pay-it-forward dynamic. The initial product donation was 300 blankets, and the recaptured partial savings from each blanket enables the purchase of two more blankets from each initially donated blanket. In this way, the impact of the program doubles with each round.

A key aspect of this program is that none of the blankets purchased in this program would have been purchased without the initial donation of 300 blankets, together with the administering of the pay-it-forward program. Thus, the additional savings are a change to business as usual, brought about by the company. After sufficient rounds of program expansion, more greenhouse gases have been saved by the donated and additionally purchased blankets than the full footprint of the full annual production of this product, making the product Climate Net Positive.

RESOURCES

Living Future Exchange http://living-future.org/exchange

Green-e Climate Certified Carbon Offset Providers green-e.org/getcert_ghg_products.shtml


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DOWNSTREAMUSER IMPACT

PRODUCTION SCOPE

MANUFACTURINGSITE

UPSTREAMSUPPLY CHAIN

HANDPRINTING SCOPECRADLE TO GATE SCOPE OF LIFE CYCLE ANA

LYSIS

POSITIVE HANDPRINTING

18

BEAUTY

IMPERATIVE


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REQUIREMENT

The manufacturer must demonstrate that the product gives more than it takes over its entire life cycle, meaning that its handprint is larger than its footprint in relation to one or more sustainability impact categories: human health, climate, energy, water, waste or ecological impacts.

The Positive Handprinting Imperative is achieved when the manufacturer demonstrates that it is achieving handprints that actually exceed the cradle-to-gate footprint of its product for at least one impact category.

CLARIFICATIONS

Handprinting Plans In meeting the Imperatives devoted to Net Positive Energy, Water and Climate, the manufacturer will have already used the Institute Footprint/Handprint Calculator to assess and document the top five processes contributing to its cradle-to-gate footprints for energy, water and climate. The Institute Calculators also provide this information in relation to human health and ecological impacts. The key drivers of a product’s footprint often provide clues or inspiration for the most powerful innovations that will create positive impacts. living-future.org/lpc.

In addressing the above Imperatives, the manufacturer will also have developed and publicly shared plans to create energy, water and climate handprints.

HANDPRINTING CASE STUDY A manufacturer of heat-and-serve pasta meals purchased dried pasta from suppliers as an input to producing its heat-and-serve meals. It determined that by innovating the production process, it could make a significant reduction in both energy and water used in product production, as follows.

Dried pasta needs to be rehydrated by cooking, which requires considerable energy and water. In addition, the drying of the initially produced pasta also requires considerable energy input. The manufacturer conducted an LCA of an alternative scenario in which pasta was produced on-site, and the fresh (not dried) pasta was used directly in preparing the meals. The reduction in total cradle-to-gate energy used to produce the meals (their energy footprint) was on the order of 40%, while the reduction in the product’s water footprint was on the order of 10%.

By spreading the innovation to several other product lines produced by the company, the full energy and water handprints of the innovation exceeded the respective energy and water footprints of the originally innovated product, making it Net Positive for both energy and water.

LIVING PRODUCT CHALLENGESM 1.0 GUIDE: HANDPRINTING APRIL 2015

living-future.org/[email protected]

April 2015

Documents

living product challengesm 1.0 guide: handprinting