Major Green Building Organizations Rally Around the Common Materials Framework (CMF)

Posted by: Rate It Green Team

At Greenbuild 2023, leading green building organizations, including the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the International Living Future Institute (ILFI), the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), and mindful MATERIALS (mM) joined forces to align around the Common Materials Framework (CMF), which establishes a common language for holistic material sustainability in the building industry.

The Common Materials Framework is an effort, really a complex map, which will analyze and organize information for over 100 of the most common building product and material certifications and disclosures, using over 650 relevant sustainability factors identified within these programs. The CMF will aim to work across all leading building and material databases and technology platforms, ensuring consistent information to support efficient and confident sustainable material decisions.  CMF can act as a central product data resource, and educational tool as well. helping to provide and bridge information about product sustainability as well as about different certifications and standards.  The information provided should enable and speed product selection, driving faster adoption of sustainable building products.   Annie Bevan, CEO of mindful MATERIALS, believes the impact will be significant long term, stating that the CMF “will ultimately make sustainable materials the norm on every project, not the exception….”

Why is the Common Materials Framework so potentially helpful? Different certifying and transparency bodies have aligned impressively but still don’t define sustainability the same exact ways.  Meanwhile, those specifying and purchasing green building products also do not have common understandings of what it means to be sustainable, minimally impactful for human and environmental health, and just. The Common Materials Framework translates diverse product standards and data points into consistent categories of impact: Human Health, Climate Health, Ecosystem Health, Social Health + Equity, and Circularity. Now, every organization, data platform, standard, designer, or manufacturer will have a common and comparable foundation for their work. As recognized by Peter Templeton, President and CEO at USGBC, “The Common Materials Framework offers an opportunity for our industry stakeholders to standardize terminology and speed the uptake of sustainable products.”  Lakisha Ann Woods, CEO of AIA, points out that the CMF will really allow industry stakeholders to speak the same language and use the same holistic metrics in a way not possible previously.  

The process to digitize CMF information and to fully develop the tool is ongoing.  We will report when it's fully launched.