Further Together

Clear Market Signal

No one ever said achieving the materials easy button would be … easy. But by aligning around a common language and clear market signal we can move further together.

What is that Clear Market Signal?

It is a cohesive ask for prioritized and focused quality product-level data, that is collectively expressed by owners, manufacturers, architects, contractors, designers, engineers, etc., that is realistic in scope and will incentivize every part of this data ecosystem to connect.

Why do we need a Clear Market Signal?

Without quality data we have no way to measure our holistic impact. If that data is not consistently structured or is categorized differently by each stakeholder, it is meaningless. If that data is disconnected it is unusable. And if that data is unusable then the impact of sustainability efforts across products and products goes untold and nearly impossible to assign dollars to. The CMF’s First Factors are how we start down the path to prioritized and focused product-level data. We have to start somewhere.

The Future Value for Us All in This Work

Clarity:

If we can all agree on what things mean and the differences between various impacts, the information and data being shared will become more meaningful simply because we know we are defining things in the same way.

Saving Time + Resources:

Rather than everyone spending time collecting and managing the same data in different places, if it's all connected and managed centrally we can then each use it as needed, without having to spend time on data management.

ROI for All

More Adoption → Greater ROI → Optimized Products → Reduced Impacts. Increased market demand for sustainable materials will result in more availability and variety in optimized materials. A win for the entire industry.

Here's What You Can Do Right Now

The First Factors

While the full CMF includes 600+ distinct factors and data points, it became obvious very quickly that we needed a starting point. Instead of zero to 600+, zero to 50 seemed manageable, especially if the first 50 were prioritized as the most important.

The First Factors are the answer to the question, "What data would be the most helpful to focus the industry on at the project level, that is, in product-level environmental labels and standards widely used today?”

Through an extensive review of the criteria defined in the requirements of our Owner and AEC Forum members, as well as in the credits, features, and imperatives of LEED, WELL, and Living Building Challenge, these factors rose to the top, encompassing nearly all of the requirements needed to fulfill a majority of these project-level standards.

Learn More About the Forums

Dive Into the Factors

These First Factors are already available, are the most needed information, are the questions manufacturers already have some answers to, and, in most cases, are data that is already publicly available. It just needs to be standardized and connected.

Are we asking owners, AEC, and manufacturers to address all of the First Factors at this time? No. But this effort is allowing us all a clearer, more streamlined place to start. Whether owners and AEC are incorporating one factor into every project or manufacturers are reporting ten, we're asking that you use the consistent structure of the First Factors when communicating them. And, that you align your materials criteria, definitions, and communications with the Common Materials Framework’s structure.

Navigating the First Factors

Standards + Data to Impact: The Tool

The tool the industry has been waiting for. Ever wonder how each certification supports impact? Ever try to decipher what data is actually being verified in what standard? Use this tool now to support connecting standards and data to impact, now. The tool is accessible to all mM members and can be accessed through the collaboration hub. You will also need to create a free AirTable account to access the tool.

Access the Tool

A Clear Market Signal Grows

Our Work Into the Future: Role + Benefit

To enable a world where materials sustainability is easy, we all need to play a role for this work to be successful.

What We Will Be Asking of You

Use the specific language of CMF's factors and metrics in defining your requirements.

Make your materials standards publicly available for manufacturers and AEC and other Owners to view.

Ask manufacturers to manage their materials information in platforms that can connect to broader ecosystem tools.

How You Will Benefit

Alignment on Standards: Using a common language to express our criteria is a huge first step in aligning on standards. This will allow us to clearly understand how closely aligned we already are, and identify differences that need to be resolved.

Expediting Adoption: The clearer it can be that we are all asking for the same things, the easier it will be for others to adopt standards and ask for the same things. If we aren't using the same language, we won’t know if we’re asking for the same thing.

Amplified Voice: Using the CMF's common language to express your criteria makes it clearer when you and other owners are asking for the same thing, which amplifies your voice and sends a stronger market signal.

A Clear Target for Optimization: Sharing your criteria allows manufacturers to optimize products towards it. If they don’t know what you’re asking for, they won’t know what to work toward.

Reduced Data Management Burden: Advocating that manufacturers make CMF-aligned product data openly available in connected platforms alleviates you from having to collect and manage all this information independently.

Knowledgeable Project Teams: When architects and project teams have to follow different standards for each client, it is difficult to build knowledge and develop best practices. The more we align and are consistent in standards, the more transferable and replicable architects' knowledge becomes, making it easier to find architects with specific expertise.

Saving Time & Money: Instead of paying consultants individually, you'll benefit by working collectively.

Data where you need it: If we do not have data in tools and systems, all grand plans of measuring impact cannot be achieved. We need data, organized, where decisions are being made.
What We Will Be Asking of You

Use the specific language of CMF's factors and metrics in defining your firmwide materials standards or specification language

Advocate that materials, product, and buildings standards utilize the CMF's defined factors and maintain alignment with its language and structure.

Make your materials standards available for manufacturers to view and communicate them to your clients, along with the rationale behind them.

Support the development of the SPDH to leverage a much broader, consistent data set.

How You Will Benefit

Amplified Voice: Using the common language of the CMF to express your materials criteria makes it clearer when you are asking for the same thing as hundreds of other A+D firms, which amplifies your voice and sends a stronger market signal.

Reduced Data Management Burden: Advocating that manufacturers make CMF-aligned product data openly available in connected platforms alleviates you from having to collect and manage all this information independently.

Streamlined Workflows: The more your own firm standards are aligned with the language and structure of the AIA Materials Pledge/CMF, the more it streamlines your project research, tracking, and reporting workflows. Efficient and streamlined tracking processes give your firm a significant competitive advantage.

Replicable Research: If you are consistently using the CMF for tracking materials research, that research can be more replicable project by project, and you don't need to redo research when starting new projects.

Firmwide Education: The CMF can be an approachable framework for educating your firm about different topics, starting with the high-level buckets and gradually unpacking the details. It is much easier to learn concepts of a framework than it is to memorize the nuances of hundreds of different certifications. Having a shared understanding across different roles and disciplines throughout your firm engrain the information into company culture and values.
What We Will Be Asking of You

Align and organize your product sustainability data with the specific language and structure of CMF's factors and metrics.

Advocate with data management platforms you’re using that they build structured fields for Common Materials Framework’s First Factors so you can express information in this way.

Make CMF-aligned sustainability data clear and easy to find with any given product.

Make it clear what data and/or certifications are associated with your specific product lines.

Enable architects, designers, owners, and specifiers to filter your products based on specific CMF factors so they can more easily find products that meet their sustainability criteria.

With product certifications where more details on the specific credits and metrics achieved could be shared, share those scorecards (and if needed, advocate that the certification bodies enable sharing more details).

Manage your product data in platforms that will share the CMF-aligned data with other platforms and project workflow tools.

Advocate with any data management platforms you’re using that they create this ability to connect your data with other tools and platforms.

How You Will Benefit

Clear Compliance: Having your product sustainability data aligned with the same format architects and owners are using is the clearest way to demonstrate compliance with their requirements (which increases likelihood of getting spec'ed).

Respond Once, to Everyone: Rather than needing to interpret and respond to dozens of different asks from each unique organization, you could save inordinate amounts of time by having your CMF-aligned product data available for any of them to use.

Save Time Managing Data: Connected data reduces the manual effort needed to manage it in different places. This also ensures data consistency, making it easier for you to make updates, and reduces any confusion and inconsistencies.

ROI Data: Ultimately as this system is connected, you will receive data back to you, tracking what projects your were specified and used on, and what attributes of sustainability helped you obtain the sale position. Market analytics will also be available to help you shape decision making for investments in sustainability in the future.
What We Will Be Asking of You

Build structured fields aligned with CMF's First Factors and metrics so manufacturers can manage and align their product data.

If you have a front-end database platform, make CMF-aligned sustainability data clear and easy to find with any given product.

Enable architects, designers, owners, and specifiers to filter products based on specific CMF factors so that they can more easily find products that meet their sustainability criteria

Share the CMF-aligned data manufacturers are managing in your platform with other platforms and project workflow tools.

How You Will Benefit

Adds Value to Your Services: This is something everyone in the industry will be asking for, notably manufacturers. If you can provide this value to manufacturers, that is a big selling-point in them choosing your services for data management.

Consolidates Focus on Which Fields to Build: We know you get requests to build all different types of fields and factors, which is a huge scope of work, and would largely result in mostly empty data in many of those fields. The CMF consolidates these asks to the top priority factors the industry is collectively asking for today. If you can build these fields, that alleviates many of the other requests.

More Robust Data: The collective endorsement of these priority fields to focus on means manufacturers have an incentive to complete data for these fields, resulting in more robust and focused data sets, which also makes the data and front-end tools more valuable to users.

More Useful Front-End Databases: If you make these factors filterable for users in front-end database platforms, it is helpful to their workflows, which makes your tools more valuable, increasing users and usage. More users and usage also increases the value of your platform to manufacturers.
What We Will Be Asking of You

Build structured fields aligned with the CMF's First Factors and metrics so you can receive this data from data management platforms or directly from manufacturers.

If you have a front-end database platform, make the CMF-aligned sustainability data clear and easy to find with any given product.

Enable architects, designers, owners, and specifiers to filter products based on specific CMF factors so they can more easily find products that meet their sustainability criteria.

Work with data management platforms to receive data from them, where manufacturers have put effort into cleaning up and deduplicating their data, rather than receiving it from certification bodies or other sources that require additional cleaning and deduplication.

Create abilities for AEC to export/sync CMF-aligned data out of your platform so that they can bring it into all the places it needs to be communicated throughout design and construction processes, and streamline their efforts in reporting.

How You Will Benefit

Reduced Data Cleanup: Less work if you are receiving data that has already been cleaned and deduplicated by data management platforms.

More Useful and Valuable Tools: If you make this data available and the factors filterable, that is very helpful to your users' workflows, which makes your tools more valuable, increasing users and usage.

Focus on Building What's Next: Instead of spending time and resources on data cleanup just to accomplish the bare minimum of what is needed (which does not differentiate you from competitors), invest in shared data management through the SPDH, and spend your time and resources focused on the next things that can improve your platform.
What We Will Be Asking of You

If your current standards use language that is different than the CMF when they are intended to mean the same thing, identify the 'cross-walking' of how your standard can be expressed through CMF.

In future versions of standards, use CMF's language and structure in defining the requirements.

Make the specific factors and metrics that manufacturers are acheiving or disclosing through your standard available. Manufacturers could still have the option to opt-out of sharing details.

Make these specific factors and metrics searchable and filterable on your platforms. If these factors aren't filterable, it is difficult for architects to find the products that manufacturers have put so much effort into getting certified.

Make as much detail as possible that goes with your standards (factors, metrics, credits, imperatives, fields, benchmarks, standards, etc.) available in an API so that it can be brought into other platforms.

Allow data management platforms that manufacturers are using to consolidate product info from multiple certifications to then share that cleaned-up info with other platforms (rather than requiring tools and platforms to get that API directly from you, which means they need to redo that clean-up and consolidation).

How You Will Benefit

Recognition for the Facors Addressed: The more your standards are aligned with the language and structure of the CMF, the more clear it is that they contribute to these metrics, allowing your standards to be recognized for addressing more factors and impact areas.

Added Value to Manufacturers:The more your standards can be recognized, the more value it adds to manufacturers, making it more likely that they pursue your certifications.

Increased Utility: If you make it easy for architects and designers to find the information they're looking for from your standard, or filter product libraries for those attributes, they are more likely to use and look for your standard. If they can't find the info they need from your standard, they're going to look to other standards that make this data more available and useful.