As LEED v4 and credits that are driving product transparency become a reality, tools to assist architects and specifiers select transparent products are being developed. Mindful Materials is one example that is promoting efficient methods to select products disclosing environmental impacts or material ingredients, reports NRMCA Senior Director, Sustainability Initiatives, James Bogdan. Mindful Materials is an initiative developed within the design industry to provide a common way for manufacturers to clearly communicate transparency for their building products. Over 18 architectural firms collaborated to develop a tool for making transparency and optimization information easily accessible within material binders.

Mindful Materials is a directory of products with various transparency credentials and an actual label that is a visual cue within material libraries that help designers identify manufacturers' products with disclosed and/or optimized content. Reported as an effective way to simplify manufacturers' communication management approaches, it recognizes and rewards efforts in the disclosure of transparent product information.

As part of NRMCA’s Build with Strength campaign, the concrete industry is leading the way in providing product transparency reporting to meet new green building requirements. To that end, NRMCA has facilitated Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) and published a material ingredient disclosure guidance document to prepare our members with evolving green building trends.