“To lead, inspire and enable all stakeholders across the global economy to create and use innovative products and materials that positively impact people and planet”.

Any designer, brand, retailer, or manufacturer that wants to improve their supply chain by innovating and optimising their products* and materials in order to have a positive impact on people and the planet while aiming towards a circular economy. This includes, but is not limited to: apparel, cosmetics, jewellery, textiles, footwear, packaging, print, and paper, among others.

A “product” is defined as any physical item that can be purchased by other organisations.

The Standards Steering Committee (SSC) is the main governance body for the Cradle to Cradle Certified Product Standard. This standard is divided into five main categories: material health, product circularity, clean air & climate protection, water and soil stewardship, and social fairness. Achieving a certificate can be done through four different levels: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum; the higher the level the stricter the requirements. To meet a certain level within each category, the product must meet all of the requirements for that level, including the requirements at all lower levels.

Categories:

Material Health:

• Materials have to be safe for humans and the planet
• The product has to comply with the restricted substance list, which can be found in the link below.
• Makes sure the materials are safe for humans and the planet. To achieve certification, the product in question has to be in compliance with documentation such as the restricted Substance List, VOCs limitation and testing, chemicals, and required percentages of certain substances/materials.

Product Circularity:

• Enables a circular economy by designing products for their next use.
• There will be several requirements depending on the level the applicant wants to accomplish: to achieve the minimum level (Bronze), the applicant must be involved in a circularity education initiative in order to gain an understanding of relevant information.
• A plan has to be in place to address circularity and these data and cycling instructions must be publicly available.
• To achieve higher levels, there will be more conditions in place such as the applicant having to come up with strategies to improve circularity and the product itself must contain a certain percentage of cycled and/or renewable content, by weight.

Clean Air & Climate Protection:

• Protects clean air, promotes renewable energies, and reduces harmful emissions.
• As a minimum requirement, the production facilities must meet the air emissions regulations and the annual electricity use and greenhouse emissions must be quantified.
• The applicant must develop a strategy to increase the use of renewable electricity and address the greenhouse emissions; the higher the level, the higher the percentages to achieve these.

Water & Soil Stewardship:

• Preserves clean water and healthy soils.
• To achieve the first level, the company’s manufacturing facilities must comply with water quality regulations and it must be quantified. This water must be adequate to drink, and sanitation and hygiene must be provided.
• A strategy must be in place where water and soil concerns are identified.
• To reach higher levels, water use data must be made available to stakeholders, and projects addressing the positive impact must have been implemented.

Social Fairness:

• Contributes to a fair, healthy, and equitable society.
• There must be a strategy to develop the human rights policy and there must also be management systems support in place.
• The applicant should have a diverse, inclusive and engaging work environment where social fairness is the main value.

The certification is valid for two years and it must be recertified to maintain its status. To get this certification, there will be an inspection at the manufacturing facilities to make sure that all of the standard requirements have been met.