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Plumbing News
TOTO Is The First Plumbing
Manufacturer To Validate Its Products' Environmental Performance
With New Sustainable Minds' Transparency Reports.
Company Innovates a Solution and Goes Beyond Compliance in
Response to LEED v4's 'Building Product Disclosure and
Optimization' Option.
 TOTO
announced it is introducing an innovative, new way to report product
transparency that enables customers to earn LEED v4 credit for select
high-efficiency toilets.
Committed to environmental leadership that exceeds compliance, TOTO discovered
that it was unable to comply with LEED v4's disclosure option to provide
Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for its high-efficiency toilets. The
company could not do this because there is no Product Category Rule for toilets
(PCRs define the requirements of EPDs for each product category). EPDs are
required for its building industry customers to earn the highest number of LEED
points for purchasing TOTO products. To solve this problem, TOTO, already using
Sustainable Minds' LCA software to help it design sustainable products, turned
to the company to help it solve this problem marketing.
Together, TOTO and Sustainable Minds discovered that current EPDs generally
provide too much life cycle analysis and other environmental data, making their
length and level of technicality difficult to understand for a non-technical
reader. In addition, few include much-needed product marketing information to
put the environmental information in context. In short, today's EPD's make it
difficult for architects, builders, contractors, and other members of the
building industry to compare plumbing products and make well-informed greener
purchasing decisions.
As remedy, TOTO and Sustainable Minds saw an opportunity to use the life cycle
assessments TOTO does on its products to develop a transparent reporting tool
that is effective, credible, comparable, and affordable. The new SM Transparency
Reports are concise, compelling and effective. They present functional and
environmental product performance information together in a three-page report,
enabling a manufacturer like TOTO to make its LCA results understandable by
describing what the company is doing to make its products more sustainable. The
new SM Transparency Reports give readers visibility into the decisions TOTO
makes across the life cycle of its products.
To ensure industry recognition that the new Transparency Reports are credible,
Sustainable Minds turned to NSF International, industry leader in product
certification, to provide the LCA third-party verification and report
certification. Story continues below
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Five SM Transparency
Reports for select TOTO high-efficiency toilets may be
previewed through the introduction of the Sustainable Minds'
Manufacturers Showroom, a public destination to showcase
brands across the value chain, making credibly greener
materials, processes and products.
"Since our incorporation in 1917, TOTO has been committed to
environmental stewardship and reducing our products' impact
on the environment throughout their life cycle, from birth
to the end of life," said Bill Strang, President of
Operations – Americas, TOTO USA. "As a part of our People,
Planet, Water ethic, we have long-used life cycle thinking
to prioritize where we should direct our efforts to increase
environmental sustainability. As a part of our ongoing
journey to reduce our environmental impact, we have
integrated life cycle analysis into our design process,
operations, and supply chain. With the introduction of LEED
v4, we sought to provide the same level of transparency to
our customers. Unfortunately, without a Product Category
Rule, we found that an Environmental Product Declaration was
impossible. However, working with Sustainable Minds and NSF
International, we discovered that we could address this
challenge by innovating a new way to report product
transparency. TOTO is proud that our partnership with
Sustainable Minds and NSF resulted in such a simple, elegant
and credible solution, which enables us to continue
communicating the message of our sustainability journey to
our customers."
"When it became clear that TOTO, a company committed to
environmental leadership beyond compliance, was not going to
be able to comply with the new LEED v4 disclosure option to
provide EPDs for customers to earn the maximum available
product credits for purchasing TOTO products – it was 'game
on' to find a solution. Bill Strang is the best kind of
customer who embraces innovation as component of leadership.
It is a privilege to work jointly with a customer to
innovate and address big systemic opportunities," said Terry
Swack, Founder & CEO, Sustainable Minds.
"NSF Sustainability's extensive experience in validating and
certifying products for the building products industry
informs us that innovation is needed to identify, quantify
and credibly certify more sustainable products and get that
information to the market faster. The model developed by
Sustainable Minds and TOTO provides a platform for doing
that," said Tom Bruursema, General Manager of NSF
Sustainability.
"It is great to see companies like TOTO embracing product
information transparency and delivering it in a way that is
approachable and useful for the design and construction
community," said Kirsten Ritchie, Director of Sustainable
Design, Gensler.
About TOTO:
TOTO USA is headquarters for the Americas Division of the
TOTO Global Group, which was established in 1917 with the
founding of TOTO, Ltd., in Kitakyushu, Japan. TOTO is the
world's largest manufacturer of bathroom fixtures and
fittings with $5.1 billion dollars in annual sales. For
nearly 100 years, TOTO has been the recognized leader in
performance innovation and design with products that enhance
the luxury bathroom experience. Today, the company maintains
23,500 employees in 69 offices around the world and owns
manufacturing facilities in Japan, Mexico, the USA, China
and Europe with an affiliated network of more than 80
production facilities worldwide. With over 1,500 engineers
on staff and three centers devoted to research and
development, TOTO is dedicated to engineering products that
respect the environment while meeting people's needs for
comfort, beauty and performance. TOTO's corporate philosophy
– People-First Innovation – is the guiding principle for all
the company's processes, from engineering and design to
manufacturing and sales. Consumers enjoy the peace of mind
that comes from knowing they purchased a brand that
innovates to improve people's quality of life. Winner of
numerous domestic and international awards and recognitions,
TOTO is the only plumbing manufacturer honored as Water
Efficiency Leader by the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency. The company continues to raise industry standards
and consumer expectations as to what is possible in the
bathroom, as TOTO believes a high-quality bathroom is an
experience and an everyday luxury people value and
appreciate. For more information, consumers may visit
www.totousa.com or call 1.888.295.8134, Option 5. Follow
TOTO on Twitter (@TOTOUSA) and become a TOTO fan on Facebook.
About Sustainable Minds
Sustainable Minds cloud software and services help product
manufacturers, across the value chain, Design & Market
greener products. The company is dedicated to
operationalizing environmental performance in mainstream
product development and manufacturing in an understandable,
empowering and credible way. Sustainable Minds life cycle
assessment (LCA) software for greener product innovation is
used by industry and education in more than 600 locations in
60 countries worldwide. Sustainable Minds' easy-to-use,
standardized solutions make it possible for manufacturers –
large and small – to dynamically evaluate, compare and
improve their products' environmental performance by
integrating life cycle thinking and LCA into their product
development and marketing processes. The company has been
recognized by Gartner in its 2013 Cool Vendor Report as
'innovative, impactful and intriguing.' To learn why, visit
www.sustainableminds.com or call 617 401-2269. Follow
Sustainable Minds on Twitter @sustainablemnds
About NSF International
Founded in 1944, NSF International is a global independent
public health and safety organization that writes standards,
and tests and certifies products for the food, water and
consumer goods industries to minimize adverse health effects
and protect the environment (nsf.org). NSF International has
been collaborating with the World Health Organization since
1997 in water quality and safety, food safety and indoor
environments.
NSF International Strategic Registrations (NSF-ISR) offers a
comprehensive portfolio of management systems registration
solutions to meet the demands of the global marketplace (nsf-isr.org).
NSF-ISR is recognized by the International Automotive Task
Force (IATF) to provide ISO/TS 16949 registrations in the
automotive sector. NSF-ISR also provides registrations for
the following programs: ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001, AS
9100/10/20, ISO 13485, ISO 20000-1, Responsible Care (RC)
14001 and Responsible Care Management Systems (RCMS), as
well as greenhouse gas verification/validation. For more
information, please visit:
www.nsf.org
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