LIVING PRODUCT
CHALLENGESM 1.0
GUIDE: HANDPRINTING
APRIL 2015
LIVING PRODUCT
CHALLENGESM 1.0
A Visionary Path to a Regenerative Future
Copyright © 2015 by International Living Future Institute. All rights reserved. No part of
this document may be modified, nor elements of this document be used out of existing
context without written permission. For information, contact the International Living
Future Institute at [email protected].
Living Product Challenge™ (the LPC) is a servicemark of the International Living Future
Institute™ (the Institute).
THE INTERNATIONAL LIVING FUTURE INSTITUTE
The International Living Future Institute™ is a non-profit organization offering green
building and infrastructure solutions at every scale—from small renovations to
neighborhoods or whole cities. The mission of the Institute is to lead and support
the transformation toward communities that are socially just, culturally rich and
ecologically restorative.
IMPERATIVE 03: NET POSITIVE WATER
IMPERATIVE 04: NET POSITIVE ENERGY
IMPERATIVE 05: NET POSITIVE MATERIAL HEALTH
IMPERATIVE 10: NET POSITIVE CLIMATE CHANGE
IMPERATIVE 18: POSITIVE HANDPRINTING
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION4
STRATEGIC GUIDANCE
5
INTRODUCTION TO HANDPRINTING
8
HANDPRINTING TOOLS
10
03: NET POSITIVE WATER
12
04: NET POSITIVE ENERGY
15
05: NET POSITIVE MATERIAL HEALTH
18
10: NET POSITIVE CLIMATE CHANGE
22
18: POSITIVE HANDPRINTING
25
INTRODUCTION
The Living Product Challenge is an attempt to dramatically raise the bar from a paradigm where
simply doing less harm is laudable to one in which we seek to be restorative, giving more than we
take. The Challenge defines the most advanced measure of sustainability for the creation of all
products possible today and acts to rapidly diminish the gap between current limitations and the
positive endgame solutions we seek. It aims to transform how we think about every single act of
product design and production as an opportunity to positively impact the greater community of life
and the cultural fabric of our human communities.
The Living Product Challenge is a philosophy first, an advocacy tool second and a certification
program third. It is intended as a beacon to guide the manufacturing of all the thousands of things
we surround ourselves with on a daily basis, and to give direction and support to those who make
the goods we use. Within the larger Living Future Challenge framework that covers the creation
of Living Buildings, Communities and Food Systems, the Living Product Challenge focuses on
humanity’s most ubiquitous creations—its manufactured goods.
Because the Living Product Challenge StandardSM is continuously informed by the work that teams
are doing in developing Living Products and applying the Standard, guidebooks such as this clarify
and consolidate the rules at a set point in time to provide a unified reference for the Living Product
Challenge Standard.
HOW TO USE THIS HANDBOOK
This guide describes the principles and methodology of handprinting, and how to generate and
calculate handprints in order to address each of the handprint-related Imperatives within the Living
Product Challenge. It should be used in conjunction with the Living Product Challenge Standard.
This guide explains what handprints are and how to calculate them, and it also includes descriptions
of how to use each of the handprint-related tools offered by the Institute: the Handprint Calculator,
the Footprint Calculator, and the Product Life Database
Each Imperative section includes an intent statement, a list of requirements, clarifications, and
a handprinting case study. Collectively, the case studies illustrate different ways that product
manufacturers can create and estimate handprints, and how to compare these handprints with the
product footprints in order to assess whether and when the product becomes Net Positive.
Section 1 | 2
STRATEGIC GUIDANCE
STRATEGIC GUIDANCE
For Living Product Challenge teams seeking further guidance, the International Living Future
Institute offers several avenues for additional support. In addition to the specific services noted
below, the Institute will also fashion customized opportunities to match a company’s needs during
product development. Companies may inquire about or schedule Living Product Challenge
strategic guidance by emailing [email protected].
IN-HOUSE WORKSHOPS
The Institute offers customized training as a service for organizations to ensure that everyone has
a shared fundamental understanding of the Living Product Challenge. Whether there is a specific
area of interest or a desire for a private presentation of an established curriculum, the Institute
can deliver customized educational sessions. The most commonly requested workshop is a oneday, in-depth introduction to the Living Product Challenge that addresses each Imperative, the
certification pathways and how to use the supporting tools for footprinting and handprinting. This
service can be delivered in person or online. Additional workshops are offered to help companies
understand the context of manufacturing trends, and regulatory, financial, behavioral and
technological barriers and incentives to manufacturing a Living Product.
Section 2 | 3
CHARRETTE FACILITATION
To steer manufacturers toward innovative yet feasible solutions for their products to meet the Living
Product Challenge, the Institute offers an optional service to lead the kick-off meeting, or “charrette,”
and to help define fundamental, strategic goals to guide the company through transformation of a
product to Living Product Certification. The Institute can review products at critical points during
the product development cycle, such as during beta testing, manufacture retooling, supply chain
innovation, or wherever there is an opportunity to rethink the direction of a product and how it is
made. A charrette should take place soon after registration has been completed, when the potential
to explore a Living Product concept is at its fullest. A one-day meeting focuses on fostering an
interactive dialogue that allows employees of the company to engage with the Institute and outside
experts to consider each area of impact. A two- or three-day format allows time for a deeper
examination of promising ideas. The Institute designs the agenda, facilitates the session and provides
a follow-up document.
Custom engagement areas of focus include:
• Meeting the four Core Imperatives that are required for base Certification.
• Conducting Life Cycle Analysis using the Institute Footprint Calculator.
• Handprint creation in supply chains to reduce environmental impact through supply chain
innovation.
• Handprint creation in the use phase, including customer engagement, to extend lifespan or improve
product use or performance through innovation.
• Achieving Net Positive production relative to water, energy, climate and/or waste.
• Living Building Challenge design and retrofit guidance for manufacturing facilities.
• Conducting a toxic chemical inventory and implementing safe chemical use in production and
supply chains.
• Exploration of specific Petals in pursuit of Petal Certification.
• In-depth training on the Declare and/or JUST program.
PRODUCT DESIGN GUIDANCE
This optional service is intended to improve a product’s potential to comply with the Living Product
Challenge. The Institute performs a private review with the manufacturer’s design or product
development team to learn how the product accounts for each Imperative of the Living Product
Challenge. Following a review, the Institute will issue a report outlining our guidance to confirm that
the company is on the correct path and to improve their ability to succeed. It is possible to receive
feedback on the Imperatives within a single Petal, select Petals, or all seven Petals of the Living
Product Challenge.
Section 2 | 4
ADDITIONAL TOOLS AND SUPPORT
The Institute works continually to create resources that advance the understanding and
implementation of the principles of the International Living Future Institute, and there are many
ways to participate in and learn more about the evolution of the program. This section lists
several offerings that expand the role of the Living Product Challenge beyond a framework for
development, to an overlay for education, outreach and advocacy.
THE LIVING PRODUCT CHALLENGE WEBSITE
The online resource for manufacturers, product designers and others provides the Living Product
Challenge standard document and resources that support the certification process—including
educational resources, detailed case studies and fee schedules for certification. In-depth Living
Product Challenge resources are available to International Living Future Institute members.
living-future.org/lpc
LIVING PRODUCT 50
A group of 50 leading manufacturers collaborating to transform the materials economy through
transparency, green chemistry and supply-chain innovation. Members of the LP50 commit to
meeting in person at least three times a year to collaborate, share lessons learned and find ways
to cross-pollinate ideas between industries and disciplines in order to create and market the
world’s first Living Products. LP50 members will be invited to exclusive education events about the
program and have an opportunity to shape and provide input on the Living Product unExpo and
feature Declare and Living Products on the Living Marketplace website.
living-future.org/lpc/lp50
LIVING PRODUCT CHRYSALIS
A select group of companies drawn from the LP50 that are committed to devoting time and
resources to developing and launching a Living Product in the next three years. The Chrysalis
will also serve as the pilot companies attempting Challenge and will provide feedback from their
practical experience with program implementation to inform ongoing development and future
versions of the Standard. The Institute will provide members of the Chrysalis with custom strategic
guidance on the regenerative design principles within the Living Product Challenge, including
a Living Product charrette facilitated by the Institute and including outside experts as needed.
Companies participating in the Chrysalis will be able to showcase their work-in-progress toward
the creation of the world’s first Living Products through media outlets or in-house publications, the
Living Product website and the future Living Marketplace website.
living-future.org/lpc/lp-chrysalis
LIVING PRODUCT UNEXPO
The Living Product unExpo is a groundbreaking new event curated by the International Living
Future Institute to inspire a revolution in the way materials are designed, manufactured and
delivered. Leading manufacturers and sustainability consultants, as well as sustainability directors
from the world’s leading design firms, will gather to learn about game-changing innovations in
product design and to gain the tools, knowledge and network needed to effect positive change
in their organizations and supply chains. The conference will assemble a diverse group of people,
industries and disciplines to engage in a transparent, transdisciplinary and transformative
experience to inspire, create and build markets for the world’s first Living Products. The Living
Product unExpo will be open to the public for a limited time to educate, inspire and solicit
crowdsourcing votes on the “People’s Choice” award for the Living Product Prize.
living-future.org/unexpo15
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INTRODUCTION TO HANDPRINTING
WALK THE TALK
The Living Product Challenge calls on manufacturers to walk the talk of restorative sustainability by
making their own operations Net Positive with respect to impact categories such as water, energy,
climate, waste, and ecological impacts. While this goal is lofty in its own right, we also know it falls
far short of what humans are capable of achieving and what the planet needs.
The footprint of an organization or even a person is the sum total of negative impacts caused
by the processes that sustain the organization or person. The footprint of producing a product
is likewise the sum total of negative impacts caused by the processes necessary to produce the
product. The scope of the processes whose negative impacts are accounted for in a production
footprint is called “cradle to gate”: it includes both the manufacturer’s operations, and all of the
processes in the supply chains of all the inputs of energy, materials, equipment and even services
needed by the manufacturer in producing the product.
Most of this footprint occurs upstream of the product manufacturer, through supply chains of
energy and raw materials. Additionally, for products that require or influence the consumption of
energy or materials during use, the majority of the total life cycle negative impacts will occur during
use. For both of these reasons, the Living Product Challenge calls on manufacturers to build on
the inspiration of making their own operations Net Positive, striving to make their product supply
chains and life cycles Net Positive as well. Achieving life cycle Net Positive requires the creation of
handprints.
A NEW PARADIGM
Smaller footprints are still footprints. Designers of Living Products must go further, using human
creativity and ecological inspiration to design products that create positive handprints along with
shrinking their negative footprints.
Handprints measure the positive that a product causes across its life cycle, such as harvesting more
water and generating more energy than was required to make it. While a product can never have a
zero footprint, it can still be Net Positive if its handprint is bigger than its footprint.
One way that a company can create a product-related handprint is by innovating the product in
ways that reduce its cradle-to-gate footprint. This can start by reducing the on-site impacts of
product manufacturing. The handprint can grow by using greener or lower-impact materials and/or
energy sources inputs to make the product, and/or by using these inputs more efficiently. Reducing
product packaging and materially streamlining the product itself are good examples of ways to use
inputs more efficiently.
To create handprints, a product manufacturer can share sustainable innovations within its supply
chains and potentially even beyond them to competitors or consumers at large. Handprints can
also result from engaging the users of products to use them in more ecologically restorative ways,
creating real and demonstrated ripple effects that may even spread beyond the boundaries of the
life cycles of the Living Product itself.
UPSTREAM HOTSPOTS AS HANDPRINTING OPPORTUNITIES
When a company assesses the cradle-to-gate footprint of its product, it will identify the key “hot
spots”—the processes that make major contributions to one or more impact categories— in the
supply chain. For example, some upstream processes may be responsible for the bulk of the
product’s cradle-to-gate water footprint, and other processes may be responsible for the bulk of
the product’s energy or carbon footprints.
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These upstream processes are the best places to look for improvement opportunities, such as
more efficient use of water or energy. If the innovation implementation would not have happened
without the impetus of the manufacturer, then the improvements are part of the manufacturer’s
handprint.
And handprints are all about ripple effects; if a manufacturer spreads an innovation beyond the
boundaries of its own supply chain by enabling or encouraging widespread implementation of the
innovation, the full scope of the resulting benefits is part of the manufacturer’s handprint.
DOWNSTREAM HANDPRINTS
After looking on site and upstream, it’s time to look downstream, at the portions of the product
life cycle that occur once the product leaves the factory. Downstream life cycle phases include
distribution (transportation, wholesaling and retailing), the use phase and end-of-life management.
For products that consume energy during use, making them more efficient is a major handprint
opportunity. For products that affect energy use (e.g., detergents that enable cold-water washing),
making them more effective is a major handprint opportunity. And for products whose use phases
require other materials (e.g., printers using paper) or influence the use of materials (e.g., surfaces
needing cleaning), use-phase innovations present handprint opportunities.
While product innovation is one way to address the use phase, another potent way to do so is
through customer engagement. If a company can engage with its users to encourage them to use
its products more sustainably—e.g., washing clothes less frequently, washing them in cold water,
line-drying them when possible—the resulting benefits are all handprints. The impacts of users’
behavior change need to be tracked, of course, and this can be done with tools like Handprinter.
org, which the Institute is working to expand and improve. An exciting aspect of customer
engagement is that it too can create massive ripple effects as customers spread the behavior
changes to their friends, and as customers’ engagement with handprinting grows from one action
to many.
It is important to not accidentally skip over the distribution phase. For some products, such as
furniture and food, the distribution phase can make a surprisingly large contribution to total life
cycle burdens—and thus again offers a key place to look for handprint opportunities. Finally, there
is end-of-use management. Can a company increase recycling of its product, and perhaps of similar
products manufactured by others? The benefits of doing so will contribute to its handprint.
CALCULATING HANDPRINTS
Handprints are calculated using the databases, software tools, and metrics used to calculate
footprints. These databases, software and metrics come from the field of life cycle assessment
(LCA). Indeed, working with handprinting doesn’t double the work already involved in footprinting;
rather, it largely amounts to getting more value out of existing LCA resources and results by
processing them through a new lens, the lens of handprints.
That said, there are also some new twists and turns to handprinting that do not appear in
footprinting. Specifically, handprinting takes account of new causal pathways, new forms of
influence that are invisible to or neglected by traditional LCAs and footprinting.
Section 3 | 7
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CHANGE RELATIVE TO BUSINESS AS USUAL
A footprint is what you “take” from the world. For a product, a footprint is what it takes to produce
a product and deliver it to market. A handprint is what you give to the world—specifically, how you
change the world for the better: how you reduce pollution or waste, and how you bring benefits
and positive impacts. For a product, a handprint is what the product manufacturer gives to the
world, directly and indirectly related to the life cycle of the product.
All change occurs relative to some baseline. We call this baseline “business as usual,” or BAU. And
for a product, the definition of BAU is simple: it is responding to this year’s demand for the product
with last year’s version of the product and its cradle-to-gate production processes. Thus, the
bigger the sales of an improved (e.g., more eco-efficient) product, the bigger the handprint. You
use LCA results for the product before and after improvements, together with sales data, in order
to calculate the handprints achieved by product improvements.
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Section 3 | 8
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HANDPRINTING TOOLS
Some manufacturers are already making extensive use of life cycle assessment (LCA) to
understand the footprints of their products and to reduce those footprints. The Living Product
Challenge invites manufacturers to make use of the results of LCAs they have already conducted.
In addition, The Institute provides a set of tools to help manufacturers get started quickly and
make rapid progress in handprinting. These tools include the Footprint Calculator, the Handprint
Calculator, and the Product Life Database. Each of these tools is described below.
THE FOOTPRINT CALCULATOR
Before you start to create handprints, it is highly useful to know what is driving your product’s
footprint. This is because reductions in the greatest impacts give you some of your big leverage
for handprint creation. If you haven’t already studied your product using LCA, this is where the
Footprint Calculator comes in.
The Footprint Calculator combines the open source LCA software OpenLCA together with
an open, input/output database for LCA called OpenIO. Ithe calculator enables companies to
generate rapid yet comprehensive assessments of the footprints that their products’ life cycles
generate. It enables users to address a comprehensive set of impact categories, including climate
change, water consumption, human health impacts, ecosystem impacts and more.
The Footprint Calculator works under both Windows and Mac operating systems. To get started,
download and install the latest version of the OpenLCA software using the links provided in the
LPC website. Then download and install the Footprint Calculator database, also available via the
LPC website, and import it into OpenLCA. From there, you are ready to begin product footprint
assessment.
You will want to begin by using the Footprint Calculator to gain a quantitative “first look” at your
product’s footprint, highlighting the hot spots (key processes in the supply chain and life cycle)
that make major contributions to total impacts. You do this by assessing the life cycle impacts of
the broader product category containing your specific product. Use the “Process Contributions”
tab to identify the top five hot spots (the top five processes in the cradle-to-gate product life
cycle that make the highest contributions to the selected impact category).
Using data obtained from the Product Life Library, you can consider not only the upstream
footprint of your product manufacturing and supply chains, but also look downstream at the
distribution and use phases of the product’s life cycle, and consider the impacts of closing loops
in product end-of-use management as well.
Section 3 | 9
1.0 Living Product Challenge Guidebook | April 2015
THE HANDPRINT CALCULATOR
The Handprint Calculator is a tool that enables manufacturers to begin to estimate the handprints
that they can generate by improving the life cycle environmental performance of their products.
As with the Footprint Calculator, users can consider a comprehensive set of impact categories
including climate change, water consumption, human health impacts, and ecosystem impacts.
Use the Handprint Calculator to assess the handprints caused by innovations that occur
somewhere in the life cycle of a product. The Handprint Calculator allows you to upload LCA
results for the product before and after the handprint-creating innovation or action, and for each
of four phases of the product life cycle: upstream (supply chain), production, use, and end-of-use.
And it allows you to assess the impacts of multiple innovations, one at a time—and to compare
their impacts. You can set the Impact Categories to match the life cycle impact assessment
method you use. If you need support in doing an LCA of your product, please contact us.
The results buttons allow you to assess the timing of your handprints in one of two ways. Salesbased results assign the (life cycle) impacts of an innovation to the year in which the innovated
product was sold. Impact year-based results take the timing of the actual impacts into account;
for example, the benefits of energy efficiency occurring in the 10th year of a product’s life occur 10
years after it was sold.
THE PRODUCT LIFE DATABASE
The Product Life Database is a transparent compendium of data on the use phase of hundreds of
detailed product categories. The database includes the energy input requirements of products,
their expected lifetimes, and their costs. These data are needed in order to address use-phase
impacts of products in the Footprint Calculator, and they are also used elsewhere in the Living
Product Challenge.
Section 3 | 10
1.0 Living Product Challenge Guidebook | April 2015
WATER
NET POSITIVE
WATER
IMPERATIVE
03
HANDPRINTING
IMPERATIVE
Section 3 | 11
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REQUIREMENT
Water use and release from manufacturing the product must work in harmony
with the natural
water flows of the site and its surroundings. 100% of the product’s manufacturing water needs
must be supplied by captured precipitation or other natural closed loop water systems and/or by
recycling industrial water. Furthermore, all water used must be purified as needed without the use
of chemicals.
All stormwater and water discharge at the manufacturing facility where the product is made must
be treated on-site and managed either through reuse, a closed loop system or infiltration. Excess
stormwater can be released onto adjacent sites under certain conditions.
The manufacturer must use the Institute’s Footprint Calculator to assess and document the
water footprint and identify the five processes (key drivers) that make the largest contributions
to the product’s cradle-to-gate water footprint. The footprint assessment can be based on a Life
Cycle Analysis (LCA) for the product, performed by or for the manufacturer, or use the Institute
Footprint Calculator. If a prior LCA is used, the LCA should follow the ISO 14044 standard for a Life
Cycle Assessment being used in a third-party communication.
The manufacturer must develop and publicly share a three-year plan to reduce the product’s
water footprint and create a water handprint greater than the footprint through one or more of the
following strategies:
•Innovate to conserve or recapture more water across the life cycle of the product, compared
with the base case.
• Innovate within supply chains to conserve or capture water.
•Engage with users to achieve water conservation and/or restoration through improved use of
the product.
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CLARIFICATIONS
SITE WATER CLARIFICATIONS
Refer to the Living Building Challenge 3.0 Water Petal Handbook for clarifications and exceptions.
CRADLE-TO-GATE
A manufacturer’s “gate-to-gate” impacts are those of its own operations. The first “gate” is the in-gate, while
the second gate is the out-gate. The “upstream” impacts are those of the entire supply chains of all the inputs
the manufacturer needs to use to make a product. “Cradle-to-gate” is the sum of the upstream and gate-togate impacts.
LIFE CYCLE ANALYSIS
ISO 14044:2006 covers life cycle assessment (LCA) studies and life cycle inventory (LCI) studies. The ISO
14044:2006 specifies requirements and provides guidelines for life cycle assessment (LCA) including:
definition of the goal and scope of the LCA; the life cycle inventory analysis (LCI) phase; the life cycle
impact assessment (LCIA) phase; the life cycle interpretation phase; reporting and critical review of the LCA;
limitations of the LCA; relationship between the LCA phases; conditions for use of value choices and optional
elements.
HANDPRINTING CASE STUDY
A toilet manufacturer innovates the design of a toilet to
reduce the gallons per flush from 1.4 to 1.28, without any
other change in functionality (actual or perceived) for the
customer. The estimated savings in water use per year is
650 gallons per year, or 2550 liters per year. There are
minor impacts to the manufacturing of the toilet required
to implement the design innovation, which must be taken
into account using life cycle assessment (LCA).
An LCA of the toilet pre- and post-innovation shows that
the pre-consumer water footprint is 9800 liters, and the
post-innovation water footprint is 9950 liters—an increase
of 150 liters. There are other impacts of the innovation on
other pre-consumer footprints (e.g., for energy and climate
and other impact categories) but those are not part of the
Net Positive water assessment.
The new water footprint of the toilet is thus 9950 liters.
The water handprint of the innovation accumulates during
each year of product use, at the rate of 2550 liters per
year. After four years of use, the cumulative handprint
reaches 10200 liters, which exceeds the manufacturing
footprint and makes the toilet Net Positive.
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ENERGY
NET POSITIVE
ENERGY
IMPERATIVE
04
HANDPRINTING
IMPERATIVE
Section 3 | 14
1.0 Living Product Challenge Guidebook | April 2015
REQUIREMENT
105% of the energy used to produce the product in its final form must be generated from on-site
renewable energy on a net annual basis.
The manufacturer must use the Institute Footprint Calculator to assess and document the energy
footprint of producing the product, and identify the five processes (key drivers) that make the largest
contributions to the product’s cradle-to-gate energy footprint. The footprint assessment can be based
on a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) for the product, performed by or for the manufacturer, or use the
Institute Footprint Calculator. If a prior LCA is used, the LCA should follow the ISO 14044 standard for
a Life Cycle Assessment being used in a third-party communication.
The manufacturer must develop and publicly share a three-year plan to reduce the product’s energy
footprint and create an energy handprint greater than the footprint through one or more of the
following strategies:
• Innovate to conserve energy or generate renewable energy across the life cycle of the product.
• Innovate within supply chains to conserve energy or generate renewable energy in the supply chain.
• Engage with users to achieve energy conservation through improved use of the product.
CLARIFICATIONS
Cradle-to-Gate
A manufacturer’s “gate-to-gate” impacts are those of its own operations. The first “gate” is the ingate, while
the second gate is the out-gate. The “upstream” impacts are those of the entire supply
chains of all the inputs the manufacturer needs to use to make a product. “Cradle-to-gate” is the sum
of the upstream and gate-to-gate impacts.
Life Cycle Analysis
ISO 14044:2006 covers life cycle assessment (LCA) studies and life cycle inventory (LCI) studies.
The ISO 14044:2006 specifies requirements and provides guidelines for life cycle assessment (LCA)
including: definition of the goal and scope of the LCA; the life cycle inventory analysis (LCI) phase; the
life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) phase; the life cycle interpretation phase; reporting and critical
review of the LCA; limitations of the LCA; relationship between the LCA phases; conditions for use of
value choices and optional elements.
HANDPRINTING CASE STUDY
A manufacturer of a truck transmission has redesigned its product in ways that make it lighter in
weight and lower in friction so that it enables the trucks in which it is deployed to improve their
baseline fuel efficiency of 6.5 miles per gallon by 4-5%. The redesign also reduces the frequency with
which the lubricating fluid needs to be replaced.
A life cycle assessment of the product before and after the innovation shows that the innovation
roughly doubled the energy footprint of product manufacture (from 480 MJ per unit to 970 MJ per
unit), due primarily to the substitution of aluminum for steel. With an average annual usage of 125,000
miles, the use phase energy reduction of just 4.5% yields an annual energy handprint that is equal to
20 times the new product footprint! And this handprint grows with each year of product use, over an
expected product lifetime of 10 years.
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PLACE
NET POSITIVE
MATERIAL
HEALTH
IMPERATIVE
05
HANDPRINTING
IMPERATIVE
05 Net Positive Material Health | 16
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REQUIREMENT
The product must be safe for human exposure during manufacturing, use and end-of-use.
There have been no reported deaths or serious injuries related to the final manufacturing of the
product within the last 12 months.
The manufacturer must identify the total mass of chemical substances contained in the product and
used during final manufacturing in each of five hazard categories in order to determine the Material
Health Footprint. The manufacturer must develop and publicly share a three-year plan to reduce the
product’s Material Health Footprint, and create a Material Health Handprint greater than the reduced
footprint through one or more of the following strategies:
• Innovate to reduce the amount of toxic chemicals in the product or used in its manufacture.
•Reduce the amount of toxic chemicals used in a company’s operations through preferential
purchase of Red List Free materials.
•Publish the results of a hazard assessment of a chemical that was not already publicly available, or
publicly share a green chemistry innovation.
CLARIFICATIONS
Determining Serious Injuries
The product is manufactured in a facility that has had, during the past year: no fatal injuries, and no
injuries with greater than 0.5 Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) <http://www.who.int/healthinfo/
global_burden_disease/ metrics daly/en/> over the expected duration of the injury. If expected
duration is permanent, use life expectancy in your country.
Process Chemicals
Process chemicals include only those chemicals used in manufacturing the product, as inputs to
processes within the manufacturing facility controlled by the company, and whose mass input is
greater than 1g per kg of product manufactured.
Chemical Hazard Bins
The Living Product Challenge defines five categories or “Bins” of materials based on health hazards
harmonized with the GreenScreen List Translator and Cradle to Cradle Certified Standard and the
ILFI Red List. They are color-coded, where Red is worst and Green is best. The total mass of chemical
substances in the product, including process chemicals per hazard category per kg of product, is
defined as the Material Health Inventory.
Red: Known to be of high concern, or else unable to rule out high concern. This includes chemicals
found on the ILFI Red List; The GreenScreen List Translator LT1, and LTP1; The GreenScreen
Benchmark BM1, Substances on the Cradle to Cradle Certified Banned List of Chemicals and Cradle to
Cradle Certified x-assessed substances (due to Carcinogenicity Mutagenicity Reproductive Toxicity
(CMR) concerns)
Grey - LT-Unknown and Cradle to Cradle Certified grey-assessessed substances
Orange: BM2, and Cradle to Cradle Certified x-assessed substances (non CMRs)
Yellow: BM3, and Cradle to Cradle Certified c-assessed substances
Green: BM4, and Cradle to Cradle Certified a/b-assessed substances
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Material Health Inventory
The Material Health Inventory for the highest hazard category or “Red Bin” (not to be confused with our Red
List, which is a smaller list of banned chemicals) is considered the product’s Material Health Footprint. It can
only be altered by a reduction in the quantity of one or more Red Bin chemicals, which are not accompanied
by an addition or increase in the quantity of any other Red Bin chemicals. This restrictive approach is intended
expressly to avoid incentivizing regrettable substitutions as companies move away from Red List materials to
other materials while not on the Red List, yet are still among Red Bin chemicals, and rather to incentivize shifts
to reliable, lower-hazard chemicals that are clearly marked improvements in material health.
HANDPRINTING CASE STUDY
Knauf Insulation is a manufacturer of insulation products. One of the
primary products they produce is fiberglass insulation. They created
a Material Health Handprint when they replaced the formaldehyde
binder in their product line with a bio-based alternative called
ECOSE® Technology. Formaldehyde is a known human carcinogen
and asthmagen, with particular impact to vulnerable populations.
As insulation, it can off-gas into the indoor environments of building
occupants and impact the health of construction workers and
manufacturers. Over time, those exposed to formaldehyde can
become sensitized and experience increasingly severe reactions.
Formaldehyde is both a Red List chemical and a chemical in the
Red Bin since it is identified as the Green Screen List Translator as
Benchmark 1.
Knauf replaced this Red Bin chemical with dextrose, commonly
known as sugar. This switch from a Red Bin chemical to a Yellow
Bin chemical (dextrose has been fully assessed and determined to
be a GreenScreen Benchmark 3 chemical) without a corresponding
increase in another Red Bin chemical, created an uncompensated
reduction that decreased the manufacturer’s Material Health Footprint
and created a Material Health Handprint.
Subsequently, all the major fiberglass insulation manufacturers in the
US have replaced formaldehyde as a binder in fiberglass insulation
with bio-based binders. Thus, Knauf’s green chemistry innovation has
helped to transform the entire insulation industry.
05 Net Positive Material Health | 18
1.0 Living Product Challenge Guidebook | April 2015
RESOURCES
Declare
A voluntary product labeling program where manufacturers disclose ingredient and material
health information.
declareproducts.com
Health Product Declaration
Standard reporting format for product ingredients and identification of health hazards.
hpdcollaborative.org
Pharos
A chemical and materials database and research tool that allows side-by-side comparison of products and
chemical formulations.
pharosproject.net
GreenScreen
GreenScreen® for Safer Chemicals is a method for comparative chemical hazard assessment.
greenscreenchemicals.org
Section 3 | 19
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MATERIALS
NET POSITIVE
CLIMATE
IMPERATIVE
10
CORE
IMPERATIVE
Section 3 | 20
1.0 Living Product Challenge Guidebook | April 2015
REQUIREMENT
Manufacturers must demonstrate that they have a three-year plan to achieve handprints that will be
bigger than the full greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint of producing the product.
The manufacturer must use the Institute Footprint Calculator to assess and document the carbon
footprint of producing the product, identifying the five processes that make the largest contributions
to the product’s cradle-to-gate carbon footprint. The footprint assessment can be based on a Life
Cycle Analysis (LCA) for the product, performed by or for the manufacturer, or use the Institute
Footprint Calculator. If a prior LCA is used, the LCA should follow the ISO 14044 standard for a Life
Cycle Assessment being used in a third-party communication.
The manufacturer must develop and publicly share a plan to reduce the product’s cradle-to-gate
climate footprint and then create a climate handprint greater than the footprint through one or more
of the following strategies:
• Innovate within the supply chain of the product to reduce GHG emissions.
• Innovate within the manufacturing process of the product to generate fewer GHG emissions.
• Engage with users to reduce GHG emissions through improved use of the product.
•Purchase a carbon offset equivalent to the cradle-to-gate GHG footprint of the product after other
options have been depleted.
CLARIFICATIONS
Cradle to Gate
A manufacturer’s “gate-to-gate” impacts are those of its own operations. The first “gate” is the ingate, while
the second gate is the out-gate. The “upstream” impacts are those of the entire supply
chains of all the inputs the manufacturer needs to use to make a product. “Cradle-to-gate” is the sum
of the upstream and gate-to-gate impacts.
Life Cycle Analysis
ISO 14044:2006 covers life cycle assessment (LCA) studies and life cycle inventory (LCI) studies.
The ISO 14044:2006 specifies requirements and provides guidelines for life cycle assessment (LCA)
including: definition of the goal and scope of the LCA; the life cycle inventory analysis (LCI) phase; the
life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) phase; the life cycle interpretation phase; reporting and critical
review of the LCA; limitations of the LCA; relationship between the LCA phases; conditions for use of
value choices and optional elements.
GHG Reducations
For example, by reducing the energy use throughout the product’s life cycle.
Acceptable Offsets
Carbon offsets must be CERs or VERs and be certified through an approved carbon offset program.
GHG Footprint Calculation
Calculated from the prior year sales, less the Positive Handprint Impacts.
10 Net Positive Climate | 21
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RESOURCES
Living Future Exchange
http://living-future.org/exchange
Green-e Climate Certified Carbon Offset Providers
green-e.org/getcert_ghg_products.shtml
HANDPRINTING CASE STUDY
Owens Corning manufacturers water heater blankets, which reduce standby energy losses from storage
water heaters. While the cradle-to-gate life cycle of each blanket requires energy and generates emissions of
greenhouse gases, the blankets save considerably more energy and emissions during their useful life than their
manufacturing generates. For a typical residential application in the US, the climate “payback time” (time by
which the greenhouse gas emissions savings have fully compensated for the greenhouse gas impacts of the full
pre-use life cycle) ranges from 1.4 to 3 weeks. And the blankets can last as long as a water heater itself, for which
13 years is an average lifespan.
In this handprinting example, no changes were made to the product itself, but a change with respect to business
as usual is introduced by the company in a different way. The change is introduced by a product donation,
combined with a novel “pay it forward” program design. The program enables additional blankets to be
purchased and installed using money captured from a small portion (nine months) of the energy cost savings
achieved by the initially donated blankets, and it requires that subsequent blanket installations follow the same
pay-it-forward dynamic. The initial product donation was 300 blankets, and the recaptured partial savings from
each blanket enables the purchase of two more blankets from each initially donated blanket. In this way, the
impact of the program doubles with each round.
A key aspect of this program is that none of the blankets purchased in this program would have been purchased
without the initial donation of 300 blankets, together with the administering of the pay-it-forward program.
Thus, the additional savings are a change to business as usual, brought about by the company. After sufficient
rounds of program expansion, more greenhouse gases have been saved by the donated and additionally
purchased blankets than the full footprint of the full annual production of this product, making the product
Climate Net Positive.
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BEAUTY
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UPSTREAM
SUPPLY CHAIN
IMPERATIVE
MANUFACTURING
SITE
DOWNSTREAM
USER IMPACT
HANDPRINTING
IMPERATIVE
Section 3 | 23
1.0 Living Product Challenge Guidebook | April 2015
REQUIREMENT
The manufacturer must demonstrate that the product gives more than it takes over its entire life cycle,
meaning that its handprint is larger than its footprint in relation to one or more sustainability impact
categories: human health, climate, energy, water, waste or ecological impacts.
The Positive Handprinting Imperative is achieved when the manufacturer demonstrates that it is
achieving handprints that actually exceed the cradle-to-gate footprint of its product for at least one
impact category.
CLARIFICATIONS
Handprinting Plans
In meeting the Imperatives devoted to Net Positive Energy, Water and Climate, the manufacturer will
have already used the Institute Footprint/Handprint Calculator to assess and document the top five
processes contributing to its cradle-to-gate footprints for energy, water and climate. The Institute
Calculators also provide this information in relation to human health and ecological impacts. The key
drivers of a product’s footprint often provide clues or inspiration for the most powerful innovations
that will create positive impacts. living-future.org/lpc.
In addressing the above Imperatives, the manufacturer will also have developed and publicly shared
plans to create energy, water and climate handprints.
HANDPRINTING CASE STUDY
A manufacturer of heat-and-serve pasta meals purchased dried
pasta from suppliers as an input to producing its heat-and-serve
meals. It determined that by innovating the production process,
it could make a significant reduction in both energy and water
used in product production, as follows.
Dried pasta needs to be rehydrated by cooking, which requires
considerable energy and water. In addition, the drying of the
initially produced pasta also requires considerable energy input.
The manufacturer conducted an LCA of an alternative scenario
in which pasta was produced on-site, and the fresh (not dried)
pasta was used directly in preparing the meals. The reduction
in total cradle-to-gate energy used to produce the meals (their
energy footprint) was on the order of 40%, while the reduction
in the product’s water footprint was on the order of 10%.
By spreading the innovation to several other product lines
produced by the company, the full energy and water handprints
of the innovation exceeded the respective energy and water
footprints of the originally innovated product, making it Net
Positive for both energy and water.
18 Positive Handprinting | 24
LIVING PRODUCT
CHALLENGESM 1.0
GUIDE: HANDPRINTING
APRIL 2015
living-future.org/lpc
[email protected]
April 2015