Understanding Certifications: What Cradle to Cradle, GreenGuard, Declare, and EPDs Mean for Your Project
March 18, 2025
In the pursuit of sustainable, high-performance buildings, certifications play a crucial role in ensuring that materials and products align with health, environmental, and transparency standards. At Mecho, we don’t just follow sustainability trends—we set them. Our commitment to material health, circular design, and product transparency is reflected in the certifications we pursue, ensuring that our shading solutions contribute to the well-being of occupants and the planet.
If you’re specifying shades for your next project, understanding the impact of certifications like Cradle to Cradle, GreenGuard, Declare, and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) can help you make informed decisions that support your sustainability goals. Let’s break down what each of these certifications means and why they matter.
Cradle to Cradle: Designing for a Circular Future
The Cradle to Cradle Certified® Product Standard is one of the most rigorous sustainability certifications available, focusing on product safety, circularity, and overall environmental impact. It evaluates materials based on five core categories:
Material Health
LEnsuring that materials are safe for humans and the environment.
Product Circularity
Designing for recyclability and reuse.
Clean Air & Climate Protection
Reducing carbon emissions and pollution.
Water & Soil Stewardship
Promoting responsible water and soil management.
Social Fairness
Supporting ethical and sustainable supply chains.
Mecho was a pioneer in Cradle to Cradle certifications, achieving this standard long before it became an industry norm. Each of our sustainability shade cloth collections meet Cradle to Cradle standards, offering a PVC-free, fully recyclable solution that promotes a circular economy.
Greenguard: Healthier Indoor Air Quality
Indoor air quality is critical for occupant health, especially in environments like schools, healthcare facilities, and offices. Greenguard certification ensures that products meet strict chemical emissions limits, helping to reduce indoor air pollution.
Mecho’s shading solutions meet Greenguard Gold standards, signifying that they contribute to cleaner air by minimizing volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions. When designing spaces for wellness and productivity, specifying Greenguard-certified products can be a key factor in achieving healthier interiors.
Declare: Radical Transparency in Materials
Sustainability isn’t just about what a product does—it’s also about what it’s made of. The Declare label, often called a “nutrition label for building materials,” provides full ingredient transparency, making it easy to see what’s inside a product and whether it contains any harmful substances.
Mecho is committed to material transparency, which is why our Declare-labeled shades disclose all material ingredients, ensuring they are free of Red List chemicals. By selecting Declare-certified products, designers and specifiers can confidently meet material transparency requirements for green building standards like WELL and Living Building Challenge (LBC).
Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs): Understanding Carbon Impact
As the building industry pushes toward lower embodied carbon, EPDs have become essential for evaluating a product’s environmental footprint. An EPD provides third-party-verified environmental data for each stage of a product’s lifecycle, measuring its impact from raw material extraction through manufacturing, use, and disposal.
All Mecho shade cloths have EPDs, allowing architects and designers to make informed choices about reducing the carbon impact of their projects. These declarations contribute credits to programs like LEED v4.1, providing the data needed for projects aiming to achieve sustainability benchmarks.
Specifying Certified Products for a Smarter Future
Selecting certified products is about more than just checking boxes—it’s about creating spaces that prioritize human health, environmental responsibility, and long-term durability. At Mecho, we integrate these certifications into our product development process from the start, ensuring that every shade we produce meets the highest sustainability standards..
Ready to specify shades that support your sustainability goals? Explore our certified shading solutions and elevate your next project with Mecho. Contact us today to learn more about how our Cradle to Cradle, GreenGuard, Declare, and EPD-certified shades can contribute to your project’s success.