Tile Council of North America (TCNA) announced publication of its Material Ingredient Guide at Coverings 2021.

This Material Ingredient Guide, the first of its kind by any building product industry, provides information about the material ingredients used industry-wide by North American tile, mortar, and grout manufacturers, provides in-depth health assessments of those materials, and is a resource for manufacturers to use when providing the content and chemical makeup of their products or "material ingredient transparency”.

In developing this guide, 17 manufacturers collaborated on the largest crowdfunded collection of GreenScreen Assessments to date for the following two purposes: 1) Obtain GreenScreen Benchmark Scores (listed within the guide) for the vast majority of material ingredients used by ceramic tile, mortar, and grout manufacturers, 2) Facilitate referencing these benchmark scores and associated GreenScreen Assessments when developing Manufacturer Inventories (MI) and/or Health Product Declarations (HPD) that qualify for contribution to green and healthy building "optimization" credits.

“Product ingredient disclosure is in high demand,” stated Dan Marvin, senior vice president of operations for Ironrock and Chairman of TCNA’s Green Initiative Committee. “Through development of the Material Ingredient Guide, the tile industry is committed to thoroughness, consistency, and transparency in reporting information about the materials from which our products are made.”

Authored by Tennessee-based WAP Sustainability, they worked with dozens of organizations while creating this guide to bring clarity and structure to the complicated subject of material ingredient transparency. Resulting from TCNA's and its members' investment in disclosing industry-wide material ingredient information, suppliers and users of ceramic tile, mortar, and grout will have a more thorough and uniform understanding when specifying products in accordance with green and healthy building standards.

With a consistent, thorough, and transparent approach to material ingredient reporting and the compilation of referenceable GreenScreen Assessment Benchmark scores on industry-wide materials, TCNA members aim to have the largest number of fully assessed material ingredient reports in the market. These fully assessed reports will make ceramic tile, mortar, and grout products eligible for contribution to LEED, WELL, and Living Building Challenge “optimization” credits. Never before has an industry provided this level of transparency, leading to an industry-wide spectrum of products becoming eligible for these optimization credits.

TCNA’s Material Ingredient Guide initiative amplifies the North American ceramic tile industry’s unified message of health and environmental sustainability already well-established through initiatives such as industry-wide Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and Green Squared product certification. As Wes Sullens, director of LEED for the U.S. Green Building Council commented when the project was announced in 2020, “The result of this collaboration within the tile industry will push the market forward and spark even greater innovation and consideration for healthier indoor environments. This work provides the marketplace with key information needed by those pursuing LEED green building certification as they select products.”

Download the TCNA Material Ingredient Guide here.