AGC Glass Europe has earned another Cradle to Cradle CertifiedCM Silver certificate, this time for its Stratobel laminated glass and Stratophone acoustic glass ranges. This certification is further confirmation of AGC’s commitment to continually improve the environmental performance of its products. In 2010, AGC was the first European glassmaker to obtain a Cradle to Cradle CertifiedCM Silver certificate for its float glass and magnetron coated products. In December 2012, it was awarded the same level of certification for its decorative glass ranges. And recently, AGC’s Stratobel/Stratophone laminated glass products followed suit, marking the company’s third Silver. The rigorous Cradle to Cradle programme assesses a product’s overall sustainability throughout its life cycle. To obtain certification, the product must comply with stringent standards in five categories relating to health, safety and environmental protection: materials, re-use of materials, renewable energy, water stewardship and social fairness. Cradle to Cradle certification offers guarantees to the growing community of architects, specifiers and consumers demanding products whose sustainability has been assessed transparently and globally. These certified products enable the architects, designers and specifiers who use them to improve their projects’ ratings for certain international certifications. One example is LEED, where projects using Cradle to Cradle CertifiedCM products are eligible for points in the Materials & Resources Credit 4, Building Disclosure and Optimisation – Material Ingredients category of the new version 4. AGC’s Cradle to Cradle certification dovetails with a global approach designed to continually improve the environmental performance of its products and manufacturing processes. It complements three other approaches pursued by the company. The Life Cycle Assessment is a measuring tool for evaluating the environmental impact of products and production units. The carbon footprint helps to define the overall performance of greenhouse gas emissions caused by the organisation, its services, its products and its personnel. To ensure that continuous improvements are adopted across the group, AGC is supplementing its approach by having its plants ISO 14001 certified.
