Feature image credit: Bartosz Zabek.
Alongside the many familiar TRUE credit categories, such as redesign, reuse and recycle, TRUE has always maintained a few credits to celebrate innovation—to recognize the creative work project teams do to achieve zero waste that isn’t covered in the rest of the rating system. Over the years, we’ve seen some incredible and innovative ideas brought forward by project teams, and these ideas have earned the projects a point in TRUE.
What can we do to make these ideas a part of TRUE and inspire even more innovation without changing the rating system or diluting the number of points? We’re happy to announce the launch of the TRUE Innovation Catalog—a place for project teams to find innovative strategies to use on their projects. Additionally, to support the use of this innovation catalog and provide greater flexibility to project teams, an addendum to the innovation category has also been released.
Where is it?
The TRUE Innovation Catalog resides on the TRUE resources page, along with the TRUE rating system, TRUE addenda, TRUE diversion data additional guidance and more. This resource will be updated periodically to ensure recent examples are regularly added.
What is in the TRUE Innovation Catalog?
You’ll find a few types of credits in the innovation catalog, including:
- Previous innovation credits—With the addenda released on Jan. 2, 2024, innovation credits 1 and 2 were removed from the rating system in favor of creating three "open innovation credits" to improve the flexibility of the category. Their text was moved to the catalog to ensure project teams can still pursue those two credits if desired.
- Historically accepted innovation strategies—There are strategies, such as running competitions among employees to encourage creative reuse, that have been used by project teams frequently and accepted as innovation credits. Some frequently used strategies that are not project specific and can be used more widely have also been included in the innovation catalog to serve as example actions project teams may pursue.
How do I use the TRUE Innovation Catalog?
The catalog is a reference resource that you can check for ideas on what to do with your innovation credits. We’ve included a description of what a real TRUE project did to achieve this action, as well as some examples of documentation they submitted. When it comes time to complete one of your project’s innovation credits, simply describe the action you took in a narrative and provide supporting documentation as needed, just like a standard innovation credit.