by Mike Johnson and Ryan Smith
More than ever, sustainability is top of mind for designers and architects, but implementing green building standards can be confusing and overwhelming for both large and small businesses. In our latest inspirational CEU, Planet Forward: A Course in Optimized & Net Positive Materials, our team demonstrates to designers and architects the power they have to make positive changes to material selection and specifications in their practice. By the end, designers will walk away with an empowering tool kit in hand to implement company-wide policy procedures around material transparency and optimized products, ultimately benefiting both people and the planet.
We had the chance to speak with Alexandra Muller, Director of Collaborative Impact at mindful MATERIALS and former Associate Director of Standards & Policy at the International Living Future Institute, to incorporate relevant insight on the topic. Muller further expands on material transparency and provides a valuable perspective as an advocate for sustainability standards in the built environment.
Photos courtesy of LightArt
Starting with establishing sustainability policies in businesses, we demonstrate how firms can initiate change from within. You will be educated on developing and implementing new health and social purchasing policies and how to update workflow and specification language to ensure that everyone is adhering to new sustainability policies.
Creating Change from Within
The first step to advocating for change from within is establishing written policies for material attributes that your office will accept or prefer, including a statement with associated reasons. Written policies will help you, your colleagues, and your clients understand the benefits and save you significant time communicating with manufacturers and vetting products. Written policies can work in tandem with certifications aimed at highlighting material transparency like the Declare label. Muller explains the Declare label as essentially an ingredients label for products, further stating that “there is a huge need, especially with the building industry, to have more transparency about what goes into a product and what the health impacts are of that product.”
The next step is to create clear objectives. Is your primary goal to be protective of human health and safety? If so, will you ask for Declare labels or other ingredient disclosures? Is the protection of our Earth’s climate and natural resources your primary goal? If so, will you require Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) to compare products side by side for design and specification? Are you going to take a stand and give significant priority to manufacturers with optimized or net positive goods? Will you require manufacturers to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability before allowing them to provide any samples or present any information to your office? Will you have a target date to purchase only from those manufacturers who align with your ethics and goals?
Finally, discover what tools are available for your success. Industry tools already exist to help save you time finding materials that meet your new purchasing policies. Some are even free, such as mindfulmaterials.com, where you can find pre-screened sustainability documents all in one place and search for products that meet your preferences by material type, application, manufacturer, or other sustainability attributes.
How to Communicate with Manufacturers
Creating a positive feedback loop is essential for communicating with your manufacturers. To start, send a letter to your manufacturer’s sales representatives. The letter should clearly state the sustainability attributes you now require, along with any associated time frame and incentives or disincentives for participation. Then, tell manufacturers when you actually specify their sustainable materials. Feedback is powerful when manufacturers know designers specified their products — or not — because of your purchasing policies.
Muller says that, “Declare labels and other forms of transparency in this industry will become more and more commonplace as people ask for them. But starting that conversation with the manufacturer: asking what’s in their product, asking if they have a Declare label, that’s how we move the industry forward. Manufacturing moves by demand.”
Implement Your Policies into Your Workflow
Implement your policies into your workflow starts internally. Update your project workflow and specification language to ensure that your entire project team adheres to your purchasing policy.
It can also be powerful to update external communications and contractual language to educate your clients early on and acknowledge responsibilities. The beginning of a project may be your best opportunity to make sure an owner understands a resilient and healthy building’s real value. It’s also a good time to assign liabilities, should any party decide to “value engineer” by substituting products that do not have the healthy attributes you specify.
Now What?
It is important to advocate for education and in-house initiatives in order to continue your momentum. Use your new purchasing policies to design spaces that are healthy and restorative. Invite presenters and collaborators to your space for continuing education on green building frameworks, materials, and sustainability in practice. Create in-house initiatives to lessen your environmental footprint and consider becoming a net-positive operation yourself.
Will your office work toward removing more carbon than it generates, strive for zero waste, or become the next firm with social equity transparency? Will you inspire others by openly celebrating your successes in using materials and designs that create a better world?
The world is a gift, and as a community of building industry professionals, we can help perpetuate that for future generations using the power of optimized and net positive design and products. To quote from the legendary R. Buckminster Fuller: “Nature is a totally efficient, self-regenerating system. If we discover the laws that govern this system and live synergistically within them, sustainability will follow, and humankind will be a success.”
LightArt’s ‘Planet Forward: A Course in Optimized & Net Positive Materials’ is available for AIA +HSW and IDCEC credits. Click the link to learn more: https://lightart.com/ceus.
LightArt, a 3form company, is a custom lighting fabrication and design studio based in Seattle and Salt Lake City, combining the world of art and function to create unique, beautiful lighting solutions that inspire. For more information visit http://lightart.com or find the company on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Mike Johnson is the director of sustainability at 3form, and Ryan Smith is LightArt’s president and creative director.
