By now, you’ve likely at least heard of the Living Building Challenge, Living Product Challenge, Declaretransparency labels, and/or other rigorous certification standards created and governed by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI).
Progress in achieving ILFI’s standards has been slow and steady for good reason – achieving something this difficult and fantastic requires an unwavering, persistent dedication, relentless relationship-building, and time. Finally, the buildings, products, communities and other pieces of our lives are beginning to see and feel the benefits of achieving the ILFI standards.
At officeinsight, we’ve used our platform to urge readers to take interest in ILFI and its standards – check out our previously published articles on ILFI, appended to the end of this feature.
If the 4thLiving Product Expo, hosted by ILFI in Pittsburgh last week, had one message, it’s that the Living Product Challenge is finally gaining traction and entering the common nomenclature of architecture, design and manufacturing folks. This year at the Living Product Expo, attendees were greeted with intriguing keynotes and panels, a perfectly sized trade show floor, fun parties and seminars that open the door for frank discussion and practical, real-life use in the field.
Sustainability-minded people from product manufacturing and design companies of all kinds met to learn about and discuss topics within five learning tracks: Biomimicry + Biophilic Design; Creating Healthy Buildings; Green Chemistry + Health; Net Positive Products + Enterprise; and Social Equity + Supply Chain.
So what’s the latest at ILFI? Below are some key takeaways from this year’s conference.
>Declare, ILFI’s nutrition/ingredients label for products, is now attached to 807 products. There’s still a lot to do, but the pool of products and choices designers and architects have to work with inside IFLI parameters has grown quickly and will continue to do so.
>The newest version of the Living Product Challenge (2.0), was released on ILFI’s website Monday 9/10 on the eve of the conference, and can be downloaded here.
>When they speak to their higher-ups and clients, proponents of the ILFI’s Challenges – the people actually going through the process and trying to justify the cause – are zeroing in on the idea that socially and environmentally sustainable processes in businesses have a direct link to higher profits. As more companies and projects cycle through the program, evidence is stacking up in the form of hard numbers.
In speaking to Expo attendees on the first night, James Connelly, VP of Products + Strategic Growth at ILFI, quoted American economist Milton Friedman: “’There is one and only one social responsibility of business…to increase its profits.’ But that thinking is pitted against socially and environmentally positive processes in business.” And experiential-based consumerism is poking holes in Friendman’s limiting views.
“The idea of ‘commerce for connection’ is growing,” said Jane Hallinan, a speaker at the Expo and interior designer at Perkins Eastman. “Now, it’s not ‘build me a space.’ It’s, ‘Create an experience for me, something with empathy and accessability.’ People are looking for places that reflect their values and that feel like they’ve been created just for them.”
In contrast to Friedman’s views, Peter Drucker, a leader in management philosophy and effectiveness (and the man who first coined the term “knowledge worker in 1959), countered with something better: “The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.” Customers are becoming more vocal and specific about their wants and needs when purchasing products.
>Collaborative efforts around the Living Building Challenge and Living Product Challenge are launching the movement to a new level. The message at this year’s conference was clear: the way to go about achieving Living Products is through cross-industry partnerships (in both the most obvious and the most surprising places), so think outside the box when figuring out how to get though the challenge’s seven Petals and don’t let your brain short-circuit its own creativity and.
“You cannot make this kind of massive change without creating a peer-to-peer network that tips an idea into scale,” said Amanda Sturgeon, CEO of ILFI.
“The flow of transparency and the dialogue up to this point has been one-sided,” saidAlexandra Muller, Manager of the Living Product Challenge. “Manufacturers have been trying to lead the charge and create these products, but they weren’t receiving any feedback. They’re finally reaching out to designers and architects and asking them formally, ‘Are these products making their way into buildings?’ ‘Do you care about these products?’ ‘Do you like them?’ ‘If you do, then you need to show us by specifying them.’”
>For companies that have achieved the exhaustive Living Product Challenge, many of the processes the company had to put in place to achieve the Challenge in oneproduct, now remain in place for how they create their products moving forward.
“The certification for the Challenge is really just the beginning,” said Jane Abernathy, Chief Sustainability Officer of Humanscale, in a keynote panel discussion offering unique perspectives of companies working toward the Living Product Challenge. “It requires you to begin thinking about the longevity of the certification. It’s not just a one-off; this is now how we’re doing things. In going through the certification process, we put certain things into place that will remain. As an example, we had to make sure we trained every single engineer to be proficient in Red List knowledge, and that’s now a standard.
>The Expo’s Wednesday evening keynote panel included leaders from three companies who have achieved or are working toward the Living Product Challenge, discussing difficult issues they had to work through, benefits of going through the Challenge, and practical wisdom on how to get started. Featuring: Jane Abernathy, Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) at Humanscale; George Bandy, Jr., VP of Sustainability + Commercial Marketing at Mohawk Group; and Ryan Smith, President and Creative Director of LightArt, the panel offered advice for small businesses (that might not own their own plants and whose bosses might not know they’re going to do a Living Product yet!) on how to get started.
“First think about all of the easy steps – the things you might already be doing that are sustainability minded,” said Mr. Bandy. “Start to look into those things. Be strategic. Make a list of things you can do while flying under the radar, without attracting the attention of your higher-ups before it’s the right time. And when you do first speak to leadership, find ways to speak to the CEO about cost-lowering initiatives – sustainable goals you can propose that will also achieve more sales.”
“Grab the low-hanging fruit first, and then you can chew off bigger pieces as you,” said Ms. Abernathy. “Start with doing a Declare product, and pick an easier product to achieve the Declare label for. Then move up from there.”
LightArt is just starting down the path toward creating Living Products, and Mr. Smith gave examples of some of the struggles they’re working through:
“We had to find a PVC-free power cord, but they’re very hard to find. There are only two manufacturers in the U.S. who make one. After finding them, we started buying that power cord for use in all of our products. We also had an ingredient in our powder-coating that we couldn’t use because it’s on the Red List. We had to find another material to work with, and we brought it to our powder-coater, they’re now using that one instead of the old one with the Red Listed material. It’s just about making the decisions to implement these changes across your whole business. We’re reaching out to one of the biggest chemical companies in the world to ask about some of their sheets of recycled content, and now they’re getting interested in the Living Product Challenge and following up with us to learn more about it. We’re looping them in and furthering the conversation.”
>ILFI’s Zero Carbon Certification has registered 2,787,066 square feet of project space in its program. In addition to operational carbon, they will start to incorporate embodied carbon into the certification.
“Operational carbon refers to carbon dioxide emitted during the life of a building, from the ‘regulated’ and ‘unregulated’ loads associated with the use of a building,” clarified an FAQ resource on the subject by Faithful+Gould. “This includes the emissions from, say, the heating, cooling, lighting and ICT. Embodied carbon refers to carbon dioxide emitted during the manufacture, transport and construction of building materials, together with end of life emissions.”
“We have to figure out how to sequester carbon, use regenerative materials, pull carbon out of the sky and find a place for it, not just reduce it,” said Mr. Connelly.
ILFI’s conferences and other events sprinkled through the calendar are great opportunities get to know the programs, but also to meet and interact with the people who create them. These leaders in our industry are actively engaged in panels, seminar sessions and social events, keeping all ears open for how people are engaging with the standards and how they can make adjustments to help make the process easier. As anyone who’s working with ILFI to achieve the Challenges will attest, the practical support they offer to companies and firms working on Living Building Challenge and Living Product Challenge projects is invaluable.
“The regions and industries that previously hadn’t yet experienced the negative effects of our industrial production system are experiencing it now,” said Mr. Connelly. “People are starting to pay attention. Don’t think about products as just nouns. Think about their possibilities, the things those products have accomplished and will accomplish in the future.”
Ruth Ann Norton, the conference’s final keynote and President and CEO of Green & Healthy Homes Initiative, said, “Green is not [the same thing as] healthy. That’s what makes what ILFI and all of you are doing so important; you’ve answered the call to address the health along with the green side.”
https://officeinsight.com/sustainability/humanscale-and-the-living-product-challenge/
https://officeinsight.com/culture/ilfi-widens-circle-to-pilot-a-living-food-challenge/
https://officeinsight.com/events/living-product-expo-pittsburgh/
https://officeinsight.com/architecure-and-design/living-building-frick-environmental-center/
https://officeinsight.com/sustainability/ilfi-nbi-make-play-lead-zero-energy-movement/
