By Amy Johns, Senior Strategy Consultant
“Embodied carbon” refers to the greenhouse gases released in the manufacturing and transportation of something. As a rule of thumb, if a material requires combustion or melting in its manufacturing (think glass, concrete, steel), it’s high in embodied carbon. Plant-based materials tend to be lower in embodied carbon—or even carbon sequestering, depending on the supply chain.
Successfully installing healthier materials requires explicitly specifying acceptable products in the project documents. While not difficult, the design team must be more precise than usual by listing product model numbers—not simply manufacturers or product lines—and by specifying ancillary products such as adhesives, sealants and finishes. The R2G platform provides a structured product management tool that […]
NORTH ADAMS, MA—Green building services firm Integrated Eco Strategy (IES) and its team of Berkshire County researchers has helped Harvard University achieve Materials Petal certification in the Living Building Challenge (LBC)—the world’s most stringent green building performance standard—for a new Science and Engineering Complex (SEC) in Boston.
IES believes that seeking healthier building products presents substantial opportunities for addressing social, racial and environmental justice issues. Why?
By Lisa Carey Moore
We all have moments when our personal and professional lives intersect. For me a particularly poignant moment involved a couch and my first Living Building Challenge project. I was just starting research on products, learning about chemicals of concern and, more important, exactly where they are used in building products. Including furniture.
True progress on climate change requires government action, a notion perhaps best summarized by environmentalist Rev. Fred Small, “Changing a light bulb is good. Changing a senator is better.” However, for healthier materials policy is not the primary solution, as it is with climate change. Instead, when lawmakers regulate chemicals a common result is that manufacturers turn to regrettable substitutions, rather than identifying healthier chemical alternatives.
by Lisa Carey Moore
According to a 2020 AIA analysis of sustainability trends, 80% of architects would like to specify more sustainable materials. Yet, the study also showed that only one in three architects believe they are now meeting this responsibility. While there are many opportunities to succeed within architectural sections, specialty members of the design team can help achieve transformation goals too, including those involved in lab and commercial kitchen design, as well as with all major trades from landscaping to communications.
Dear Design Teams:
It’s 2021, a time for new beginnings. Let’s talk about our work — and I mean all of us — in achieving better building products for people and the planet. With the AIA’s recently reiterated Materials Pledge, we have heard the buzz around the design build community. But we’ve also heard from manufacturers, with whom my company interacts daily as a healthier materials research consultant, that the uptake on their healthier options remains slower than expected. We all know that demand is essential to market transformation, and critical to the equitable distribution of healthier products throughout the marketplace.
This inspiring and practical session features practitioners working deeply in the building product marketplace, each in their own way helping increase building product transparency and creating tools to help project teams take concrete steps for healthier materials. The group will discuss their essential strategies, and share thoughts on how to develop priorities for the next decade. And if you ask “Lisa” a question, be prepared to get three answers!
Greenbuild International Conference & Expo is moving its 2020 event to an all-virtual format. The capstone event will take place November 10-12, but ahead of that new Greenbuild single-day (live!) virtual Summits are providing deeper access to critical topics. Our own Charley Stevenson joins Danile DeBoo, Principal, and Premnath Sundharam, Global Sustainability Leader, both of DLR Group, and Jason Jewhurst, Principal, Bruner/Cott Architects, for Material Changes: Strategies to Create Healthier Buildings, during Greenbuild’s Health & Wellness Summit on October 22.