Petal Deep Dive with the Materials Experts

Last week, Lisa Carey Moore, IES’s senior sustainability manager, and Matt Root, senior project manager, participated in the Living Building Challenge: Materials Petal Deep Dive workshop hosted by the USGBC and the Living Building Collaborative of New England. Lisa and Matt presented the broad overview of the Materials Petal, including its new Version 4.0 changes, while offering proven strategies for selecting and managing healthier building products as they make their way through the construction process.

Other participants included Jim Newman of Linnean Solutions, an experienced LBC practitioner, and the co-chair of the Living Building Collaborative of New England who gave an introduction to the standard and other ILFI programs. Kelly Haigh, AIA, IIDA, and partner of designLab, spoke to their firm’s collaborative approach to design and materials for the Living Certified Hitchcock Center of the Environment in Amherst, MA. Lisa Goodwin Robbins, a specifications writer with a focus on healthier materials work and experience with four LBC Materials projects, presented her insights on how contract documents need to be developed to achieve healthier materials goals. Jim Rogers rounded out the field of experts by sharing his best practices as a CM working on one of the largest projects pursuing the Materials Petal, including his role in educating subcontractors, and achieving sourcing and waste imperatives that are part of the petal.

A highlight of the workshop was when participants had to design a specific program area using LBC compliant or Red List free products from the Declare marketplace. The intent was to show them what was possible and to help them find solutions for product types that might not be easily identified as Red List free. Armed with this experience, all agreed that achieving LBC Materials Petal certification was possible!

Thanks to all who participated, for joining the movement to make healthier materials a reality for all projects!