by Carlye Woodard

When asked to participate in the Living Future 2022 Conference panel presentation on the Volume Certification process IES developed with Williams College, I’ll admit I was skeptical about filling the allotted time with relevant information. Living Building Challenge (LBC) Volume Certification requirements had only recently been agreed upon, and represented a relatively small adjustment to IES’ overall process. The advantages of reusing compliant and audited products from a certifying campus project on subsequent campus projects seemed clear. Incorporating these previously researched and approved products into the campus standard just makes good common sense.

By shifting my thinking to the perspective of the audience—imagining an architect, CM, or college planning director just beginning the process of designing to LBC standards—I recognized that the process we have developed and the perspectives we have earned from multiple projects are perhaps the most valuable information I could provide.  Fortunately, the subject of process and best practices is something any of us on the IES team could talk about for hours!  Realizing the true scope provided a new challenge: condensing the wide angle view into the time constraints of the presentation.  

The materials research process, whether or not it is for a LBC certifying project, can seem complicated and involved, particularly for the uninitiated. The work does not fit neatly into any spreadsheet, which is why Red2Green, our healthier materials management platform, is so essential to our work. The value of being able to track decisions, communications, research progress and results in real time is incalculable in the process of determining as many approvable products as possible, particularly when we can accomplish this prior to spec writing.

By including clear product specificity in the specs, avoiding general performance language, and only including products that have been vetted and approved for use, we provide clarity to the trade partners and subcontractors to help them feel confident that they are understanding and following the goals of the project. As a follow up step, our “pre-submittal” process provides the confirmation that each product considered at this stage has been vetted and meets the requirements of LBC.

Future Williams College projects, including renovations and routine maintenance, will benefit from the investment in LBC for capital projects, which directly inform the updated college standards and improved specs. Each and every subsequent campus project will have a head start with a greater number of healthy, LBC compliant product options, building upon past efforts to meet the college sustainability and healthy environment goals. Stakeholders at the college can be confident that the lessons learned from LBC certifying capital projects are applied throughout the campus.

The advantages of the Volume Certification agreement that Williams College has pursued and begun to implement seem obvious. With the benefit of data and strategy based on years of experience, the process by which we choose, research, approve and document products that meet the healthy materials goals of the college is involved, but has proven to be achievable, effective and replicable. The truth about striving to use healthier building products in every building project—ultimately the goal of a Volume Certification process—is that we now know how to do it well. And in time, perhaps, it will all sound like common sense.