Benson Gabler | Trim Tab

Towards a Regenerative Economy

Benson Gabler — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 16:02:00 +0000

Monmade Supports Product Pipelines

In almost every sector and industry, especially as they are undergoing change, gaps in the flow are revealed. Monmade, a network of small manufacturers and makers in Pittsburgh and the surrounding area, is an example of an organization that sprang to life to fill such a gap—to become the connective tissue in the material flows that are crucial to the built environment community. Monmade cultivates a network of artisan makers and small manufacturers who produce furniture, fittings, and other products that are designed and made with sustainability and equity in mind—and fueling the local and regional economies.

Fabware Large Ellipse Pantry Pull by Tenderwerks. Image courtesy of Monmade.

According to Monmade’s Director, Katie Schaible, “Monmade is a consultancy for developers and architects. We help elevate their work by sourcing things that are made in an equitable and sustainable way. There is tremendous demand for these goods, but owners and design teams don’t have time to seek them out one item at a time. That’s where we come in. We go beyond what furniture dealers would supply. We have a tremendously rich network of businesses, artisans, and makers.”

“Monmade is a consultancy for developers and architects. We help elevate their work by sourcing things that are made in an equitable and sustainable way.”

Color Pops Wavy Edge Long Wall Planter by Safran Everyday. Image courtesy of Monmade.

Monmade began with a vision to create a regional marketplace that activated a network of craft businesses producing products that add value to new building projects. Monmade grew out of emerging trends in real estate development, workforce development, revenue-generating potential of modern manufacturing, and an increased consumer desire for transparency in production. “We bring artisan design to market and support regionally sourced, responsibly made, and environmentally conscious products for design and development projects,” Schaible says. “We believe that when creative businesses contribute to transformative design projects, their businesses expand and help diversify the regional economy.”

Light LInes Bell Pendants by Jessica Alpern Brown. Image courtesy of Monmade.

Monmade specializes in custom design solutions from our network of artisan producers. We offer planning, procurement, and integration services to help architects and developers maximize impact and minimize the challenges of working with a variety of specialized small businesses. This is nourishing the pipeline of makers, and even nourishing their communities, too: “many of the makers in our network operate studios in low-to-moderate-income neighborhoods,” Schaible explains, “which is helping them to revitalize organically.”

Working closely with ILFI over the past several years, Schaible and her team have helped nurture a number of Declare labels. The most recent batch these came through Monmade’s Green Leap program. A cohort of maker businesses joined the program to learn how to make sustainable business decisions and how to tell those stories. “We are thrilled that ILFI has a desire to help make the Declare label process more applicable to small manufacturers,” says Schaible. “We hope the collaboration will continue.” The four Declare labels that came from this program are: Steel Plant Holder by Safran Everyday, Hardware Collection by Tenderwerks, Acrylic Light Lines Shade by Jessica Alpern Brown, and Reilluminate Pendant Glass Shade by Spacapan. These products will be used in the affordable housing project (learn more here and here) in Pittsburgh’s Hazelwood neighborhood by Rothschild Doyno Collaborative for the City of Bridges Community Land Trust.

“We believe that when creative businesses contribute to transformative design projects, their businesses expand and help diversify the regional economy.”

Square Reilluminate 3-Pendant Canopy by SPACAPAN. Image courtesy of Monmade.

ILFI’s Materials team supported Monmade’s cohort of businesses to teach them about the Declare process, collect ingredient data, input and submit for approval via Toxnot, and finalized Declare labels in time for an exhibit last year featuring Monmade’s Green Leap collection of products. “It takes some time to ramp up companies on new processes,” Schaible says. “There is a learning curve on synthesizing the information and translating things into viable applications for Declare labels. Partnering with ILFI has been critical as we bring these businesses into the mindset of transparency and clarity around their environmental and social practices.” ILFI is also supporting artisans through the renew process this year. This recent work, building on the ongoing collaboration between Monmade and ILFI, continues this year through support from The Heinz Endowments.

The Heinz Endowments seeks to help our region thrive as a whole and just community and, through that work, to model solutions to major national and global challenges. The foundation is devoted to advancing its vision of southwestern Pennsylvania as a vibrant center of creativity, learning, and social, economic, and environmental sustainability. Its work is supported by reliable data based on equitable, results-focused goals to cultivate a world where all are treated with fairness and respect and have the opportunity to reach their fullest potential.

Cover photo courtesy of Monmade.

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Do you want to be part of making lasting change? Around the world, there is a community of people working towards a living future every day. In ways great and small, they are changing minds, overcoming obstacles, and bringing ambitious projects to life. Individually, they cause ripples that show what’s possible. Collectively, they envision the regenerative future that we all want. Will you join us in this transformative work? Your donation to the International Living Future Institute equips us to assist this community with programs, technical support, events, education, and more. Your donation will help us realize the possible together.

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Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Living Building is a Pebble in a Pond

Benson Gabler — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 18:58:16 +0000

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) has had a very long relationship with the International Living Future Institute. This is not surprising, because the missions of both organizations are aligned. To understand how ILFI and the Living Building Challenge have impacted CBF, we spoke with Mary Tod Winchester, who worked with CBF, first as a volunteer, and then on staff for more than 40 years before stepping down a few years ago. CBF has been focused, since its founding in 1967, on bringing together the community to address environmental issues and empowering the next generation of citizens through environmental education programs in the Chesapeake Bay.

Raising the Bar

CBF has been manifesting its vision in its own facilities for years. Its first education center was a log cabin, built with donated logs. In the late 1990s, the team wanted to build a new headquarters, The Philip Merrill Environmental Center, opening in late 2000 and designed by SmithGroup, broke boundaries and proved a leading-edge example. In the years that followed, the organization continued to grow and learn. Its programs were expanding to the Hampton, Norfolk, and Virginia Beach area, and soon, the idea of a second environmental center in that area began to take shape. This eventually became the Brock Environmental Center, the home to the CBF’s lower Bay programs — education, outreach, advocacy, and restoration initiatives. The center is located in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where the Chesapeake Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean, an ecologically vital area to the Bay ecosystem.

©️ Prakash Patel

A New Paradigm

Winchester began to explore the Living Building Challenge program as CBF began to look at properties in the Virginia Beach area with their SmithGroup design team. Winchester also brought Jason McLennan, then leading ILFI, and Beth Heider, then with Skanska, CBF’s owner’s representative, to see the site. “That was the beginning of our relationship with ILFI,” Winchester says. “They were so helpful as we went through the entire process to design and build the facility [that would become the Brock Environmental Center]. We bought 10 acres, and sited the building back from water and up high for resilience. ILFI helped us realize that this is more than ‘reducing our impact on the environment’ it is about giving back. We harvest more green energy than we use, and this feeds into the grid.”

©️ Prakash Patel

One Building’s Ripple Effect Potential

Winchester remembers Beth Heider talking about the idea of a pebble in a pond as the concept for how this building could have an immense ripple effect. “The Brock Environmental Center is our pebble in a pond. It has done more than any of us could have imagined at the time.”

Winchester recalls that funders were inspired by the plan to create a facility that would be an icon — and have a resonating impact. “They all want to be a part of that,” she says. “ILFI was a big part of helping to create the vision.” The team included key champions such as Greg Mella, FAIA, of SmithGroup, and Tyler Park of Hourigan Construction. “We learned with Merrill before that when you are pushing boundaries, you need a team that really works well together,” she says, “and believes in the vision. Our board supported the notion that we would break a lot of boundaries. Will Baker was president at the time and he helped us keep asking ‘what if we did this’ — to keep pushing harder. We all knew that we wanted to create the best building we could, and we couldn’t have done this without ILFI. They were the backbone of the effort.” Testimony to the immense effort of the team, the Brock Environmental Center was fully certified under Living Building Challenge 2.0. It was, at completion, one of the only commercial buildings in the world to achieve Living Certification and create its own drinking water from rainwater.

©️ Prakash Patel

Facility as Teaching Tool

The building’s ripple effect is still in play. Winchester says that it’s not just individual visitors who learn and take away things that make a difference. “Until recently, we didn’t realize how many businesses and universities are using the Brock Center as an example of the leading edge.” CBF runs tours of the building and now the City of Virginia Beach has a classroom there for their Environmental Leadership Program for high school students. “We are thrilled that the facility itself has become a teaching tool,” she says. “And the building itself is performing better than we had imagined it could. It’s helping us all keep learning.”

HyperFocal: 0

Learn more from our Case Study and this Ecotone book, Brock Environmental Center for a Living Chesapeake.

Cover photo: ©️ Prakash Patel

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Exploring the Growth of Our Programs

Benson Gabler — Mon, 07 Aug 2023 20:15:54 +0000

2023 Midyear Stats and Takeaways

Now that we’ve hit the midyear milestone, the Institute is pleased to share high level stats and takeaways around the growth of our programs.

BUILDINGS

CORE, LIVING BUILDING CHALLENGE, ZERO CARBON, and ZERO ENERGY

In the first half of 2023, 12 projects achieved certification (1 Living, 5 Petal, 1 Zero Carbon, and 5 Zero Energy), including:
- Phipps Exhibit Staging Center (Living Certified) – This 10k sq.ft. renovation in Pittsburgh, PA, transq.ft.ormed a dilapidated garage into a carpentry/prop shop, storage, wellness studio, and office space for Phipps Conservatory & Botanical Gardens, which is the only organization to have two certified Living Buildings.
- Block 009 (Petal Certified) – This 130 sq.ft. single-occupancy home in Seattle, WA, is the first Affordable Housing project to achieve Petal certification. Facing Homelessness, which is a Volume client, aims to support people experiencing homelessness by placing a BLOCK Home on every residential block in Seattle.
- The Gulf State Park Interpretive Center (Petal Certified) – Created to address the devastation of both the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and hurricane Ivan, and enable visitors to connect to nature, this 5.5k sq.ft. center in Gulf Shores, AL, achieved an impressive 19 of the 20 Imperatives.
- PCC Downtown and Kirkland (Petal Certified) – PCC Community Market, another Volume client, recently added not one but two certified stores, roughly 20k sq.ft. each, to its portfolio of 5 projects that have each achieved the Materials Petal.
There are currently 186 certified projects, which range from 130 to 573k sq.ft. and represent a combined 5M sq.ft.. 33 of these projects have met all 20 Imperatives and 7 Petals to achieve Living certification.
In addition, 14 projects achieved Ready Designation so far in 2023 (1 Living, 2 Petal, 2 Core, 4 Zero Carbon, and 5 Zero Energy). At 1.1M sq.ft., Google’s Bay View is the largest project to achieve the Ready Designation milestone.
Here is a link to the full list of projects celebrated at LF23.
We currently have 610 actively registered projects, representing 52.2M sq.ft. and range from 100 to 5M sq.ft.. (More than 900 projects registered all time.)
These projects are primarily located in the US (69%), followed by Canada (5%), Australia (4%), New Zealand (3%), and Brazil, China, Ireland, Mexico, and the UK (1%).
You can find most of our certified and non-confidential registered projects on our Project Map. At this point, the map is not a comprehensive list. If you have a certified or registered project that is not on the map and wants to be included, please email maps@living-future.org and let us know.

MATERIALS

DECLARE and LIVING PRODUCT CHALLENGE

There are currently 40 active certified Living Products and 1,200 active Declare labels (20% increase over last year), including 719 Red List Free (RFL) and 304 Red List Approved (RLA).
These products represent 42 CSI divisions (product types) with the fastest growth from the lighting sector.
We are seeing growing interest in products further up the supply chain that can become parts of other RLF or RLA finished goods. Examples include Mycocycle’s mycelium-gypsum composite, Moore & Giles’ olive-tanned leather, and Carnegie Fabrics Bio Xorel Fabric, which recently achieved recertification under the Living Product Challenge.

ORGANIZATIONS

JUST

In the first half of 2023, we registered 42 new Just organizations, which was 2x higher than the same period last year.
There are currently 174 active Just labels, representing a total of 27,000 employees and ranging from 1 to 6,800 employees.
These firms represent 14 industries. By number of labels, architecture firms represent more than half of the participating organizations, followed by consulting and engineering. By number of employees represented, construction contributes slightly more than architecture (36% vs 29%), followed by manufacturing at 17%.
These firms are based in 12 countries. The vast majority are in the US (87%), followed by Canada, Australia, and New Zealand (2-3% each).

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ILFI Celebrates 15 New Beacons of Change

Benson Gabler — Mon, 15 May 2023 18:09:23 +0000

Certifications from Alabama to Spain include Cal Guerxo, 32nd certified Living Building and 1st in Europe, and Block 009, first affordable housing project

“Buildings have the power to change minds and culture,” noted Lindsay Baker, CEO of the International Living Future Institute in her opening address at Living Future 2023. With that in mind, the Institute celebrated new beacons for change recently, in communities from Alabama to Spain.

At Living Future which was held this year in Washington, D.C. on May 3-5, we celebrated these beacons that achieved their Ready designation or final certification since our last gathering. This year’s cohort included 15 certified and 9 Ready designated projects, ranging in size from one of our smallest to our largest ever recognized. While predominantly domestic projects, mostly based on the West Coast, the cohort includes firsts in Alabama, Antigua, France, Missouri, and Spain. We were also thrilled to announce the first affordable housing project to achieve Petal Certification under the Living Building Challenge.

15 building projects were honored for achieving certification:

Cal Guerxo, Bresca, Spain – Living Certified
Block 009, Seattle, WA – Petal Certified (Water, Energy, Materials)
Gulf State Park Interpretive Center, Gulf Shores, AL – Petal Certified (Water, Energy, Materials)
Environmental Nature Center Preschool, Newport Beach, CA – Petal Certified (Energy)
Inspire at Russell W Young Building, Seattle, WA – Petal Certified (Energy)
PCC Downtown, Seattle, WA – Petal Certified (Materials)
PCC Kirkland, Kirkland, WA – Petal Certified (Materials)
Zero One, Malibu, CA – Zero Carbon Certified
Boston Building Resources, Boston, MA – Zero Energy Certified
City of Countryside City Hall and Police HQ, Countryside, IL – Zero Energy Certified
Fellow Hall, Williams College, Williamstown, MA – Zero Energy Certified
Navigate Office Center, St. Louis, MO – Zero Energy Certified
Santa Ysabel Nature Center, Santa Ysabel, CA – Zero Energy Certified
Town of Medway Department of Public Works, Medway, MA – Zero Energy Certified
University of Illinois ECE Building, Urbana, IL – Zero Energy Certified

Another nine projects have achieved Ready Designation by completing the Ready Audit after construction. These projects will undergo a Final Audit after a 12-month performance period:

PAE, Portland, OR – Living Ready
Google Bay View Campus, Mountain View, CA – Petal Ready (Water)
Muhlenberg College Fahy Commons, Allentown, PA – Core Ready
Pier 56, Mithun Office Seattle, WA – Core Ready
Catalyst, Spokane, WA – Dual: Zero Energy + Zero Carbon Ready
DBS Newton, Singapore – Dual: Zero Energy + Zero Carbon Ready
Moissy 2 DC1, Moissy Cramayel, France – Zero Carbon Ready
SCA5, Amazon Same-Day Fulfillment Center, Sacramento, CA – Zero Carbon Ready
Antigua Solar Cabin, Jumby, Antigua – Zero Energy Ready

In addition, one community achieved Vision Plan Compliance, which is the first milestone under the Living Community Challenge and supports the coalescence of a community around a common vision.

Verandah Living, British Columbia, Canada – Vision Plan Compliance

The cumulative impact of these projects, which represent 3.5M square feet, is impressive.

Generate over 31,000 kW of renewable energy annually from on-site photovoltaics.
Save more than 7.2M gallons of water compared to their baselines.
Installed 181 Red List Free or Red List Approved Declare products and sent 1,100 letters to manufacturers to advocate for ingredient transparency, emissions testing, and better chemistry.
Contributed to 14 new Just labels, representing organizations in our industry that are committed to optimizing policies that improve social equity and enhance employee engagement.
Donated $200,000 to community-based nonprofit organizations focused on equity and inclusion.
Welcome more than 63,000 visitors annually, and hosted 2,700 tours to share successful solutions and catalyze broader change.

With these new certifications, ILFI now has 187 certified projects located in 11 countries and 32 U.S. states, each changing hearts and minds. Cal Guerxo is our 32nd certified Living Building and first in Europe. To learn about these projects, we invite you to check out our Project Map and Case Studies (please note that some case studies are still in development and will be posted as soon as they are available). Finally, if you would like to follow in the footsteps of these certified projects, plus 600 more that are actively pursuing certification, we encourage you to visit our Project Registration page or email sales@living-future.org to learn more about how to register a project.

The International Living Future Institute’s suite of building standards serve as a framework to help make the path to regenerative buildings clear and measurable, and to catalyze our sector to develop a collective vision of industry transformation. They are both a philosophy to allow us to imagine the future and start identifying how these ideas translate to practice, and an advocacy tool to push public and private policy towards alignment with science and best practices. In addition, they are a certification system that allows us to recognize buildings that serve as beacons for change and inspiration.

The ECE Building at the University of Illinois, which achieved Zero Energy Certification, has over 950 solar panels on its roof to help offset its high energy demands.

Created to address the devastation of both the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and hurricane Ivan, the Gulf State Park Interpretive Center allows beach goers in Alabama to encounter a building powered by the sun, that harvests and purifies water, and that floats above a restored dune scape. The project achieved 19 of 20 Imperatives to earn Petal Certification under the Living Building Challenge.

Block 009, which looks to shift the paradigm of homelessness by bringing the community closer to people experiencing homelessness, is the first affordable housing project to achieve Petal Certification under the Living Building Challenge.

Cal Guerxo, an extensive renovation of a 1,000+ year old single family home in Spain, is the oldest building certified to any ILFI program and first certified Living Building in Europe.

Photo Credit: Iwan Baan
At 1.1M square feet, Google Bay View, which earned Petal Ready designation, is the largest project to achieve an ILFI certification milestone. This building has the largest geothermal pile system in the U.S. and is already recognized for its iconic solar “skin” roof.

Header photo by www.JessicaYurinko.com

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LIVING PRODUCTS SHINE AT NEOCON 2019

Benson Gabler — Thu, 11 Jul 2019 22:32:58 +0000

Declare and the Living Product Challenge (LPC) were on full display at NeoCon 2019 last month in Chicago. For those who are not familiar, NeoCon is the commercial design industry’s launch pad for new products, such as fabrics, flooring, and furniture, from more than 500 exhibitors. We utilize this event as an opportunity to connect with our existing partners, build relationships with new manufacturers, and promote the specification of healthier products to thousands of interior designers and property owners.

Moore & Giles NeoCon 2019 showroom highlighted its Red List Free Declare labels for its leather tanned with leaves that are a byproduct from olive production (credit Alex Muller)

Most notably, NeoCon 2019 featured the announcement of new Living Products!

Carnegie Fabrics achieved its first Living Product certification for its Xorel Bio Fabric (Imperative Certification under LPC 1.1). Building on a long history of commitment to sustainability, PVC-free offerings, and being a registered B Corp, Carnegie Fabrics earned its LPC certification by measuring and disclosing the product’s Footprints, achieving a Third Party Verified Red List Free Declare label, and electing to utilize FSC Certified wood and paper packaging, among other requirements. The company is already looking for pathways to Petal or Living Certification to continue its journey.

“Carnegie has really benefited from the entire Living Building Challenge process,” said Cliff Goldman, President of Carnegie Fabrics. “It has given us a deeper understanding of how all aspects of our product can affect the planet. Neocon was a great opportunity to tell our story to groups of clients who are committed to the great goals of LBC.”

Xorel Bio Fabric, a plant-based product with a significantly reduced carbon footprint, is Carnegie Fabrics’ first Living Product certification (credit Carnegie Fabrics)

And Mohawk Group continues its Living Product leadership by certifying the first products under the LPC 2.0 standard, which is even more holistic and stringent than previous versions, and achieving the first Platform Certification. Platform certification is a new pathway that allows manufacturers to certify many products at once. Mohawk’s Nylon Modular Carpet on Ecoflex NXT Backing (Petal Certification under LPC 2.0) platform covers approximately 50 individual collections and represents more than 300 products. By scaling its certification from product-by-product to platform, Mohawk has dramatically ramped up their Handprinting actions to demonstrate Net Positive Water, Energy and Carbon.

“With the introduction of the first Living Product in flooring, our Lichen Collection, in 2017, we embarked upon a difficult but ultimately satisfying path toward sustainability. The success of Lichen spurred us on to create more Living Products, and in 2018, we expanded our portfolio of carbon-neutral Living Products to six,” stated George Bandy, Chief Sustainability Officer at Mohawk Group. “At this year’s NeoCon, we have announced that we have made a giant leap to become a major source of sustainable flooring — all carpet tile products manufactured in our Glasgow plant with ColorStrand and/or Duracolor fiber and EcoFlex Matrix, EcoFlex NXT or EcoFlex NXT AIR carpet tile backing are officially certified as Living Products.”

One certified Living Product highlighted this year in Mohawk Group’s showroom was Relaxing Floors, a modular carpet system that uses fractal design as the basis of its patterning (credit Mohawk Group)

In addition to these exciting additions to the growing number of Living Products, the ILFI team was on the move at NeoCon. Alex Muller, ILFI’s Living Products Manager, presented on LPC at two packed seminars, including one with Jane Abernethy, Chief Sustainability Officer at Humanscale, and George Bandy.

Alex Muller kicks off her NeoCon 2019 seminar, “Net Positive Materials: The Present and Future of Sustainability,” that showcased Humanscale’s and Mohawk Group’s success in creating products that make Handprints larger than their Footprints (credit Benson Gabler)

Along with Alex, Andrea Cooper, ILFI’s Associate Director of Programs, and Benson Gabler, ILFI’s Director of Outreach, guided tour groups through seven showrooms to highlight manufacturers that are leading the industry through their commitments to Red List Free Declare labels and Living Product certification. Named by Interior Design as one of the top 10 things not to miss at NeoCon, the tour featured 3Form, Carnegie Fabrics, HMTX, Humanscale, Mohawk, Tarkett, and Teknion, as well as a surprise guest – Jason McLennan, ILFI founder and board chair!

Mike Johnson, Director of Sustainability at 3Form, discusses the exciting work his company is doing to pursue the Living Product Challenge (credit Benson Gabler)

“Impact reductions are only one step in our larger goal of achieving Living Product Challenge certifications by making products that actually help restore the Earth, and enhance human well-being,” said Mike Johnson, Director of Sustainability at 3Form, which is currently pursuing certification. “With our Full Circle social equity program, biophilic designs, and other well-established sustainability initiatives, we feel we’re in a good position to take on the challenge, and that it’s our responsibility to push the limits, to show leadership and to begin to heal the planet while we still can… it’s the only place we have to call home.”

Jason McLennan, Chairman of ILFI and is the CEO of McLennan Design, talks about his collaboration with Shannon Specialty Floors on its Naturescapes line (credit Benson Gabler)

Tina Brennan, Senior Brand Director at Humanscale, shares her company’s pursuit of the first two Living Products to achieve all 20 Imperatives (credit Benson Gabler)

We are looking to build off the momentum and connections from NeoCon to grow the number of Declare labels and Living Products, and drive demand for specifying these materials to create healthier spaces for all.

Cliff Goldman, President of Carnegie Fabrics (credit Benson Gabler)

George Bandy, Chief Sustainability Officer at Mohawk Group (credit Benson Gabler)

Valerie Molinski, Environmental Stewardship Manager at Tarkett (credit Benson Gabler)

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Tying the Knot on Material Reuse

Benson Gabler — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 19:52:45 +0000

In the wide world of material reuse, sometimes a solution is born from a chance meeting between conference sessions. It’s not the most magical stumble-upon-a-soul-mate encounter, but the real world dictates a more practical timetable. And that is how a bowtie entrepreneur and an office furniture maker became sustainability partners in crime.

The two manufacturers couldn’t occupy more different industries. Based in Pittsburgh’s Homewood neighborhood, Knotzland creates stylish bow ties from repurposed and reclaimed fabrics. “Upon understanding the harmful effects of the fashion industry,” said founder Nisha Blackwell, “Knotzland set out to divert as much textile waste as possible from entering landfills while raising awareness around the importance of conscious consumerism.” Knotzland is a startup venture, and all production is contained to one workshop.

On the other hand, Humanscale is a large furniture company committed to ergonomics and workplace well-being. It’s the first company to achieve all 20 Imperatives of the Living Product Challenge, and occupies several technologically sophisticated factories throughout the U.S. As Sustainability Coordinator Alex Tselepis casually walked through the convention center, he was instantly attracted to Knotzland’s display of bow ties.

“I happen to be a bow tie man, so I naturally drifted to the Knotzland display. The variety of materials and patterns was something unique to the bowtie experience.”

The connection was instantaneous. Nisha shared how she sourced her materials, partnering with artists, designers, and upholstery shops. Alex was looking for a solution for their textile waste problem. And so Knotzland’s first large-scale fabric partnership came to be.

“Humanscale is one of the leading companies in the Living Product space, and their remnants allow us to scale while adhering to our core commitments of sustainability and resource conservation. There is huge room for supply chain development as we all we understand our places in the circular economy,” explained Nisha.

Tackling some of the world’s biggest problems starts with some of the smallest collaborations. While competition may drive business, collaboration toward a common goal provides a sense of community, inspiration, and innovation.

Join us at the 2018 Living Product Expo this September 11 – 13, 2018, in Pittsburgh. To learn more and to register visit our website at: productexpo.living-future.org

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