The companies below are examples of industry disrupters that will be at the Living Product Expo this September. Join us in Pittsburgh to learn how you can help transform your organization into a key influencer in human and environmental health. Register here.
Our homes are fraught with carcinogens. Endocrine disruptors, neurotoxins, and alaundry list of other types of harmful chemicals are likely in every room of your house. These toxins are in both the hygiene products in your medicine cabinet and also in the materials that make up your bathroom.
If a consumer was posed with the choice between a product that contains toxins or a comparable nontoxic product, one would imagine that the consumer would clearly choose the latter. Historically, chemical-free alternatives were not largely available, but recently, consumers are gaining ever-growing access to healthier options. Companies are learning that manufacturing healthy products is indeed marketable, cost effective, and a smart business practice.
You can now find healthier alternative products in standard retailers, ranging from household cleaners that contain innocuous ingredients like baking soda, to furniture that is free from halogenated flame retardant (HFRs) coatings.
Ingredients transparency gives consumers the option to make informed choices about the products they buy, and is a trend that is on the upswing. Below are a list of ten companies who are forging the craze toward a healthy materials economy.
- Health Care Without Harm: Works to transform health care worldwide so that it reduces its environmental footprint, becomes a community anchor for sustainability and a leader in the global movement for environmental health. Robin Guenther, Senior Advisor at Health Care Without Harm, will be joining us at this year’s Expo as a keynote speaker and exploring the importance of health care architecture and materials health.
- Humanscale: Humanscale, an ergonomic office products manufacturer, strives to improve health and comfort at work. Sustainability of both design and materials is at the heart of their work. Their commitment to sustainable products can be seen as they strive toward successfully completing the Living Product Challenge with their latest Diffrient Smart Chair and Float Table.
- Tarkett: As a global leader in sustainable flooring solutions, Tarkett upholds a four part strategy within their mission: use better materials, practice resource stewardship, create people friendly spaces, and reuse and recycle. With their 2020 Sustainability Roadmap, Tarkett is moving forward with their commitment for a circular economy and will closely monitor progress and initiatives across the company through their four pillars.
- Interface: The world’s largest manufacturer of modular carpet, Interface, is a catalyst in the redesign of the carpet industry. By moving away from petroleum intensive carpet and radically changing their production process, Interface products embody a commitment to sustainability. This commitment can be further witnessed in their bold new initiative Climate Take Back, a solutions based approach on climate change.
- Ecovative: A leading biomaterials company that grows high performance, Earth friendly materials, which unlike conventional synthetics, can have a positive impact on our planet’s ecosystem. Their natural Myco Foam Mushroom Packaging serves as a premium alternative to fabricated foam packaging.With mushroom materials, Ecovative is paving the way toward a green packaging industry.
- Herman Miller: A globally recognized furniture manufacture, Herman Miller believes that effective design can elevate the human experience. Many of their innovations are inspired by collaboration with customers. Nemschoff, a Herman Miller company, provides innovative furnishings for healthcare and other high-use environments. They believe that people make a difference and design can improve the way we work, heal and live.
- Skanska: As one of the world’s leading construction groups, Skanska builds for a better society and a sustainable future for people and communities. Skanska built the Bertschi Living Building Science Wing, a fully certified Living Building, and firmly believes in their role to lead through environmentally responsible innovation. Their Journey to Deep Green™ goes beyond formal compliance and serves as a strategic tool to measure and guide green activities.
© Benjamin Benschneider
- ZGF (Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects LLP): A design firm focused on architecture, interior design and urban design. ZGF’s design philosophy is centered on its premise that design excellence should be reflected in every aspect of a building -its fit with the community, it’s function and relationships to its users, its building systems and its cost.
- Owens Corning: Owens Corning develops, manufactures and markets insulation, roofing and fiberglass composites. Because expanding impact through sustainability is defined as a core value, Owens Corning’s products and people strive to make the world a better place. Their unbonded loosefill insulation for walls, attics, ceilings and floors, one of the world’s first certified Living Products, is both innovative and eco-friendly.
- Architecture 2030: A non-profit established in response to climate change crisis by Ed Mazria in 2002. Their mission is to rapidly transform the built environment from a major contributor of greenhouse gas emissions to a central part of the solution to the climate crisis. By 2030, their goal is to move toward carbon-neutrality for individual buildings, districts, cities, and building products.
You can learn more from these companies and other industry disrupters at the Living Product Expo this September. Join us in Pittsburgh to learn how you can help transform your organization into a key influencer in human and environmental health. Register here.
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