Six Pilot Participants in the Declare Equity Program
Building on our previous announcement of Living Future’s launch of the Declare Equity pilot program, we are now excited to share more details about the companies participating in the pilot!
We are honored to partner with these six manufacturers. They work within five industries—wallcoverings, flooring, lighting, furnishings, and structural blocks—and they range in size from early-stage start-ups to global producers. Each is piloting a product within the program, helping to test what social equity can look like in practice.
Learn more about each pilot manufacturer, their products, and their motivations for participating in Living Future’s Declare Equity pilot program below!
Anduba
About Anduba
Anduba is a contemporary design platform that brings Indigenous art and worldviews into everyday life through the built environment. Founded by Flavia Pereira, Anduba partners directly with Indigenous artists across the Americas to create sustainable wallcoverings for commercial and residential spaces.
Each collaboration is built on long-term partnership and shared value. Artists earn royalties well above industry standards, paid on every sale, creating ongoing income while ensuring cultural knowledge remains visible and relevant in contemporary spaces. Rather than one-off projects, Anduba’s model is designed to support continuity—for artists, their families, and their communities.
Anduba operates as a small, founder-led company, working with a U.S.-based, family-owned printing partner. Wallcoverings are produced to order on PVC-free substrates, including options made from recycled plastic, allowing the company to reduce waste while meeting performance requirements for high-use interiors.
Why Anduba Is Participating in the Declare Equity Pilot
Anduba is participating in the Declare Equity Pilot because equity is embedded in how the company operates. The pilot aligns with Anduba’s belief that truly sustainable materials must be transparent not only about ingredients, but also about labor practices, cultural responsibility, and community impact. As a small business working closely with Indigenous artists, Anduba is committed to helping shape equity standards that are practical, accountable, and centered on people.
Hightower
About Hightower
For more than two decades, Hightower has elevated the way people work, learn, and connect through a curated house of brands and a commitment to meaningful design. At the core of its portfolio is Hightower Studio, the company’s in-house brand designed and manufactured in High Point, North Carolina. Alongside Studio, Hightower proudly partners with leading European brands including +Halle, Ocee & Four Design, and Ondarreta, offering a mix of imported, domestic, and partially domestic products tailored to modern commercial interiors. Family-founded and women-owned, Hightower is led by Chair/Co-Owner Natalie Hartkopf and President/COO Jenna Geigerman. Hightower is a certified Women Owned Business Enterprise (WBE).
Sustainability and responsible business practices are central to Hightower’s ethos. The company has signed The Climate Pledge and Hightower Studio is a certified B Corp, underscoring its commitment to balancing people, planet, and profit. Celebrated for innovation and design excellence, Hightower has earned esteemed industry accolades including Best of Competition at NeoCon, Metropolis Likes, and Interior Design’s HiP Awards.
Statement
Hightower is proud to partner with Living Future on the expansion of the Declare Label program. We have been involved with Grace Farms and Design for Freedom with contributions to their International Toolkit 2.0, participation on their Prison Labor Committee and were awarded a Design for Freedom Pilot Project in 2025. Ensuring that we have an ethical supply chain and that we are following best practices is something very important to our team and so we are happy to contribute to this Declare Equity Pilot.
Product focus
Flote lounge chair, introduced in 2023, manufactured fully in North Carolina, certified Indoor Advantage Gold, vetted against the Red List, and with some recycled content.
Mohawk
About Mohawk
Mohawk Group® is a commercial flooring brand focused on creating products that support more sustainable built environments. Mohawk Group is part of Flooring North America segment of Mohawk Industries, which employs more than 40,000 people worldwide. Committed to transparency and innovation, Mohawk Group partners with organizations and programs that push the industry forward and help designers make more informed decisions.
Statement
Mohawk Group has a long-standing relationship with Living Future, and we value the foundational role its Declare program has played in advancing transparency and accountability in the built environment. Building on this work and our ongoing collaboration, we are pleased to be participating in Living Future’s Declare Equity Pilot Program to better understand and measure human rights, fair labor, and community impacts across our supply chain.
Product focus
The Mohawk Group products chosen for the Declare Equity Pilot Program, EcoFlex ONE, EcoFlex Matrix, and EcoFlex Matrix ULC, are carpet tile flooring solutions manufactured at our Glasgow, VA site that reflect our approach to performance, design, and responsible material use.
Nova Terra
About Nova Terra
Nova Terra manufactures low-carbon structural blocks using waste materials from quarries. These blocks can replace conventional timber framing, creating walls that are fireproof, sound-resistant, bug-proof, bullet-resistant, breathable, biodegradable, mold-resistant, and non-toxic. Our Ecoblox reduce operational energy demands for heating and cooling while significantly lowering environmental carbon impacts—and they create beautiful, protective walls that feel both secure and solid.
Statement
Nova Terra seeks to participate in the Declare Equity Label program to demonstrate our commitment to transparency, environmental responsibility, and social equity within the building materials industry. As a manufacturer of low-carbon structural systems made from reclaimed quarry waste, we believe material innovation must be paired with ethical business practices that support worker well-being, community investment, and inclusive economic opportunity. The Declare Equity Label provides a framework for accountability and continuous improvement, helping Nova Terra align our operations, supply chains, and workforce practices with a more just, resilient, and regenerative built environment.
Tarkett
About Tarkett
Tarkett, a global leader in innovative flooring and sports surface solutions, offers one of the industry’s broadest product portfolios. Operating in more than 100 countries with 35 manufacturing sites and 12,000+ employees, Tarkett combines deep local expertise with global scale to deliver flooring solutions that meet diverse customer, regulatory, and performance needs. Sustainability is our legacy—it’s foundational to our business practices and principles.
Statement
Tarkett is proud to be a founding participant in Living Future’s Declare Equity Pilot Program. We believe that transparency must include not only material ingredients, but the people and communities that make our products. Through this program, we aim to help advance our progress in social equity by partnering with our supply chain and the broader building materials industry.
Product focus
- Linoleum: Made with up to 97% natural raw materials and 36% recycled content, Tarkett’s linoleum uses our time-tested, carbon-negative formulation leveraging renewable and abundant ingredients.
- Johnsonite Rubber Products: (Tiles, stair treads, wall base, and sports flooring) Designed for commercial interiors and manufactured under standardized processes, Johnsonite rubber products are returnable through our ReStart® take-back and recycling program.
Vode
About Vode
Vode Lighting is a California-based manufacturer of architectural LED lighting systems for commercial interiors. With 71 employees, we design, engineer, and assemble our products in Sonoma, California.
We chose the Vode linear luminaire product family because it represents the core of what we manufacture. These luminaires are minimal, high-performance LED systems used across a wide range of commercial applications. This product family reflects the materials, suppliers, and production practices that define our broader operations.
Statement
We are participating in the Declare Equity Pilot because it aligns with how we operate as a company: doing the right thing, being transparent, and using our role as a manufacturer to drive positive impact. The pilot is appealing to Vode because it turns “equity” from a general term into a clear, comparable, and actionable set of expectations. The program will help us evaluate where we’re strong, identify gaps, and prioritize improvements across our operations and supply chain. It also gives us a way to share our progress credibly with customers and project teams, rather than relying on informal claims.
Participation is also part of our due diligence. Declare continues to be an expectation, and often a requirement, for lighting products, and we want to be prepared for evolving customer and project requirements. Joining the pilot allows us to build internal readiness, learn alongside other leaders, and help shape best practices in a way that’s practical for manufacturers and meaningful for the industry.
Together, these six manufacturers offer a spectrum of approaches to social equity—from small, relationship-driven models to global, supply chain–wide systems. The Declare Equity Pilot provides a framework for learning, measurement, and continuous improvement, helping manufacturers turn values into action and share their progress credibly with the industry. As these companies test the program and share their experiences, they are helping define what social equity can look like in practice—and shaping a more just, resilient, and regenerative built environment for all.
In our next article, we will share more of our learnings about the first section of the pilot program, which focused upon equitable practices in the manufacturing workforce.Many thanks to our social sustainability partner, Liveable, for leading the pilot program conversations and helping to surface critical feedback and resources.
