ILFI has recently been working much more with the Passive House community, to connect the networks in both people and thought. This fall, we had an excellent Net Positive Symposium in Vancouver, held jointly with Passive House Canada, as well as a Net Positive track and class at the North America Passive House Network conference in Oakland, CA.

A key element of zero energy and passive house construction is a tight, well-insulated envelope. One product that helps achieve airtight envelopes is the Declare labeled Proclima Vana and Profil tapes. These tapes are made for an array of applications, such as taping seams of plywood to create a continuous air barrier or joining air or WRB membranes.

John Druelinger of 475 High Performance Building Supply shared the following about the Proclima tapes:

“Tescon Vana and Tescon Profil were designed by Pro Clima for building airtight, efficient, mold-resistant building assemblies. Vana is recommended for taping flat seams, while Profil’s 3-split release backing helps for taping corners, such as window frames. They are each made of durable, fleece-backed materials and utilize solid, pressure-activated, acrylic adhesive that has been third-party advance-age tested to provide 100 years of adhesion. Both Vana and Profil are suitable for interior and exterior application, are water-proof yet vapor-open, capable of 6 months UV exposure, and work without a primer on most sheathing materials. A primer is recommended only in situations where the surface being taped is very rough or porous.”

The icing on the cake is that these tapes are Declare labeled and Red List free. We have nearly 1500 labeled products today—with more added nearly every day—and an array of these are in the energy efficiency space.

Proclima products are imported into the United States by 475 High Performance Building Supply, based in Brooklyn, NY, with distribution centers on both coasts. 475 is a great knowledge resource—they have a ton of great information about detailing and installation on their website, and are available on the phone for specific technical help on applications.

As the world’s leading commercial flooring manufacturer, Mohawk Group never stands still. Its motto of “Believe in Better” is woven through every facility, emphasized in every department, and crafted in every product and process. And this same attitude is behind the company’s commitment to sustainability.

While other businesses were vaguely pondering sustainability, parent company Mohawk Industries was putting the minds of its employees, its money, and its energy into finding ways to make a difference. It was not an overnight process for a company with more than 37,000 employees in 30 countries, but gradually the company is seeing results.

It is reducing the amount of resources that it uses in its manufacturing processes: Since 2015, its facilities have reduced the amount of water consumed by 277 million gallons. Since 2010, its plants also have reduced GHG intensity by 12.8%, energy intensity by 1.9%, and water intensity by 35%.

Mohawk is also increasing the amount it recycles: 7.1 billion pounds of recycled waste, 500 products with recyclable materials, 5.5 billion plastic bottles recycled annually, and 148.5 million pounds of carpet diverted from landfills with its ReCover recycling program since 2007.

“Mohawk’s sense of responsibility to product transparency encourages us daily to look for ways we can meaningfully set the bar higher for sustainability through innovative products with reduced environmental and social impacts,” said George Bandy, vice president of sustainability at Mohawk. “We seek to produce products that leave not a carbon footprint, but a handprint that gives back more than it takes from the resources of our planet.”

This attitude led to the creation of commercial division Mohawk Group’s Lichen Collection, a modular plank carpet system that has become the first floorcovering to achieve the International Living Future Institute’s Living Product Challenge Petal Certification. Living Products are free of toxins, regenerate nature, and improve the quality of life.

Mohawk employs seven hundred fifty associates in the thirty-six-acre facility manufacturing commercial carpet tile. In achieving the Place Petal, Mohawk looked for ways to create a healthy coexistence between the manufacturer and the natural environment.

What makes Lichen a true Living Product, both inside and out? It began with the design. Mohawk Group commissioned Jason F. McLennan, of McLennan Design and founder of ILFI and the Living Product Challenge, to work with its design team to create the collection. Like Mohawk, McLennan believes that we can be agents of restoration and regeneration, creating a world better than how we found it.

Inspired by the idea of “Nature’s Carpet,” the team looked at natural assemblages of rich multihued, multitextured lichens from extreme climates as the foundation for the look of the collection. “Using biophilic design principles to create the Lichen Collection helps to enrich our connection to the natural world,” said Jackie Dettmar, vice president of design and product development for Mohawk Group.

Lichen consists of three pattern types. The anchor of the collection is a large-scale field of lichen “blooms” that change in shape and form by colorway. Other patterns include a transition style that has less bloom and a style that is solely textured ground. They can be used together as a system or separately, depending on the desired configuration of texture and color.

Lichen is nature’s carpet, and comes in every color of the rainbow. Using a new yarn system of clean bright colors and heathered yarns, the design of Lichen Collection is based on actual Lichen species found in nature.

Innovative precision tufting technology was used to craft the collection, so the textures and colors are more pronounced. Lichen is made with Mohawk’s Duracolor solution-dyed premium nylon yarn for permanent stain resistance, and comes standard on EcoFlex NXT, Mohawk’s Red List Free backing. It is installed with Mohawk’s FlexLok tabs, the only Red List Free installation system in the marketplace. Additional sustainable attributes include an average 55% recycled content, NSF 140 Gold and Green Label Plus certified for IAQ.

Lichen has a net positive impact for people and the environment through innovations in materials, manufacturing, and community involvement. It is manufactured at Mohawk’s Glasgow, Virginia, carpet facility, which is located in biodi­verse and environmentally robust surroundings that allow the employees to experience nature in their daily lives. The setting is a certified wildlife habitat and, since 2011, an official Appalachian Trail Community. Part of all Lichen sales go to support the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, which is dedicated to protecting and preserving the beauty and cultural heritage of the 2200-mile trail, as well as to the World Wildlife Fund for the preservation and conservation of natural habitats.

To save more water than is used to make Lichen, Mohawk retrofitted 140 showerheads in the dormitories at Morehouse College in Atlanta with low-flow fixtures. This partnership will result in the savings of an estimated 1.2 million gallons annually.

Not only does Lichen come with total ingredient transparency through its Declare Label and has Declared Red List free status, but Mohawk is utilizing responsibly sourced packaging with an average 45% recycled content for the tiles.

With the Lichen Collection, Mohawk Group is setting a higher standard to help ensure products contribute to healthy spaces, are designed to inspire, and will give back to the environment more than they take.

To meet the net positive material health imperative, Mohawk conducted an inventory research for all of the raw materials that are in Lichen’s supply chain to verify the absence of any red listed chemicals.

“Lichen isn’t a singular, isolated accomplishment for our talented design team, but a sign of more offerings on the way,” said Dettmar. “Lichen has been a strategic opportunity to introspectively look at different ways we can have a net positive impact on people and the environment, leaving a handprint as we seek to touch the built environment like never before.” 

About Mohawk Group

Mohawk Group, the world’s leading producer and distributor of quality commercial flooring, delivers industry-leading style, cutting-edge innovation, unmatched service and superior sustainability. As the commercial division of Mohawk Industries, Mohawk Group has a heritage of craftsmanship that spans more than 130 years. The company’s enduring family of brands—Mohawk, Karastan and Durkan—are widely regarded as the most trusted names in the commercial flooring business. Together, these brands function beautifully, delivering the perfect flooring solution for all markets and price points. Rounding out its esteemed product offering, Mohawk Group also offers a full spectrum of hard surface flooring products and installation accessories that exceed the most rigorous performance standards. For additional information about its proven design solutions, and to learn more about what is next from Mohawk Group, visit www.mohawkgroup.com or call (800) 554-6637.

Every so often, a project comes along that perfectly aligns craftsmanship, unique customization, and LightArt’s passion for sustainable products. The Seattle-based lighting company had an opportunity to tackle that project early in 2017.

James Coury crafts the petals of the chandelier. Photo courtesy of LightArt

Photo courtesy of LightArt

The ILFI approached LightArt with a challenge to build a light fixture that mimicked the Institute’s orange flower logo. They also requested that the chandelier comply with all ILFI Declare program parameters, which require complete material transparency among all building products and finishes. LightArt, as the first lighting manufacturer to achieve Declare status, was able to meet this challenge with a large-scale lighting feature.

The ILFI worked directly with LightArt’s president, Ryan Smith, to collaborate on a concept for the piece. LightArt’s organically blooming artisan pieces were a perfect fit for the project. After determining the fixture type, LightArt was tasked with finding an interlayer for their product that would comply with Declare requirements. “Working on this project pushed us to find a gorgeous new interlayer, and to further consider each and every piece of material and technology that go into our fixtures,” said Smith.

Photo courtesy of LightArt

To develop a sustainable fabric interlayer for the material that would make up the fixture, LightArt turned to Washington-based Botanical Colors. Botanical Colors supplies artisans and industry with the materials and know-how to dye textiles in a way that uses less water, is non-toxic and biodegradable, and draws its incomparable color palette from humble plants and natural sources. Kathy Hattori, owner of Botanical Colors, helped the LightArt team to achieve a palette of rich oranges and reds through various dried wildflowers.

Photo courtesy of LightArt

After completing the organic interlayers with Botanical Colors, the hand-dyed fabrics were pressed in 3form’s Varia Ecoresin, a 40% post-industrial recycled PETG. Once the interlayer was pressed in 3form and laser cut into petals, LightArt’s artisan James Coury then heat-formed the delicate shapes to create blooming botanical fixtures. Once complete, the flowers were grouped and attached to a center canopy for easy installation in the Bullitt Center’s lobby.

The resulting fixture is a cluster of handmade flowers mirroring the signature ILFI branding. The cluster of flowers incorporates color in a unique way by using organic dyed fabric to highlight ILFI’s orange brand colors without overwhelming the minimalist palette of natural materials seen in the Bullitt Center. The fixture hangs in the center atrium at the Bullitt Center and greets visitors upon arrival, while passersby can see the glow of the fixture from the street. Best of all, the entire fixture is lit by just sixty watts.

Photo courtesy of LightArt

The International Living Future Institute announced that the Living Product Challenge and Declare are now recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in its Recommendations of Specifications, Standards and Ecolabels for federal purchasers.

The recommendations, which help federal purchasers identify and procure environmentally sustainable products and services, include the Living Product Challenge and Declare as recommended standards for a range of low-emitting materials including carpet, flooring products, furniture, and interior latex paint.

“We designed the Living Product Challenge and Declare to transform the building materials marketplace through innovation, transparency and the highest standards of health and toxic chemical avoidance,” said James Connelly, Director of the Living Product Challenge for the ILFI. “We thank the EPA for their extensive work to identify standards and ecolabels that encourage the U.S. federal government – one of the world’s biggest materials markets – to measurably improve its environmental performance, and we are thrilled that the Living Product Challenge and Declare are a part of this initiative.”

Mannington Mills rEvolve® Product Receives First Declare Label To Be Third Party Verified by GreenCircle Certified

Consumers and specifiers alike are increasingly looking for transparency in products, whether it is to verify point of origin, to understand environmental impacts, or because they want to eliminate exposure to toxic ingredients. That’s why the International Living Future Institute created Declare, a ‘nutrition-label’ for products that provides a clear, elegant, and informative method to disclose a product’s ingredients. Originally envisioned as a voluntary program to accelerate transparency in the market as quickly as possible, Declare now provides product manufacturers the option for an additional level of confidence — third party validation from trusted 3rd party verifiers. The first product to achieve a third party verified Declare label (Declare 3PV) is Mannington Mills, verified by GreenCircle Certified, for its modular carpet product, rEvolve®.

“Declare is designed to transform the building materials marketplace through transparency and open communication,” said James Connelly, director of the Living Product Challenge for the Institute. “The Declare product database now has over 800 products listed, simplifying the materials specification and certification process so that designers can quickly and easily identify products that meet the stringent requirements of the Living Building Challenge. We are changing the built environment one purchase and one label at a time, but taken together these efforts are leading to a transformation across the building industry to embrace transparency and toxic chemical avoidance.”

“GreenCircle has always supported ILFI’s mission, and is proud to be a third-party verifier for the Declare program.” said Annie Bevan, Vice President of Certification Services for GreenCircle Certified. “Our third-party verification adds additional trust and transparency to the Declare process – we look forward to other manufacturers following in Mannington’s footsteps and driving positive change in the building materials marketplace.”

rEvolve® from Mannington Commercial is a modular carpet backing system that combines with nylon 6,6 or nylon 6 yarn to create a vinyl alternative product. rEvolve® is constructed out of non-vinyl thermoplastic polyolefin containing a minimum of 35% total recycled content by total product weight with a minimum of 10% post-consumer material. According to the company’s Declare label, the product is Red List Free, CDPH compliant, and demonstrates 99% ingredient disclosure. All data reported on the label has been screened and verified by GreenCircle confirming the accuracy of Mannington’s claims.

“Our company is committed to doing business in a way that respects the transparency our customers are seeking. Declare labels are being increasingly and actively sought,” said Dave Kitts, Vice President – Environment for Mannington Mills. “In addition to energy and environmental impacts, Declare makes it easy for us to also share information about health and wellbeing. Third party validation underscores that our commitment is far-reaching.”

About International Living Future Institute

The International Living Future Institute is an inspiring hub for visionary programs. Our mission is to lead and support the transformation toward communities that are socially just, culturally rich and ecologically restorative. Composed of leading green building experts and thought-leaders, the Institute is premised on the belief that providing a compelling vision for the future is a fundamental requirement for reconciling humanity’s relationship with the natural world. The Institute runs the Living Building Challenge, Living Community Challenge, Living Product Challenge, Net Zero Energy Certification, the Cascadia Green Building Council, Ecotone Publishing, Declare, JUST and other leading-edge programs. A global network of more than 400 volunteers across nearly 30 countries drive the local adoption of restorative principles in their communities.

About GreenCircle Certified

GreenCircle is an internationally recognized third-party certification entity whose thorough evaluation process provides independent verification that sustainability claims related to an organization’s products and operations are honest, valid, and verified. GreenCircle is ISO 17065 compliant, following industry requirements for bodies certifying products, processes, and services, and is recognized by both the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) and the International Living Future Institute as a valid third-party certification entity. GreenCircle’s rigorous evaluation process provides trusted transparency that a manufacturer’s product claims are authentic. In today’s discerning market, third-party certification is a valuable asset in establishing brand integrity and developing consumer confidence.

The certifications offered by GreenCircle include: Carbon Footprint Reduction, Certified Environmental Facts (Multi-Attribute), Closed Loop Products, Life Cycle Assessment Optimized, Renewable Resource Content, Recyclable Material, Recycled Content, Renewable Energy Use, Sustainable Manufacturing Processes, Waste Diversion from Landfill and various Material Ingredient Reporting certifications like Declare.

About Mannington Mills

Mannington is a fourth generation, family-owned company with manufacturing facilities in seven communities across America. Known for creating high performance products for over 100 years, the past decade has seen our company rise to a leadership position in the styling and development of long-lasting, low-maintenance flooring systems, some of which incorporate reclaimed waste streams. Our energy leadership, including one of the largest solar arrays in the flooring industry, helped prompt the US Secretary of Energy to name us an original member of the Save Energy Now – Better Plants program, setting the standard for reducing energy usage by 2020. Since 2007, we have reduced water usage at our carpet operations by 30% company-wide. We also hold certifications for ISO-14001, NSF/ ANSI environmentally preferable products, CRI Green Label Plus, and FloorScore.

For both manufacturers and designers, the Declare program provides a clear, elegant and informative method for ingredient disclosure. Declare stands by transparent and open communication and with our new database, we’re allowing consumers and designers a more streamlined point of entry into the world’s most groundbreaking products.

Andrea Cooper, Declare program Manager, discusses the benefits of this new platform and how it will ensure the program’s continued growth.

Question: What is the purpose of the Declare program?
Andrea Cooper: Declare is a product ingredient transparency platform. Declare requires ingredient reporting to 100ppm for a minimum of 99%, by weight, of a product’s ingredients. Those ingredients are then screened against the Living Building Challenge Red List,  and identified Red List ingredients are highlighted. The published Declare label and database entry summarize the product ingredients and alignment with the Living Building Challenge requirements, making it easier for product specifiers to make informed decisions about product health and environmental impact.

Q: What are some key features of the new Declare Database?
AC: The new database was developed with manufacturers and product specifiers in mind. Products are organized by manufacturer and we have added filters for Declaration Status, CSI MasterFormat Division/Section, and manufacturer name. We have improved the search feature and added product images, making it easier for site users to find and understand a product that works for their intended application.

PRESS RELEASE

“We’re Catalyzing a Materials Revolution” says ILFI’s James Connelly

(Washington, DC, and Seattle) On April 4, 2016, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced that the Living Future Institute’s Declare label is now an approved pathway for Option 1 of the Building Product Optimization and Disclosure, Material Ingredients credit for LEED v4. Declare labels with ingredient disclosure greater than 1,000ppm now comply with the LEED v4 credit requirements.

“The adoption of Declare into the LEED v4 credit is a major milestone for aligning materials requirements across green building certifications,” said James Connelly, director of the Institute’s Living Product Challenge (LPC).  “LEED is a mainstream green building certification program so this news signals an overall industry shift to materials ingredient disclosure and toxic chemical avoidance that will accelerate the transformation of the way materials are made, and will have an enormously positive human and environmental health impact.”

Declare has also been adopted by the WELL Building Standard and New Zealand’s Green Star program.

Sara Cederberg, Technical Director, USGBC noted in the USGBC announcement that  “central to the path LEED is clearing an understanding that transparency is a foundation on which future development will occur”. Declare’s recognition within LEEDv4 was the result of an overall industry effort to harmonize and align materials protocols, and a rigorous review process by the USGBC Materials Tag.

Amanda Sturgeon, CEO of the International Living Future Institute, believes this alignment on materials programs will benefit both Living Building Challenge (LBC) and LEED v4 projects, “by adopting Declare, the USGBC will accelerate implementation of both the LBC materials petal and LEED v4, and further transform the materials market.”

Declare has seen incredible growth in 2016, driven by the growing demand from LBC projects, particularly corporate offices and commercial interiors. The Living Building Challenge currently has 326 registered projects in 19 countries totally just under 14 million square feet. To date, Declare has over 415 products from 85 manufactures, with another 90 label submissions in process.

About the Declare Label:

By providing manufacturers and specifiers of building materials a clear, elegant and informative ‘nutrition-label’ Declare aims to transform the marketplace through transparency and open communication. Declare also provides an expanded point of entry into the most groundbreaking restorative projects in the world. Project teams pursuing the Living Building Challenge—widely accepted to be the most advanced green building standard in the world—use the Declare product database and label to select products that meet the Living Building Challenge’s stringent materials requirements, streamlining the materials specification and certification process.

About the Living Building Challenge:

The Living Building Challenge is a building certification program, advocacy tool and philosophy that defines the most advanced measure of sustainability in the built environment possible today and acts to rapidly diminish the gap between current limits and the end-game positive solutions we seek.

The Challenge is comprised of seven performance categories called Petals: Place, Water, Energy, Health & Happiness, Materials, Equity and Beauty. Petals are subdivided into a total of twenty Imperatives, each of which focuses on a specific sphere of influence. There are well over 300 registered Living Building Challenge projects, in 19 nations plus American Samoa, representing just under 14 million square feet of gross building area worldwide.

About the International Living Future Institute:

An inspiring hub for visionary programs, ILFI’s mission is to lead and support the transformation toward communities that are socially just, culturally rich and ecologically restorative. Composed of leading green building experts and thought leaders, the Institute is premised on the belief that providing a compelling vision for the future is a fundamental requirement for reconciling humanity’s relationship with the natural world. The Institute runs the Living Building Challenge, Living Community Challenge, Living Product Challenge, Net Zero Energy Certification, the Cascadia Green Building Council, Ecotone Publishing, Declare, JUST and other leading-edge programs. A global network of more than 400 volunteers across nearly 30 countries drive the local adoption of restorative principles in their communities.

The Declare program, developed by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) in 2012, is an ingredients initiative for building products that is designed to shape a greener, healthier environment for construction workers, business employees, and customers alike. The Declare program operates through a label given to building products that shows a full list of ingredients, thereby exposing components that potential buyers and employers would not otherwise know were there. While most manufacturers keep their ingredients under wraps under the guise of “trade secrets,” leaving citizens in the dark when it comes to toxins in their homes and working environments, Declare brings those ingredients into the open.

Declare, like all ILFI programs, operates on a basis of transparency. The logic behind a transparency model suggests that providers and customers alike will be happier when no one’s trying to hide toxic chemicals in their paneling, framing, or insulation. Labeling those chemicals where they exist, after all, creates an incentive to remove them altogether and develop safer alternatives. In fact, the Declare label has already borne success in this regard: one company has quickly phased out PVCs in its plumbing products. Declare helps shape a healthier future for all people.

Declare uses the Red List, a catalogue of the world’s most toxic chemicals, in order to classify products. Product don’t necessarily have to be free of Red List ingredients–the immediate goal is transparency. However, if a manufacturer eradicates all Red List compounds from its product, it receives a special designation.

Operating like a nutrition label for the building industry, Declare brings to the fore the inner makeup of materials that surround people every day. In an ever-globalized world, Declare helps shape a transparent materials economy.

We sat down with Andrea Cooper, manager of the Declare program, to peer into the pillars of Declare and glimpse how it operates.

Question: Can you give me a brief purpose/goals statement for Declare?
Andrea Cooper: Declare is a transparency platform to help product specifiers select transparent building products that meet the most stringent health and ecological requirements.

Q: What is the Red List and what does it do?
AC: The Red List is the identification of the 22 worst-in-class chemical families. The Red List includes chemicals, compounds, and elements known to pose serious risks to human health and the greater ecosystem. These chemicals are a common occurrence in the building products industry and we believe that their use can be phased out through healthy substitutions and green chemistry practices.

As it relates to the Living Building Challenge, the Red List serves to guide product manufacturers, specifiers, and purchasers to healthier and ecologically responsible products. The Red List encourages sustainable innovation in the building products industry.

Q: How is Declare integrated within the Living Building Challenge (LBC), the Living Product Challenge (LPC) and the Living Community Challenge (LCC)?
AC: The Declare program was developed to directly support the material selection efforts of Living Building Challenge project teams. Declare labels report product California Department of Public Health (CDPH) compliance in support of the Healthy Interior Environment requirements; ingredients and references to Red List chemicals and applicable exceptions in support of the Red List requirements; Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) content and availability in support of the Responsible Industry requirements, final point of assembly in support of the Appropriate Sourcing requirements; and end-of-life options in support of the Net Positive Waste requirements. Additionally, incorporating Declare labels is a direct requirement of the Living Building Challenge and the growth of the Declare database supports the integration of Declare products into projects.

Involvement in the Declare program is a requirement of the Red List Imperative within the Living Product Challenge, a core Imperative. The Living Product Challenge is a multi-attribute product certification program, which directly supports and furthers the Declare program’s mission of healthy product chemistry, ecological responsibility, and transparency.

Declare products can also be specified in the Living Materials Plan used by Living Community Challenge projects to meet the Red List requirements. Declare can be specified in the project Master Planning documents to encourage health and ecological responsible product selection at both the building and community or campus scale.

Q: How many total Declare labels are issued?
AC: There are over 400 Declare labels from 15 Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) MasterFormat Divisions and 87 manufacturers, representing thousands of unique products.

Q: Can you share an inspiring anecdote about a company that recently applied for a Declare label?
AC: TOTO USA applied for multiple Declare labels for their plumbing fixtures. Inspired by the Living Building Challenge Red List requirements, they re-engineered many of their flush fixture products to remove PVC. PVC components were replaced with Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer. TOTO USA now has 25 Declare labels, 13 of which have achieved Red List Free of LBC Compliant Declare status. Many manufacturers are following in the footsteps of TOTO and working to evaluate and redesign their products to reduce and eliminate the occurrence of Red List ingredients.

Q: Do you see manufacturers encouraging others in the industry to register Declare labels?
AC: One of the biggest hurdles for many manufacturers interested in Declare is obtaining transparent ingredient lists from their supply chains. We are witnessing many manufacturers successfully advocating within their supply chain to join Declare. There are more coating, binder, and small component manufacturers reaching out about their interest in Declare. This will open up Declare for many new building product manufacturers; they are looking to these transparent component manufacturers to create a more transparent supply chain for their own products.

Q: Are unexpected businesses catching on?
AC: I wouldn’t say there are unexpected businesses catching on, but the rate at which many manufacturers commit to Declare is surprising. It is not uncommon for us to receive a commitment from a manufacturer to submit twenty or more products for Declare (at once).

Manufacturers are taking notice! Much of this growth can be attributed the advocacy work of our Living Building Challenge teams. Many manufacturers are learning about Declare through conversations with project team members. They understand the growing demand for transparent and healthy products. Manufacturers want to actively support the efforts of the most sustainable design and construction projects in the world.

Q: Can you talk about the significance of Declare’s acceptance into LEED v.4?
The Declare program’s acceptance as a documentation method for Option 1 of the LEED v4 Building Product Disclosure and Optimization, Materials Ingredients credit expands the program’s audience and speaks volumes to the importance of the core mission of Declare: Material Health and Transparency. Acknowledgement by the USGBC supports the specification of healthy, transparent products beyond those projects attempting certification under the Living Building Challenge and further rewards those manufacturers who have joined Declare in support of the transparency movement. Acceptance into LEEDv4 also allows project teams attempting both the Living Building Challenge Materials Petal and LEED to streamline their product selection and documentation efforts; those products highlighted in the Declare database now support both certification paths.

Q: How do you read a Declare label?
AC: The top portion of a Declare label features the product name, manufacturer, final point of assembly and end-of-life options. The information in the top portion clearly identifies the product and highlights the relevant information for the Living Building Challenge Living Economy Sourcing and Net Positive Waste Imperatives. The middle portion of the label includes the product ingredients, organized by component. Ingredients on the Red List are highlighted in red text and ingredients on other chemical of concern lists are highlighted in orange. The center of the label also references the applicable product exceptions and their corresponding components. The bottom of the Declare label includes the Declare ID, label expiration date, and Declare status.

Products with a Declare status of Red List Free have been designed without any Red List ingredients and do not rely on any Living Building Challenge exceptions to demonstration compliance. LBC Compliant products meet the written requirements of the Living Building Challenge using one or more published exceptions. Both Red List Free and LBC Compliant labels can be used by Living Building Challenge project teams without any additional research or documentation. Declare status products are fully transparent, but contain one or more Red List ingredients not currently covered by existing program exceptions. Declare status manufacturers have committed to the transparency movement and their products comply with the LEEDv4 documentation.