Regan from Minnesota put her passion for the natural world into action by becoming a member of the International Living Future Institute. In Minneapolis, she began a zero-waste community group that quickly grew to include over 100 members and local supporters. Recognizing the importance of radical group action in addressing the overwhelming issue of climate change, she decided to become a member of ILFI and join a greater community working together towards a regenerative future.

Luke became a member of ILFI in order to join a network of peers challenging the status quo and creating a positive impact as a result. Working at Humanscale, whose line of office furniture includes certified Living Products and red-list chemical free materials, Luke has learned that this community can achieve goals we would have never been able to on our own.

An ILFI member and ambassador in Cairo, Amira has delivered ILFI education to seven Middle Eastern countries over this past year. As young children slid on desert rocks outside, she inspired a nomadic group to utilize the simplistic elegance of the Living Building Challenge to create their built community structure.

At the International Living Future Institute, we believe that we can change everything with the help of our community.

Over the past few months, we shared these and many other stories through our summer Membership Campaign. Our goal was to raise $20,000 and grow our member base to support the work and mission of the organization. We met this ambitious target. Yet, what really stood out in this campaign was the incredible stories of our members. Their work and dedication are passionately driving forward the transformation toward a Living Future and a better world for generations to come.

Our staff see this in each of our programmatic work: in the surge of solar energy, in the growing awareness of innovative water solutions throughout the country, and in the development of Living Buildings around the world.

This membership campaign has ignited a spark in us at the Institute, and will power our work moving forward. It inspires us to look back at this campaign and stoke that flame, as we hope it will for you.

Becoming a member of the Living Future Institute:

• Supports our Living Product + Declare label programs that push the marketplace towards healthier, chemical-free environments
• Helps us create a world liberated from fossil fuel dependence through Living + Zero Energy Buildings
• Enables important strides in research on water policy, affordable housing, and biophilic design

And the benefits are priceless:

• Invitation into our network of sustainability ambassadors and access to join your local collaborative group
• Ability to register your buildings or products for certification + collaborate with others
• Discounts to the Institute’s events, conferences, and suite of online education

We look forward to changing everything with you.

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.

Since 2006, the Living Building Challenge has inspired significant change in how buildings are designed, built, rehabbed and operated. In addition to the projects that have been certified under the Challenge, there are more than 200 projects in the works around the world demonstrating possibilities for the built environment.

These successes are the result of tireless efforts made by individuals who not only have adopted the Living Building Challenge, but have also profoundly demonstrated how its principles can be used to rethink business as usual. These individuals have nurtured the Living Building Challenge as a movement – locally, regionally, nationally and internationally and have led by example. The International Living Future Institute honors these heroes for their tremendous efforts to help pave the way to a restorative future.

The new Heroes were recognized on Thursday, May 12th, at the Institute’s 10th Living Future unConference. Individuals who receive this distinction have demonstrated a fierce commitment to the Living Building Challenge and their desire to continually raise the bar on behalf of the green building industry.

“We recognize these heroes for their tireless work to overhaul the status quo and carve the path to a restorative future through green building.  They have our deepest respect for their commitment to continually and successfully innovating project design and construction to achieve more socially just, culturally rich and ecologically restorative communities,” says Amanda Sturgeon, the International Living Future Institute’s Chief Executive Officer. “These individuals have not only adopted the Living Building Challenge – they live its principles and inspire others to do the same.”

The 2016 Heroes range from experts in regenerative design to pioneers in municipal leadership. They are the stalwarts in the regenerative design movement and are paving the way for future generations.  Heroes were chosen by the Institute based on their many contributions to the movement.

This year’s Heroes are:

Greg Mella, Vice President & Co-Director of Sustainable Design, SmithGroupJJR

Greg is a Vice President and Co-Director of Sustainable Design at SmithGroupJJR. He was the project architect for the world’s first LEED Platinum project: the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s headquarters in Annapolis and recently for CBF’s Brock Environmental Center.  A past member of the AIA’s Committee on the Environment Advisory Group, Greg currently co-chairs the AIA’s 2030 Commitment Steering Committee and serves on the ILFI East Coast Congress.  Greg is a registered architect in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

Why do African American families use less energy than white households, but pay more for it—literally and figuratively? It’s true. The average African American family emits 20% less carbon dioxide than the average white household does, yet we are more susceptible to increases in energy and water costs that result from climate change. As extreme weather events like blizzards, droughts, and heat waves become almost routine, more and more black families can’t afford to heat and cool their homes. Communities of color also pay more of the hidden costs of our fossil-fuel based economy. Climate change has an outsized impact on the health and economic security of African American families, who are far more likely to breathe polluted air and live next to sources of pollution like coal plants.

But today, a revolution in clean energy gives us the chance to correct this injustice and level the playing field for communities of color. For decades, renewable energy was out of reach for most Americans. Only the wealthiest could afford innovations like solar panels and electric cars. Not anymore. Now clean energy sources like solar and wind are not only economical—they’re huge cost-savers for businesses and families alike.

In less than a decade, the United States has multiplied its production of wind power threefold, and solar power more than twentyfold. In many places, clean energy is already cheaper than conventional power. Further, consumers have more choice and more control over how much energy they use through smartphone apps and new technology. But we still have a long way to go.

Every American deserves access to clean, affordable energy. If we transition to an economy that’s fueled by 50% clean energy by 2030, electric bills in the United States will be reduced by more than $40 billion. Subsequently, families would see their disposable income increase by as much as $650 annually. The biggest beneficiaries would be low-income families, who spend a much greater share of their income on electricity than higher income households do. Just imagine: millions of Americans would no longer be at the mercy of their utility bills. Black families in particular would have a brighter and more secure energy story to tell.

Investing in clean energy does more than save money on bills—it also creates jobs that communities of color sorely need. Last year the solar industry added jobs 12 times faster than the overall economy. More than twice as many Americans now work in the solar industry than in coal mining—and a quarter of workers in the solar industry are people of color. When these clean energy jobs are created—which they absolutely must be—we have an opportunity to make sure that these are good-paying jobs and that they are available to communities of color.

In the Washington, DC, area, Mark Davis created WDC Solar to provide low-income citizens of Washington, DC, with a solar program. Since 2012, WDC has installed more than 125 solar systems in DC through tax credits and private funds, at no cost to low-income homeowners with good credit. Through his partnership with DC Sustainable Energy Utility, Mark started a program that has funded solar panel installation provided funding to install panels on more than 300 homes. And once the panels are installed, the extra power results in a profit every month—money going back into the community he’s working to transform. Mark is just getting started; this year he plans on launching programs in New York, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.

While Mark is training a new solar work force and bringing solar to the DC community, Wahleah Johns is working to bring clean energy to places that often times don’t even have electricity. Wahleah, a member of the Navajo (Dine) tribe and the community of Forest Lake atop Black Mesa, Arizona, has been advocating for native communities to diversify to renewable energy for the last decade. As a tribal member of the Navajo Nation, she’s watched resources from tribal homelands provides cheap electricity for California, Nevada, and Arizona, while her people are left to deal with pollution and dwindling water.

Working with the Black Mesa Water Coalition and Navajo Green Economy Coalition, Wahleah helped win legislative victories protecting groundwater, expanding green jobs, and advancing environmental justice. As vice chair of the Navajo Green Economy Commission, Wahleah develops economic opportunities in clean energy and traditional economic practices on the Navajo reservation.

Wahleah’s community education efforts helped establish a Just Transition Fund through the California Public Utilities Commission. This fund provides $4 million to renewable energy development on tribal lands. Wahleah helps bring solar to reservation schools and communities, and is developing a residential solar program for the 50% of Navajo Nation residents who don’t have access to electricity.

The clean energy revolution is an incredible opportunity to give African Americans a better, more just seat at the table in our new economy. Now more than ever we must seize the opportunity to reverse energy injustice and shift power to the very communities that have historically been left out.

At Green For All we see a number of ways in which we can drive this investment. There is a tremendous opportunity held within the Environmental Protection Agency’s recent clean power plan implementation at the state level. States will be developing and implementing plans to bring down carbon in the coming months and years. We must ensure that as we look at curbing carbon, we do so in a way that drives growth across green sectors, and focuses investments in the communities most impacted by carbon and pollution. We also believe strongly that polluting industries should pay for the privilege of dumping carbon into the atmosphere. In California, the value collected from the cap-and-trade system has created a fund that has been used for everything from free solar panels for low-income families, to free bus passes for youth and seniors, to millions of dollars for new affordable housing. We must cap carbon (and make sure there are environmental protections for all communities in those programs), and we can’t give away that value; we must invest in our communities.

The clean power movement is gaining steam—now is the time for us to make our voices heard. Investing in clean energy will lower our energy bills, improve the health of black communities, and create more, better-paying jobs for people of color. Now that’s real power. Throughout our network, we see individuals, businesses and organizations committed to people and the planet. We need to re-up our investment in these people and follow their lead to a future that is truly green for all.