Reveal, a program run by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI), aims to make commercial buildings’ energy use more transparent and therefore broaden people’s access to information in the corporate sphere. By labeling a particular building’s electricity consumption, Reveal targets an invisible and oft-hidden component of physical structures. The Reveal label brings forward numerics and data in an easily accessible manner so that a building becomes imprinted–quite literally–with its own energy footprint.

Reveal does not designate any renewable energy requirement. Instead, the immediate goal is transparency, with the understanding that labeling keeps a building’s energy use in the forefront of employees’, executives’, consumers’, and citizens’ minds alike. Following on such transparency, many companies and owners may voluntarily choose to invest in renewable energy and thereby improve their Reveal label. Reveal, therefore, is a vital ingredient of the renewable energy economy, a stepping-stone to forthright and honest business relations that millions of citizens desire.

Beyond a building’s energy use, a Reveal label also designates the building type, location, local climate region, and square footage. In addition, it denotes a building’s energy use as compared to an average building of its type, plus the building’s renewable energy production as a percentage of its total energy use. Going above and beyond mere numbers, the Reveal label marks a building’s place in its local environment as well as in the energy economy as a whole.

Make no mistake–Reveal carries the potential to transform the urban environment. By imagining a city in which all buildings display their energy use, Reveal shapes a future where the grid is smart, energy sources are renewable, and builders committed to reducing their footprint.

We sat down with Brendan Cook, manager of the Reveal program at the ILFI, to find out about how the label works.

Question: What is the purpose of Reveal?
Brendan Cook: Reveal is a transparency label for buildings. It is meant to share buildings’ energy consumption with the world.

Q: Why make a building-specific energy tool?
BC: The Reveal label will educate stakeholders about your building’s performance, boosting its visibility, transparency and sustainability profile. More and more, buildings’ energy use is as much a part of their profile as the design and location.  Be a leader! Reveal is a simple, easy tool to communicate your building’s energy efficiency profile.

Q: Can you explain what an EUI means?
BC: An EUI (Energy Use Intensity) is a metric designed to measure and compare energy efficiency by looking at the amount of energy used (in kBtu) per square foot per year (kBtu/ft2/year).  To get this figure, you need your total building energy use for one year and the size of the project in square feet.

Q: What is the potential for the Reveal program?
BC: There are three main reasons to pursue Reveal:

1. It’s an excellent marketing tool and an ILFI-verified program.
2. Understanding EUI drives change and highlights your project’s efficiency.
3. It’s affordable!

Cities, companies and nonprofits are all looking for benchmarking programs for energy efficiency. The potential for Reveal to grow is huge!

Q: How many Reveal labels are there?
BC: There are 29 as of our launch.

Q: What are the largest projects you’re working on?
BC: The Edith Green Wendall Wyatt Federal Building, Vestas America HQ, and all ILFI-Certified NZEB/Energy Petal and LBC Projects.

Q: Can you share an inspiring anecdote about a company that recently applied for a Reveal label?
BC: Here’s an account from Glumac, one of our Reveal partners:

With a mission to deliver “Green Buildings that Work,” Glumac happily agreed to partner with ILFI to help test out its new REVEAL label for energy efficient building performance.

Glumac actively tracks post-occupancy building energy and water use data from its projects and analyzes it to inform new designs. The firm believes the REVEAL label aligns with its design philosophy. Justin Di Palo of Glumac explains, “As an engineer and energy analyst, measurement and verification are my feedback loop. Without real data on building performance, it’s nearly impossible to calibrate and optimize our design and modeling processes, strategies, and techniques.” The firm finds the REVEAL label especially important in providing a third-party verification of its projects’ building performance. “Having a third party review our results and help provide a sole source to define the actual building EUIs adds tremendous credibility to the results and claims we market for our past projects,” says Mitch Dec, Senior Energy Analyst at Glumac.

The firm has submitted two high performing buildings, including the Vestas North American Headquarters and the GSA Edith Green Wendell Wyatt administration building. The owners are proud of their buildings’ accomplishments including a deep renovation of an existing building and LEED Platinum certification. The GSA building in particular boasts an on-going Energy Star score of 99. They see the extra marketing benefit that the REVEAL label brings.

Q: What have been the most impressive results of Reveal so far?
BC: The ease of understanding and recognition that it’s a useful market tool with excellent design.

Photo: Vestas Headquarters, Courtesy of Glumac

Reveal, a transparency label by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI), aims to make known the energy use of commercial buildings for the purpose of broadening people’s access to information in the corporate sphere. By labeling the electricity consumption of specific buildings, Reveal targets an invisible and often hidden component of physical structures. The Reveal label brings forward numerics and data in an accessible medium so that a building becomes imprinted—quite literally—with its own energy footprint.

Reveal does not designate any renewable energy requirement. Instead, the immediate goal is transparency, with the understanding that labeling keeps a building’s energy use in the forefront of the minds of employees, executives, consumers, and citizens alike. Following on such transparency, many companies and owners may choose to voluntarily invest in renewable energy and thereby improve their Energy Use Intensity (EUI). Reveal is therefore a vital ingredient of the renewable energy economy, a stepping-stone to the forthright and honest business relations that a growing number of people desire.

Looking beyond a building’s energy use, a Reveal label also designates the building type, location, local climate region, and square footage. In addition, it denotes a building’s energy use compared to an average building of its type, plus the building’s renewable energy production as a percentage of its total energy use. Going above and beyond mere numbers, the Reveal label marks a building’s place in its local environment as well as in the energy economy as a whole.

Make no mistake—Reveal carries the potential to transform the urban environment. By imagining a city in which all buildings display their energy use, Reveal shapes a future where the grid is smart, energy sources are renewable, and builders are committed to reducing their footprint.

Edith Green Wendell Wyatt Federal Building

The Edith Green Wendell Wyatt Federal Building defines the urban landscape of Portland, Oregon. Built in 1975, it was retrofitted in 2013 with a solar roof, power-generating elevators, a water cistern, unique shading devices, and efficient lighting. The building, which hosts the US General Services Administration (GSA), now boasts an energy use intensity (EUI) of 34—all the more impressive because the building is an 18-story highrise. The building is now outfitted with a Reveal label, encouraging other developers to take the same strides toward green energy.

Vestas America HQ

Vestas, the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturer, also chose the city of Portland, Oregon, for its American headquarters. As if it weren’t enough to churn out turbines, Vestas reclaimed an abandoned warehouse and brought it into line with sustainable standards. A central atrium allows for abundant natural light, and contractors sourced recycled, nontoxic, and efficient materials. The Vestas headquarters is now LEED Platinum certified. Its Reveal label shows an EUI of 32—that’s 15% of the energy footprint of the average New York City building.

Here’s an account from Glumac, one of ILFI’s Reveal partners:

With a mission to deliver “Green Buildings that Work” Glumac happily agreed to partner with ILFI to help test out its new REVEAL label for energy-efficient building performance.

Glumac actively tracks post-occupancy building energy and water use data from its projects and analyzes it to inform new designs. The firm believes the REVEAL label aligns with its design philosophy. Justin Di Palo of Glumac explains, “As an engineer and energy analyst, measurement and verification are my feedback loop. Without real data on building performance, it’s nearly impossible to calibrate and optimize our design and modeling processes, strategies, and techniques.” The firm finds the REVEAL label especially important in providing a third-party verification of its projects’ building performance. “Having a third party review our results and help provide a sole source to define the actual building EUIs adds tremendous credibility to the results and claims we market for our past projects,” says Mitch Dec, Senior Energy Analyst at Glumac.

The firm has submitted two high-performing buildings, including the Vestas North American Headquarters and the GSA Edith Green Wendell Wyatt administration building. The owners are proud of their buildings’ accomplishments, including a deep renovation of an existing building and LEED Platinum certification. The GSA building in particular boasts an ongoing Energy Star score of 99. Glumac sees the extra marketing benefit that the REVEAL label brings.

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.