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Setting Firmwide Material Standards

Patricia Heye

EHDD

LEEDuser Basic Member

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March 9, 2023

Hello fellow sustainable design leaders! I am about to kick off an intensive effort here at EHDD to refine our internal standards for materials. We will be considering both GWP as well as the health of materials (avoiding harmful chemicals). In addition to setting the standards, I will be working to develop a process to vet materials before they are used on our projects or selected for our firm-wide materials library. As I am sure you know, this can be a large and complex endeavor so I thought I would start by reaching out to all of you to see if you’d be willing to share some insight on what has been successful at your firm and what challenges you have faced in setting standards and creating a streamlined sustainable material selection process. We hope to use our internal research on this effort as the basis for another open access tool, similar to EPIC, but supporting climate action and material optimization in interior architecture. I’d be happy to read any thoughts you’d like to share as responses to this post, or if you have the time, I’d love to have a quick zoom chat with you to discuss this issue more in depth! And if you’re in Seattle, I’d be glad to buy you coffee to chat in person.

My direct line is +1 206-649-3646. And my email is p.heye@ehdd.com. Thanks!

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Simona Fischer

Director of Sustainable Practice and Associate

MSR Design

LEEDuser Basic Member

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Thu, 03/09/2023 - 18:25

Hi Patricia, We did a similar effort a few years ago, and our material library entry criteria are available for download in case it helps you as a resource. Our hope is that many firms might develop roughly similar criteria and help align the industry around our asks. Our last issue of the document was 2021, so we are due for an update this year to include some missing tools etc - in fact, I'd love it if any downloaders were willing to provide feedback on what to include next. Here is the link, please drop a line anytime with questions and comments: https://msrdesign.com/generative-impacts/ -Simona simona@msrdesign.com

Lisa Adams

Principal

HKS

LEEDuser Premium Member

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Thu, 03/09/2023 - 18:28

Lisa Adams , NCIDQ, LEED AP, WELL AP Director of CitizenHKS & Sustainable Design Leader Principal [HKS, Inc] 125 S Clark St, #1100, Chicago, IL 60603 +1 312 957 4352 | www.hksinc.com From: P

Chris Hellstern

Living Building Challenge Services Director

The Miller Hull Partnership

LEEDuser Basic Member

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Thu, 03/09/2023 - 19:57

Hi Patricia, You are free to download and use our Red List guide that is available on our website here: http://millerhull.com/wp-content/uploads/Miller-Hull-Red-List-v3.0.pdf We eliminate these chemcials of concern from our master specs and work to keep them out of all of our projects regardless of any green building certification that might be pursued. We try to expand this list every year or two. We also have a detailed roadmap for our embodied carbon analysis and reduction as well as spec langauge to incorporate those reductions but they aren't ready for public release yet. But we'd be happy to chat about any of that if it could be helpful. Good luck in your efforts. Chris Hellstern, AIA, LFA, LEED AP BD+C, CDT
Living Building Challenge Services Director | Senior Architect & Associate

The Miller Hull Partnership, LLP 71 Columbia Street, 6th Floor
Seattle, WA 98104
Main: 206-682-6837
Direct: 206-254-2010
www.millerhull.com

Kimberly Reddin

Director of Sustainability

Flad

LEEDuser Premium Member

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Fri, 03/10/2023 - 14:00

Hi Patricia and Simona, Flad signed the AIA Materials Pledge and started working on the process for updating and improving our library and specs a year ago -- we used the MSR library criteria as a starting point, it is a great resource that we are very glad MSR was willing to share. Jodie Thill (jthill@flad.com) has been leading this effort for us, and she's had several conversations with manufacturers about our version of the library criteria. Jodie would be happy to have a conversation, please feel free to reach out to her if you'd like.

Ariane Laxo

Sustainability Director

HGA

LEEDuser Premium Member

3 thumbs up

Fri, 03/10/2023 - 21:15

Hi Patricia, good to see you on here! We published our Healthier & Sustainable Materials Guide for public use: https://hga.com/wellbeing-and-design-healthier-sustainable-interior-materials-selection-guide/

Rolling this out has included spec integration, interior materials library standards, education, etc.

Patricia Heye

EHDD

LEEDuser Basic Member

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Mon, 03/13/2023 - 15:18

Thank you Simona, Lisa, Chris, Kimberly, and Ariane! I have downloaded and saved your respective shared resources and will be sure to check them out this week. I will reach out soon if I have any questions. Thanks again for your willingness to share your insights. Please be sure to reach out if EHDD can return the favor!

Erin Feeney

Associate

David Baker Architects

LEEDuser Basic Member

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Tue, 04/11/2023 - 19:10

Our office is working on healthy materials research as well (especially at affordable housing price points) and would love to be part of a collaborative effort. Patricia, Jacqueline Lin in our office will be reaching out to you directly about it. I also know that Mary Dickinson at Perkins+Will has been developing a database too.