Design for Freedom

Margaret,

I went to the Design for Freedom conference in New Canaan, CT in March. They have a toolkit with language for specifications. I am also working with Lisa Goodwin Robbins who was also at the conference to start reaching out to various manufactures to ask them to fill out the Design for Freedom supplier questionnaire. I have reached out to several rubber suppliers. So far, I have received a great response from Roppe/Flexco who seem to be actively investigating their supply chain. Although their products are synthetic rubber, so petroleum based, not real rubber which is more susceptible to child and forced labor. Lisa is also reviewing the Design for Freedom proposed specification language. Here is a link to the toolkit. https://www.designforfreedom.org/home/design-for-freedom-toolkit/ 
Or just Google "Design for Freedom Toolkit."

We heard from people who work on US consulate construction, and they seem to be fully on board with requiring full Design for Freedom compliance in all their specifications. They require an examination of the material supply chain to make sure no materials are harvested or manufactured with forced or child labor. Another good resource is the US Department of Labor which maintains lists of various products that are known to have issues with forced or child labor in various countries. So you could specify that your rubber doesn't come from Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Liberia, the Philippines or Vietnam. It may be punishing suppliers in those countries who do follow the rules, but at least it is something.

Hi Margaret, Along w/ Douglas I also attended the Summit in March. There were quite a few SDLers from the Boston area, and Lisa Goodwin Robbins has tasked us all with picking a material and digging into each to see what we can learn. It seems there is a lot to uncover, but yes, definitely a major opportunity for exposing this issue of forced/prisoner labor in the US. The one thing I found really interesting is that the State Department is all over this, their Overseas Buildings Operations has done a lot to address the issue. I noticed they are presenting at AIA – which should be a good session. Hopefully the GSA will take their lead. It would be interesting to see prison labor reform come from our own government and not an NGO. They had different roundtables you could attend during the event, the one I attended included research that has already been done, which I don’t see shared on the Design For Freedom website yet, though it was mentioned it would be there. If anyone else has been able to find it, please share. I have reached out and will share if I get a response. 1. Patricia Saldana Natke of UrbanWorks. She shared the work of her students from (IIT) where each student took a material and looked into the supply chain and issues that they found. It was really in depth and interesting information they found. 2. Michael Green, through his Mass Timber and wood work has a deep understanding of the supply chain issues of most wood products. https://preferredbynature.org/newsroom/how-mitigate-risks-when-sourcing-wood-russia - this site has a lot of related stories that highlight issues there. I will share if I learn anything more. Kristen Kristen Fritsch AIA LEED AP BD+C WELL AP Sustainability Coordinator ELKUS MANFREDI ARCHITECTS [tel] 617.695.7954 [email] kfritsch@elkus-manfredi.com Fro

I had a chance to connect to Sharon Prince of Grace Farms at a Design Colloquium set up by Cameron McCallister. I am sure Mary Ann can connect us to more information on their connection to Grace Farms. Sharon was very interested in sharing out more to the design community (perhaps through BG?) – might be a great opportunity to hear more about the toolkit? Pauline Souza, FAIA, LEED Fellow, WELL AP, LFA Partner, Director of Sustainability WRNS STUDIO San Francisco | Honolulu | New York I Seattle 415.489.2224 P | 415-489-2235 D | 415.203.3260 C | 501 2ND ST. #402 | San Francisco, CA 94107 l 2003 Western Ave. #500 | Seattle, WA 98121 www.wrnsstudio.com Microsoft Silicon Valley - Read about our AIA COTE Top Ten Winner Microsoft Silicon Valley Campus The Janet Durgin Guild and Commons is the first project in the country to receive BOTH Zero Carbon and Petal Certification; read more here: https://living-future.org/lbc/case-studies/sonoma-academy-guild-commons/ Please read about WHO recommendations and the AEC’s role https://www.architectmagazine.com/design/who-issues-new-covid-19-recommendations-following-petitions-from-aec-professionals_o?utm_source=newsletter&utm_content=Article&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=AN_032421 My working hours may not be your working hours. Please do not feel obligated to reply outside of your normal work schedule. Fro

I'm speaking on a LF22 panel with Nora Rizzo (who leads Grace Farms Design for Freedom work). Our session is "Antiracist Building Materials: Addressing Human Rights in the Supply Chain" and also features Brad Grant from Howard University and Anjanette Green from Healthy Building Network.  Itwill be live next Wednesday, May 11th at 9:30am PT and then on-demand for a month or so with Living Future registration.  https://bit.ly/3uizN5C  I'm sure Nora would be happy to talk to this group about the Design for Freedom toolkit. The toolkit is a great set of resources. I especially like the report which details which types of materials from which locations are most at risk of forced and child labor.  I have to say that the spreadsheet of questions for manufacturers reminds me of the early days of asking for building product ingredients.  There has to be a better way; I expect that social justice in building materials will evolve quickly in the new several years.  The HPDC Social Equity TSG and mindful MATERIALS Common Materials Framework are already actively looking at how to make the topics more easily actionable for designers, contractors and manufacturers.