ONLINE EXCLUSIVE

The Search for a Circular Tarp

Switzerland’s bag retailer FREITAG reimagines the traditional tarp. 

Images courtesy of FREITAG

Tired of putting up with unsustainable industry practices, FREITAG, a Swiss bag retailer, has started thinking “outside the bag.” To ensure that their tarp bags aren’t merely recycled but are also endlessly recyclable, FREITAG has started to work with industrial partners to develop a truck tar that fully meets circularity criteria and will make road freight traffic more green. 

We all think and act in cycles, and circularity has been part of FREITAG’s corporate philosophy for more than 25 years now. Circularity means that when a product can no longer be used as it was designed, it can be broken down into materials that go back into the supply chain. (1) “Today, we’re focusing mainly on how we can give the road transport industry upstream of us a circular material. That would also enable us ourselves to act in endless cycles,” explains co-founder Daniel Freitag. 

FREITAG previously achieved this pioneering feat with their development of a 100% compostable clothing line called F-ABRIC. FREITAG made this clothing line completely circular by growing biodegradable fibers for the clothing line. And now, FREITAG is taking their sustainable creations a step farther by giving old tarps used in trucking a new long life: as bags. 

Inevitably, at some point, these recycled bags fail. When that happens, it usually means throwing it away in the local garbage incineration plant. “In Zurich, this at least generates a bit of district heating for our tarp bag-making headquarters,” says Markus Freitag. “But we’d be doing one better, of course, if we could give discarded truck tarps not only a second life, but an everlasting one.” 

This illustration outlines the circularity of FREITAG materials.

A little over a year ago, FREITAG decided to start developing a new type of tarp that would meet strict circularity criteria. The envisioned material would, of course, need to be just as robust, durable, water-repellent and practical as the existing one made of PVC. Instead of ending up in the trash, however, the new tarp would either biologically decompose or be broken down into materials from which new tarps or other products could be made.  

The project team searched for partners with expertise in the materials, chemicals, and processes involved in the tarp-manufacturing supply chain. This collective of highly motivated partners brought a flexible, goal-oriented, multi-track approach to the circular tarp revolution.

Pretty soon, it became apparent that even a new tarp would be constructed similarly to existing materials. It would need to consist of a robust fabric and a soft, water and dirt-repellent coating made of a synthetic or organically based plastic. The big question for the team, then, still was:  How can these two main components be broken down  – jointly or separately – into parts to be reused or composted? The collective has already found some answers to the question, discovering possible materials and various compounds. 

To ensure that each manufacturing step and chemical component meets circularity criteria, an innovation partner, EPEA – Part of Drees & Sommer, evaluates the process using the Cradle to Cradle® method. Cradle to Cradle® is a design principle that requires materials and products to have the ability to be infinitely circulated. (2) Part of Drees & Sommer evaluates materials using the Cradle to Cradle® method, focusing on comprehensive material health for humans and the environment, technical recyclability and the implementation of a take-back system. 

FREITAG Circular Technologists, Anna Blattert & Bigna Salzmann.

“By placing such an uncompromising demand on the concept of circularity, we are not exactly making things easy for ourselves,” says Anna Blattert, one of two Circular Technologists employed by the FREITAG. Nevertheless, the team already has initial material prototypes – combinations of different fabrics and coating materials – at its disposal. In tests carried out so far, these have generated surprisingly positive results. “I’m particularly pleased to say that, in some cases, the biologically based coating material has outperformed even conventional synthetics in practical stress tests. We definitely want to stick to this path, even if it involves considerably more development work,” explains Bigna Salzmann, another Circular Technologist at FREITAG. 

“The entire transport and logistics industry is confronted with disruptive changes. Autonomous trucks, digitization and electric propulsion are radically changing transport logistics. What the industry lacks is a closed-cycle material with future viability. That’s where we spring into the breach. And as residual recyclers of the material, we are driven by a certain degree of self-interest,” says Oliver Brunschwiler, Company Lead. FREITAG firmly believes that a circular form of tarp will be a reality on transit routes in the foreseeable future and is working to ensure that a first tarp prototype can be used as early as 2022. 

(1) https://businessofhome.com/articles/circularity-is-the-next-frontier-of-sustainability-what-is-it#:~:text=Circularity%20is%20a%20simple%20concept,%3A%20Waste%20not%2C%20want%20not.

(2) https://epea.com/en/about-us/cradle-to-cradle

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE

The Giving Tree Can Only Take So Much

Exploring the Relationship Between Humans and Trees in Combating Climate Change

College of William & Mary, McClead Tyler Wellness Center – this image really showcases how the importance of trees isn’t just from the perspective of the outside.

By Jessica Petro, PLA, ASLA, Lead Designer, Landscape Architect EYP

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein is a wonderful, classic tale that highlights the unbalanced relationship between a boy and a tree. This simple story’s strong message is especially pertinent even today, as it highlights the importance and need for us to rethink how we co-exist with nature and how our actions impact our ecosystems. Trees give us so much; they aid in pollution management, carbon sequestration, heat island reduction, water resource management, soil conservation, and more. But how can humans reciprocate? How can we give back to nature through high-performance landscape design, and how can thoughtful actions slow the effects of climate change?

We rely on trees and other plantings for a variety of reasons – one very important aspect to humans is that we rely on trees to breathe. “Through a process called photosynthesis, leaves pull in carbon dioxide and water and use the energy of the sun to convert this into chemical compounds such as sugars that feed the tree. But as a by-product of that chemical reaction oxygen is produced and released by the tree. It is proposed that one large tree can provide a day’s supply of oxygen for up to four people.”¹ Trees are actually one of our planet’s largest resources for sequestering carbon. According to The Nature Conservatory, trees store the collected carbon dioxide throughout their lives, helping to slow the building up of gases in our atmosphere that have been rapidly warming our planet. 

Trees do so much more, however. These natural resources organically aid in pollution (in the air, water, and/or soil) management, trapping pollutants and even using some as nutrients. Similarly, through a sequestration process, they use carbon and convert it into their limbs, trunk, and roots. Trees are also vital for reducing heat island effect, as the leaves of a tree’s canopy aid in cooling the surrounding areas, since heat rays can reflect off them. Additionally, trees effectively and naturally manage water resources (effectively collecting and absorbing water through the roots), soil conservation, and biodiversity support. Finally, research clearly demonstrates that a connection to nature such as exposure to trees provides numerous health and wellness benefits, including bettering respiratory health, promoting social and emotional well-being, and reducing stress.

It’s hard to overstate the importance of tree preservation and tree planting in the fight to combat climate change. Humans can play a role by planting more trees to offset the carbon in the air and supporting practices that minimize the increased carbon and pollution in our environment. Both young and old trees are extremely vital to our environment and support the sequestering of carbon. While young trees are smaller and are limited in their photosynthesis due to their size, they need the carbon to grow. The preservation of large established trees are important not only for the stored carbon that already exists in the tree’s system, but due to their larger scale and surface area, they still continue to pull large amounts of carbon out of the air. 

All of these factors are important as landscape architects approach initial site planning. By conducting an inventory and analyzing many components of a site, including its existing vegetation, designers can better understand the project site’s natural systems. Another successful strategy is thoughtfully placing buildings and site improvements to preserve existing vegetation where applicable and possible. ‘Applicable’ meaning if it is an invasive tree and/or in decline, removal is recommended, since a tree in decline (depending on its location/proximity to walkways and drives, etc.) can be a health, welfare, and/or safety hazard. ‘Possible’ meaning if the preservation doesn’t negatively affect the client’s defined program needs and ability to improve the site.

Recognizing the need for trees and advocating for their preservation, plantings, and reforestation (even as urban forests) is something we can all do, since everyone living on earth has some ownership/connection to the environment. From a design standpoint, it is crucial to understand how we can plan and plant for trees’ success. Taking a step back, what are a tree’s needs and what are best practices for planting and maintenance to ensure that they thrive and grow?

Trinity University, Center for Sciences and Innovation – Many oak trees were saved, highlighting the preservation of appropriate existing vegetation and in fact, designing the building/construction/infrastructure to make that a success.

Creating the right environment. 

The best and most self-sustaining high-performance landscapes are correctly sited with a dedicated, appropriately-sized area for plantings. When planning a site, landscape architects examine not only the present day site and its need to be resilient and regenerative, but also consider the site’s needs and space requirements relative to the mature planting, ensuring that all plant material has the proper amount of area and best growing conditions in which to thrive. It’s also important to consider cold and heat hardiness, taking into account potential soil drainage and long-term sun exposure. 

Designers should also avoid creating potential disturbances, like regrading around root zones, trunk, compaction, and other things that might negatively affect growth. Special care should be given to all existing plant material, but especially to established trees with large canopies. Understanding and careful management of disturbance is key since 90% of a tree’s roots are in the top 18” of the soil and often extend two to three times the dripline. In general it is best to minimize any disturbance by trees, but sometimes it is necessary due to construction requirements. To better understand the critical root zone for a tree as to minimize any disturbance, there are resources to explain how to appropriately size this protection zone, including measuring the diameter of a tree’s trunk at breast height (DBH) and using a multiplier. Another more general rule is to minimize any disturbance under and out to the edge of the tree’s canopy, also known as its dripline.²

Design that sets trees up for long-term success. 

One aspect of a landscape architect’s role in a project is the design and documentation of planting plans. These plans thoughtfully select and define plant material specifications with the design intent of meeting the needs and aesthetic of the site. In designing a high-performance landscape, they also think about the utilization of native plant material and creating planting plans that are sustainable, resilient, and regenerative. To achieve this, a designer would need to consider the anatomy of trees and what they need to thrive. Additionally, since trees have varying needs (throughout the seasons and even years), landscape architects and owners must understand not only what types of trees are appropriate for any given space or region, but also, future requirements for maintenance and watering.

To that end, an excellent way to ensure success is to plant native (vs. incorporating exotic plants that require a lot of maintenance and don’t naturally grow in the area) and create spaces that are connective, as trees grow best in communities. The best case scenario for designing a native landscape involves a site that provides the opportunity to plant groupings and connected systems, rather than disconnected lines or fragmented landscapes. Advocating for larger greenspace area on project sites would ensure plantings that are diverse, support biodiversity, and have the ability to make a larger impact on reversing climate change. Further, a landscape with the capability to serve the environment is designed from the onset to seamlessly integrate with the local ecosystem. Good design incorporates the right size trees planted correctly within the right areas on site, offering the best environmental solution.

Tree care.

Education about, and respect for, trees is key. Unlike people or animals, trees cannot just get up and move to a better area when they are stressed or in a negative environment.  They are rooted and susceptible, so we as humans need to be their advocates and a licensed arborist should be employed to assess and suggest treatment when trees show signs of stress. Arborists should be also involved when it comes to limb or full tree removal, IPM and other fertilizer and pesticide approaches, and other specialized needs, like soil aeration for the root zone of a tree, etc. Anyone taking part in the design or maintenance of high-performance landscapes should follow a landscape management plan that proactively manages and defines the care and maintenance needed for the continued growth of the landscape. For example, avoid spreading mulch too high – the natural flare of the trunk or root collar needs to be exposed and slightly above finish grade. More than four inches of mulch can limit oxygen from getting to the roots, something trees need to grow. Also, mowing a tree up to its trunk and/or weed whacking can ultimately cause damage to the trunk and expose it to diseases. Similarly, leaving the temporary guying and stalking longer than needed can adversely affect the tree’s growth. The guying and staking is initially incorporated to help anchor the tree while it establishes itself, but if left installed too long without adjustments to the wire it can actually girdle the trunk, since as the tree continues to grow, the diameter of the trunk increases. In addition, once the tree is rooted and there isn’t a concern of it falling over, removing the tree staking and guying is beneficial since it is said having a tree sway in the breeze stimulates growth and strengthens its trunk. Caretakers should also check for girdling roots (roots that encircle or wrap around the base of a tree’s trunk) and remove them early, because these roots can cause significant health and safety issues down the line.³

Through strategic and thoughtful design, preservation of existing vegetation and proper planting of new material, appropriate siting of trees, utilizing native species, and xeriscaping techniques, we can create  a healthy landscape and set the trees up for success. On the other hand, by not actively thinking about and planning for new plantings and reforestation, we may create a negative impact on our natural resources. Many of today’s landscape architecture teams are rethinking how to develop and care for resilient and regenerative high-performance landscapes, while aiming to incorporate more green space into design and planning projects of all types. Moving forward into the future, we all must be mindful and respectful of the amazing resources in nature – becoming and remaining stewards of the trees as they do so much for us in return.

¹ https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2015/03/17/power-one-tree-very-air-we-breathe

² http://www.ct.gov/deep/lib/deep/forestry/cttreeownersmanual.pdf

³ www.isa-arbor.com ; Pirone’s Tree Maintenance Seventh Edition by John R. Hartman, Thomas P. Pirone & Mary Ann Sall. 

Make a Zero Waste Utensil Holder

Think through and illustrate your role in our climate challenge using the dandelion as a metaphor, and make a useful zero waste utensil holder for meals on-the-go.

Photo by Irina Boersma, Courtesy of Space10

By Susan Gladwin, Climate Tech Business Leader and Sustainability Strategist

Think through and illustrate your role in our climate challenge using the dandelion as a metaphor, and make a useful zero waste utensil holder for meals on-the-go.

Repurpose 2 pieces of cloth cut to 20″ x 20″ each

Find 1 ribbon or cord, 30″ long, folded in half for the ties

Assemble Scissors, pins, needle & thread or sewing machine, iron

Also useful Textile markers for optional decoration

Be a dandelion! Dandelions are remarkable plants, too often vilified as weeds. Their deep taproots aerate poor soil, improving drainage and mineral uptake for other plants. Their leaves and flowers are edible, medicinal and full of nutrients. Early blooming, they provide needed food to pollinators. And their seeds disperse abundantly, making the plant an apt metaphor for the power of collective action! 

Roots Who, where, and what are your roots? How will climate change impact them? What knowledge and wisdom can be found in them? How can you return nourishment to the place from where you come? 

Stem What are your skills, talents, and resources? Where do you have access and influence? What values ground you? 

Leaves What needs to be done in order to build a healthier and more just world? Learn about climate solutions at www.drawdown.org. On which one will you focus?

Flower What brings you joy? What nourishes you? How do you rejuvenate? Finding where climate action intersects with your sources of joy will help you stay the course in hard times.

Seeds Communicate your concerns, needs, and actions to your family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, elected officials. Bring this activity to your communities. Join an existing climate action group and organize! 

How to Meet Your Climate Responsibility

Design gas out of your life. Then design it out of your town.

 Changes in global average temperature from 1850 to 2020 by Ed Hawkins, professor of climate science at the University of Reading, UK. “The planet is warming due to human activities, primarily burning fossil fuels and deforestation.” See here for details.

By Lisa Cunningham and Jesse Gray

Your story may be very similar to ours. Like us, you are probably already worried about climate change. You’ve noticed that dire news of our rapidly warming earth is no longer just from distant parts, affecting people and places we see only in photos. 

Extreme heat (1) has come to our own backyards. (2) Massive fires have hit those we know and love. The same with extreme storms and flooding. The news is no longer just about starving polar bears, retreating glaciers, and collapsing ice sheets. It’s about tipping points, an increasingly hot planet, (3) with greenhouse gas concentrations hitting record highs (4) and destined only to go higher. (5) Two of the most conservative organizations—the International Energy Agency (6) and the UN International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (7)—have recently issued the same stark warning: in order to avoid catastrophic climate change, we must stop using fossil fuels immediately. 

As we write, record breaking heat, (8) drought, fires, and smoke are being felt all over the United States. But let’s be very clear—our climate crisis doesn’t affect everyone equally. It disproportionately affects those most at risk (9) who suffer at the expense of our wasteful policies, with higher temperatures and a lack of clean air and clean water, resulting in significantly worse health outcomes and opportunities. It disproportionately affects those in sacrifice zones (10) living in the shadow of toxic oil and gas operations, workers unable to escape this extreme heat, (11,12) as well as those living in tropical climates and flood-prone areas, causing mass migration (13) and upheaval across the world. Due to racism and economic inequality, these burdens fall disproportionately on Black and brown and low-income people all over the world, including here in the United States. 

One of us, Jesse, was born at 332 parts per million (PPM) CO2. In 2017, he awoke from climate denial and made it his hobby to design gas out of his life. For what it’s worth, Jesse is a neurogenomicist by day who did not contest the science of global warming. Rather, his denial was the denial that arises in all of us when we mean well but can’t quite figure out what to do to help. He had despaired every time he filled up his gas tank, but he hadn’t known what to do differently. 

For the other of us, Lisa, an architect and designer, born at 315 parts per million CO2, “energy efficiency” used to be the mantra. Gas was better than oil—or that was the well-accepted story—more insulation was better than less, and creating an airtight building was good enough. At a certain point, she awoke and realized that “efficiency,” while critical, was not going to get us to where we need to go, because we can’t “efficiency” our way to zero emissions. Even an “efficient” gas furnace still produces 100% greenhouse gas emissions for decades, emissions that we can no longer afford any of, not in the future and not now. The same with our internal combustion vehicles, no matter if they are sippers or guzzlers. Efficiency alone won’t get us to where we need to go fast enough. 

Now at 419 PPM CO2, (14) we have come to a personal reckoning, as an architect, a scientist, and as frustrated climate activists. We realized that the actions that we had been taking, while more than what most people do even now, were not enough. Prior to the reckoning, we had worked on climate committees, voted the Democratic ticket, (15) attended rallies, and bought 100% green, renewable electricity. At the same time, we were also driving cars that still used gasoline and burning methane (16) by using multiple gas appliances inside our own homes. 

The authors, Lisa Cunningham and Jesse Gray, with students and colleagues upon passage of Brookline’s first building electrification bylaw.

In fairness to Jesse, Lisa, and all of us, it wasn’t until the past few years that it became truly practical to take significant personal action on climate. Most of us haven’t yet fully absorbed this new information, and there is a reason why. The oil and gas industry, who have been in a decades-long denial and cover up (17) of the severe consequences of climate change, and continue to actively undercut climate action, (18) don’t want you to know this. The mainstream media (19) hasn’t been helping, either. 

We knew that fossil fuels—gas, oil, methane and in fact all “combustion” fuels—were killing us, (20) producing emissions that are incompatible with the future of life as we know it. (21) But we now know that we don’t need them. We have come to understand that gas is not the “clean” fuel that the oil and gas industry have been promoting and glamorizing. We have learned that gas is as polluting as coal, emitting methane, (22) a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon, from leaky pipelines and old gas infrastructure, (23) and from burning and leaks from wells, not to mention the devastating effects of gas extraction from fracking. (24) 

The good news is that life—and design—is actually better without gas and other fossil fuels. It’s not a sacrifice. Not only is all-electric technology necessary to reduce our carbon emissions, eliminating combustion (25) (from ALL sources, including wood and biomass) produces cleaner air and significantly improved health outcomes. The technology is here, we just need to embrace it. (26) And as in all technological advances—think computer and cellphone technology—embracing this change is not just a scientific and moral imperative, but will also spur job creation and promote enormous economic opportunity. 

 Graph source.

Everyday Options for Environmentally Friendly Alternatives

If you drive a car, it’s much nicer—and a lot more fun—to drive an electric vehicle. (27) You can pre-heat and pre-cool from your phone— even in a closed garage, without the risk of death by asphyxiation! You don’t have to make a special trip to get gas. Instead, you leave every morning with a full charge. For those without a charger where they live, which is many of us, public charging stations make electric car ownership practical for condo owners and renters. And for those who care about performance, electric motors respond instantly, providing full torque from a standstill and rivaling even the sportiest of conventional gas-combustion vehicles.

Even as we switch to all-electric vehicles, we can be healthier and reduce our emissions even faster by advocating for, and using if possible, public transit. EV technology is also being adopted for school buses, public transit, and public works vehicles, which will lead to cleaner air and eventually zero emissions in these sectors.

Life is healthier and more comfortable at home without gas, too. Heat pumps—we are not talking the old resistance heat of decades ago—provide more comfort than fossil fuel combustion furnaces, supply both heating and cooling in the same system, and operate with high efficiency, even in cold climates like New England. Induction ranges have the power to boil water almost twice as fast and heat more evenly than gas, and are in widespread use throughout Europe and the rest of the world. All this without spewing dangerous pollutants like carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide and formaldehyde into your home, (28) and significantly increasing your children’s risk of asthma and other harmful health effects, which can’t be said of your gas stove.

In short, it makes sense to design fossil fuels out of our lives and work, starting now. There is a lot of work to be done. The bar will keep going up. Yesterday it was hybrids, but today it’s electric vehicles. Yesterday it was converting from oil to gas, but today it’s converting from gas to electric. Tomorrow, we will begin to dismantle the gas grid.

The apparent magnitude of what needs to be done exhausts the human psyche, and it’s one reason we haven’t acted faster—we don’t know how to start. But instead of thinking of reasons why we can’t do something, we need to start thinking of why we can. (29) We can’t wait for perfect solutions, or solutions that don’t require us to do anything, or solutions that everyone, including the oil and gas industry, can agree to. We need to inject climate, as a priority, into absolutely every aspect of our lives, right now. (30) Our car purchases, our home improvement projects, our daily conversations, our design efforts, and our messaging. (31)

It helps to keep it simple, and focus on what’s most impactful. Here’s simple: get rid of gas. Start by designing gas out of your life. It’s easier than you think. Start with your appliances: your cooktop or range, your water heater, your clothes dryer. Replace your car, or ditch it altogether, and when you can, your furnace as well. Never go to a gas station or to get an oil change again. Get a free home energy audit, (32) replace your lightbulbs, and sign up for 100% renewable energy. (33) For extra credit—and to add money into your bank account—install solar panels on your roof or condo building if feasible, further reducing your energy needs while taking full advantage of federal (34) and state (35) subsidies. Design gas out.

Graph source: Architecture 2030 and IPCC SR15, Table 2.2

 But this isn’t just about individual choices. That is just a first step, and not an option for many of us. However, those of us that can make these changes need to do so, and as quickly as possible. Consumer demand creates more demand, changes false perceptions fueled by oil and gas industry lobbying, (36) and leads to lower costs and more innovation, (37) eventually benefiting everyone, even those who are not able to take these first steps. 

This is also about creating a movement, and to do that, we need everyone on board. Yes, you. A movement takes more than tweets, posts, protests, and personal action. In order to do what needs to be done, no one can afford to stay on the sidelines any more. Individual actions need to be backed up by the power of activism, and those of us who have the privilege of time and money must participate to the fullest. For systemic change, we need laws at all levels of government to support our actions. (38) 

So, if you’re feeling ambitious, and we know you are, take the next step and design it into law. Right now, local law is the law that is hardest for the fossil fuel and dark money interests to fight. Local law is the law that can be written by volunteer citizens not beholden to fossil fuel interests. Local law bends first to our will, as the first record of a new political consensus. 

What do we mean by this? Beginning in 2019, a new local law in California banning gas in new buildings spread from Berkeley to San Jose, soon Sacramento, and then to almost 50 towns and cities in CA. (39) This law denies building permits for projects that would install gas systems during new construction. It protects you, as a property owner or renter, from builders, architects, and landlords who are wasting your time and money by installing systems that actually have to be replaced so that we can meet our climate targets. This new law is a practical step, as well as a fiscally conservative one. 

The law leapt from California to the Boston suburb of Brookline, MA, where we copied Berkeley and took it further, in spite of our cold weather climate. Our legislation (40) prohibited fossil fuel systems not only in new construction, but also in gut renovations. We also added practical exemptions and a waiver process, to ensure that our bylaw could be easily implemented. This legislation passed overwhelmingly in Brookline because we convinced our Town Meeting that fossil fuel free construction is both practical and cost-effective, particularly at the point when systems are being replaced or installed. Just as importantly, it makes no fiscal or moral sense to install new fossil fuel systems that are designed to last for 30 years or more, well past the point when we know we must be carbon free. 

After we passed our bylaw, we had many towns and cities contact us to say that they wanted to follow in our footsteps and pass similar legislation. This interest led to the launch of a statewide building electrification movement, a movement that has grown and spread throughout the state and beyond as many municipalities recognize the practicality, the urgency, and the fiscally prudent path of pursuing net-zero (41) and fossil fuel free construction. (42) With the Brookline by-law in mind, the Massachusetts state legislature, with recent climate legislation, (43) opened the door a crack. Backed by the knowledge that municipalities all over the State are clamoring for action, (44) our state legislators even stood firm when the governor twice balked and tried to veto the critical building electrification components of this legislation. This is progress. 

And yet, the progress is not fast enough or certain enough, and it is still no more than studies and talk. In Massachusetts, National Grid and Eversource are in sync with national oil and gas industry talking points (45) and just formed a regional gas-promoting cabal called the “Consortium to Combat Electrification.” (46) Governor Baker set an important goal, including decarbonizing one million existing Massachusetts buildings in the next nine years and 300-400 million square feet of commercial real estate, (47) but there is no plan (48) or political path to make that happen. Instead, we are building new buildings every day with fossil fuel systems that will need to be replaced well before their useful lives are up, at far greater cost. 

Our first Brookline by-law was struck down during legal review by the Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey. While expressing full support for our policy goals, (49) she ruled that we had run afoul of competing legal priorities legislated long ago, including a right for utilities to sell gas. These are not the priorities we should have, but unlike California, it is the state law that we do have. 

Undeterred, we have continued to press ahead to find other legal mechanisms to circumvent these outdated and counter-productive legacy laws. In December 2020, we passed a Home Rule Petition asking the State Legislature to allow our 2019 bylaw. A mere six months later, four other Massachusetts towns had already followed suit, with more municipalities in the pipeline. (50) 

Most recently, in early June 2021, we took yet a further step here in Brookline, taking another shot-on-goal with a new by-law. It does not ban gas, but it creates a strong disincentive to build with gas. It applies only to projects that require zoning relief, which is a lot of projects in our town. Still subject to review by the Attorney General, this legislation (51) sends a clear signal: if the state can’t get started, then municipalities, beginning with Brookline, will drag it kicking and screaming into the future. 

This is already a story about the power of grassroots local assertiveness. Our local action, even with legal setbacks, has spurred both more local and statewide action. And state action spurs federal action. 

Now we are asking for your help. Take a step yourself, in your own life, toward getting rid of gas, and then go one step further: get others to do so as well. If you are a designer, an architect, or a planner, then you are both a communicator and a problem solver, and you wield a lot of power. Use that power. Be a Clean Creative. (52) Counter the lies and the misinformation, design your projects (53) and your life without fossil fuels. Communicate the urgency of this problem, join one of the many groups that are fighting for change. Start with your own community and act as though your life—and your children’s lives—depend on it. Because it really does. (54) 

Then, identify local legislation that could be impactful, practical, and politically possible in your community, wherever you are. We can help. We weren’t experts, and you don’t have to be either. Join or form a team of committed volunteers. Connect with allies. Meet the local power brokers. Draft an ordinance or by-law. Incorporate feedback. Get it passed. Does your community have a community choice electricity program? If not, start one. Are your schools and municipal buildings being built to net-zero standards? If not, make sure they are. Electrify your municipal fleet and clean your community’s air while protecting our children all at the same time. In every community that has done this—and there are too many to count—an individual just like you was the catalyst for these actions. Be that person. 

We all need to change, and to convince others to change. Join us, and you may find, as we did, that there are rewards not only in changing the minds of others, but also in changing ourselves.

(1) www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/06/16/heat-wave-west-record-temperatures/

(2) www.nytimes.com/2021/07/17/climate/heatwave-weather-hot.html

(3) www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=hD3USZ9t&id=7BFD2CA6AF572C0864D5564483A9DF9AA16E6091&thid=OIP.hD3USZ9tNZpfBhaoIYMppwHaEK&mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2fmedia1.s-nbcnews.com%2fj%2fnewscms%2f2019_06%2f2743746%2f190206-global-heat-map-nasa-2018-gif-cs-1106a_29461617254943fcc519cbd6710e1fd5.nbcnews-fp-1200-630.gif&cdnurl=https%3a%2f%2fth.bing.com%2fth%2fid%2fR843dd4499f6d359a5f0616a8218329a7%3frik%3dkWBuoZrfqYNEVg%26pid%3dImgRaw&exph=585&expw=1040&q=nasa+photos+of+warming+planet&simid=608030531565191685&ck=C7888EA6E4CC82486E9362AA0F096CE9&selectedIndex=0&idpp=overlayview&ajaxhist=0&ajaxserp=0

(4) thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/current-time/

(5) www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/npr/1004097672/carbon-dioxide-which-drives-climate-change-reaches-highest-level-in-4-million-years

(6) www.nytimes.com/2021/05/18/climate/climate-change-emissions-IEA.html

(7) www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/23/climate-change-dangerous-thresholds-un-report

(8) https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/50-million-americans-under-warnings-as-heat-wave-smashes-records-in-the-west-fuels-dangerous-wildfires/ar-AAL5m13?ocid=undefined

(9) www.niehs.nih.gov/health/materials/climate_and_human_health_508.pdf

(10) grist.org/fix/americans-live-sacrifice-zones-lets-fix-that/#:~:text=Black%2520and%2520brown%2520people%2520also%2520make%2520up%2520the,on%2520an%2520even%2520darker%2520meaning%2520during%2520the%2520pandemic.

(11) www.washingtonpost.com/national/heat-wave-west-coast/2021/06/19/da028a60-d14c-11eb-8014-2f3926ca24d9_story.html

(12) www.nytimes.com/2021/07/15/climate/heat-injuries.html

(13) www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/07/19/guatemala-immigration-climate-change-499281

(14) www.sealevel.info/co2_and_ch4.html

(15) www.nytimes.com/2021/06/30/opinion/climate-change-congress.html

(16) www.nytimes.com/2021/04/24/climate/methane-leaks-united-nations.html

(17) www.theguardian.com/business/2016/may/20/oil-company-records-exxon-co2-emission-reduction-patents

(18) www.nytimes.com/2021/06/30/climate/exxon-greenpeace-lobbyist-video.html

(19) www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/03/media-climate-change-crisis-emergency?utm_campaign=Carbon%2520Brief%2520Daily%2520Briefing&utm_content=20210604&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%2520Daily&utm_source=Energy+News+Network+daily+email+digests&utm_campaign=9d10cd90a4-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_05_11_11_46_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_724b1f01f5-9d10cd90a4-89304872

(20) www.hsph.harvard.edu/c-change/news/fossil-fuel-air-pollution-responsible-for-1-in-5-deaths-worldwide/

(21) www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/23/climate-change-dangerous-thresholds-un-report

(22) www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/methane

(23) rmi.org/a-new-approach-to-americas-rapidly-aging-gas-infrastructure/

(24) www.psr.org/blog/resource/fracking-compendium/

(25) www.hsph.harvard.edu/c-change/news/gas-biomass/

(26) www.nytimes.com/2021/06/08/opinion/climate-change-electricity-fossil-fuels.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article

(27) www.hsph.harvard.edu/electric-cars/

(28) rmi.org/insight/gas-stoves-pollution-health

(29) heated.world/p/what-can-i-do-anything

(30) www.hsph.harvard.edu/magazine/magazine_article/no-time-to-waste/

(31) fossilfree.media/#blog

(32) www.masssave.com/

(33) www.epa.gov/greenpower/community-choice-aggregation

(34) www.energy.gov/eere/solar/homeowners-guide-federal-tax-credit-solar-photovoltaics

(35) www.dsireusa.org/

(36) www.facebook.com/watch/?v=915740298972039

(37) ourworldindata.org/cheap-renewables-growth?campaign_id=116&emc=edit_pk_20210817&instance_id=38115&nl=paul-krugman&regi_id=23409218&segment_id=66468&te=1&user_id=06f382b4308003f3dcb8fc5289ff872b

(38) www.nytimes.com/2021/08/31/opinion/climate-change-carbon-neutral.html?campaign_id=39&emc=edit_ty_20210831&instance_id=39239&nl=opinion-today&regi_id=23409218&segment_id=67679&te=1&user_id=06f382b4308003f3dcb8fc5289ff872b

(39) www.sierraclub.org/articles/2021/07/californias-cities-lead-way-gas-free-future

(40) www.brooklinema.gov/DocumentCenter/View/20839/ARTICLE-21-as-voted-per-Town-Clerk?bidId=

(41) builtenvironmentplus.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/MAisReadyforNetZero_03.01.21.pdf

(42) rmi.org/insight/the-new-economics-of-electrifying-buildings/

(43) www.wbur.org/earthwhile/2021/03/26/new-mass-climate-law-faq

(44) docs.google.com/document/d/1NPqPOnF1oTdZ5YWtbIPVSFzautS-A7L1KcFIv0MP-Pk/edit

(45) www.fastcompany.com/90621117/the-oil-and-gas-industry-is-in-denial-about-its-own-demise

(46) www.enn.com/articles/67740-a-leading-us-utility-stealthily-fights-the-electrification-of-heating-systems

(47) www.mass.gov/doc/interim-clean-energy-and-climate-plan-for-2030-december-30-2020/download 

(48) www.bostonglobe.com/2021/08/21/science/massachusetts-should-be-converting-100000-homes-year-electric-heat-actual number-461/?s_campaign=breakingnews:newsletter

(49) www.boston.com/news/local-news/2020/07/22/maura-healey-brookline-oil-gas-ban-ruling/

(50) www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/mass-climate-act-advances-movement-to-restrict-natural-gas-use-in-buildings-63403916

(51) blogs.law.columbia.edu/climatechange/2021/05/28/emerging-local-legal-pathways-for-building-electrification-air-pollution-and-land-use-regulation-in-new-york-city-brookline-massachusetts/

(52) cleancreatives.org/about

(53) www.aia.org/resources/202041-the-2030-commitment

(54) www.nytimes.com/2021/08/19/opinion/climate-un-report-greta-thunberg.html 

Creativity Under Constraint with SXD

A Zero Waste Design-Tech Startup

Image courtesy of Shelly Xu

By Shelly Xu, Founder of SXD 

Our clothing, our second skin, is one of the biggest polluters on our planet. 

The global apparel industry produces about 92 million tons of textile waste a year. (1) That is about one garbage truck’s worth of fabric waste getting landfilled or burned every second, according to a 2017 report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. (2) I have seen my own childhood playground in Asia turn into a textile dumpster. The apparel industry is also notorious for unethical labor practices, and in Bangladesh, one of the top clothing manufacturers on earth, climate change is estimated to displace one in every seven people by 2050, many of them seamstresses. (3)

From organic cotton to recycling, increasingly more brands are seeking sustainable and ethical solutions. However, today’s sustainable fashion is an unpopular compromise. Sustainable clothing often costs more but doesn’t look better. Which is why only an insignificant fraction of people are actually buying sustainable fashion for their closets. When our team at Shelly Xu Design (SXD) began exploring this problem, we surveyed over 2000 people, and we learned that today’s sustainable fashion too often felt like a costly replica of existing basics—an uninspiring guilt trip that doesn’t feel worth it. 

No matter how sustainable a piece of clothing is, if it’s not bought, worn, and loved by the wearer, it’s simply more waste. 

To drive scaled adoption in sustainable fashion is to shift human behaviors. Just like how Tesla attracts even the non-environmentalists with their well designed cars, design will be a powerful tool for building desire and shifting behaviors in the apparel industry.

Image courtesy of Shelly Xu

Design Journey

My design journey began when I was just two years old. My earliest memory was sitting on a refrigerator while dining with my parents in a 70 sq ft home. We could only fit one table or one bed at a time, so we rearranged furniture to make daily life work. That was how I learned about creativity under constraints—discovering what’s possible with limited resources.

This concept fuels me and SXD’s zero waste designs. Today, fashion designs often start on a sketchbook or a drawing pad. The unconstrained artistic vision comes first. The fabric material is then cut to fit the shape of the vision. This process wastes 10-30% of the fabric and demands new fabric orders without addressing accumulated old fabric. On the other hand, SXD’s zero waste designs maximize desirability while acknowledging the limited resources on our planet, using leftover fabrics and not wasting anything, and designing within the boundaries of the existing fabric dimensions.

Image courtesy of Shelly Xu

Solution Building and Team Building

When I first began SXD, I tested desirability by starting an anonymous Instagram account and uploading zero waste design illustrations without actually revealing that the designs were zero waste. This allowed me to test whether or not people would find the product appealing even without the sustainability label. Shortly after opening this account, over 10,000 users began following the designs.

I then tested if the aesthetic was good enough to not only attract engagement but also conversion. I translated the most popular illustrations into real zero waste clothing, and sold them through Instagram for $300 each. I deliberately made the price high enough to ensure that the purchaser truly loved the design—it was not just a purchase out of kindness to support a new designer. At the same time, I also ensured that the price was low enough to still be accessible to many people, as the average US household spending on clothing is $1000-$2000 per year. When these zero waste clothing prototypes consistently sold out, I realized that we were getting closer to desirability.

Desirability in design is not only about creating aesthetic pieces, but also about creating accessibility and function.

Accessibility means designs that cost less rather than more to produce and scale. While many sustainable methods in fashion—from textile innovation to artisan work—add to the cost, zero waste designs have the potential to save cost by reducing fabric consumption. This can have a massive impact, as fabric is often the number one or two biggest cost that goes into apparel production.

Image courtesy of Shelly Xu

Desirability in design is not only about creating aesthetic pieces, but also about creating accessibility and function.

Minimizing cost requires a combination of design and technology. Today, fashion designers are often far removed from engineers, so no creative designer is truly factoring in manufacturing efficiency. This is why sustainability efforts so far have been incremental rather than fundamental, and tend to add cost rather than subtract. For SXD, we built a team that combined design and engineering from step one, so our products are inherently efficient and easy to scale. We also deliberately design timeless garments with pockets that adapt to changing bodies. These versatile designs are more appealing to the modern customer who needs not only fashion but also function. 

Combining design and engineering early on allowed our team to create highly efficient apparel that saves about 55% in production cost. We achieve this through minimal cuts, minimal fabric consumption, and zero fabric waste. 

Photo by James Cheong

Photo by Joe Thomas

Developing our team also expanded my perspective around the ethics of apparel creation. Even before starting SXD, I already knew about unethical labor practices in the fashion industry, but I did not know the magnitude of it and how much unethical manufacturing practices and climate change are linked. Diving into the people behind the clothing taught me that the biggest manufacturing countries are also the worst hit by climate change. For example, in Bangladesh— one of the biggest clothing manufacturers in the world—textile waste is taking over, and by 2050, climate change will displace ~20 million people4 in the country. Understanding this pushed me to rethink my production model. I shifted SXD from a US-only to a global lens. I started learning more about climate refugees and onboarded Ahmed Fardin, a Bangladeshi engineer from Cambridge University who also researched zero waste design. Together, we began forming a network of climate refugees, paid them ~4x the local wage, and trained them to create zero waste clothing. We also worked with the nonprofit Youth Worldwide Foundation, which provides refugee skills training and hygiene support. As we incorporate automation to scale zero waste designs, we will be automating the most tedious parts for climate refugees rather than taking away jobs. This includes automating sampling, cutting and packaging. Understanding the refugees’ stories has also changed my design. I deliberately create minimal designs that are unisex, one-size-fits-all, and simple in cuts so that we can hire even the newly trained climate refugees. 

Photos by Stephanie Cheong

Impact

So far, SXD’s prototypes alone have led to enough fabric “unwasted” to hang from a skyscraper’s 60th floor, over 240K liters of water saved (by upcycling rather than dying any fabric), and over 1 million interactions with our open source zero waste designs. Most of these interactions come from aspiring designers seeking a new way of creating clothing. We have also sold out prototypes with a growing waitlist, and have been invited to all major fashion weeks around the world. 

But we are even more excited about the path ahead. 

Just dropping products alone will not shift the multi-trillion dollar fashion industry. Once we have proven that we can produce solid zero waste designs that are sustainable, ethical and desirable, we will plug our work into other brands to broaden our influence. We are currently working on two partnership projects, turning best sellers of global apparel brands into zero waste clothing. We are also investing in technology that can automate zero waste designs to adapt to various brand styles at scale. 

The apparel industry produces approximately 92 million tons of textile waste a year. Our mission is to make this number zero. 

Photo by James Cheong

1. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200710-why-clothes-are-so-hard-to-recycle
2. https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/news/one-garbage-truck-of-textiles-wasted-every-second-report-creates-vision-for-change
3. https://ejfoundation.org/reports/climate-displacement-in-bangladesh
4. https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/bangladesh-country-underwater-culture-move

Designs for Living with Rising Seas

Students Envision an Adaptive Future

Looking into the Marshland from ‘A Working Waterfront’ by Niema Jafari, Xuefeng Du, and Kevin Gao – Image courtesy of Yale University

By Claire Martin, Project Manager, ReMain Nantucket

Coastal communities are on the front lines of our generation’s most imminent threat: climate change. We see the impacts of this daily, even when the seas are calm and the sun is shining.

At a continuously increasing rate, coastal ecosystems are threatened by the acidification of the ocean, homes and dunescapes are lost to erosion, sedimentation and rising groundwater levels, and low-lying neighborhoods and wetlands are regularly inundated with water from high tides, storm surge, and sunny day flooding. By the mid-century, oceanside towns and cities around the world will likely be under several feet of water due to rising sea levels. 

How does a community imagine a future with rising seas and regularly flooded buildings and roadways? Will neighborhoods retreat or adapt? What deserves to be protected or saved and who gets to make those decisions? How long will it take for policy on the local, state, and federal levels to catch up with innovative solutions that allow our communities to live with water?

Design, by nature, is a catalyst for change. After all, human beings need to be able to envision and imagine something before they can begin to work toward it. In late 2019, ReMain Nantucket—an island-organization dedicated to strengthening the economic, social and environmental vitality of downtown Nantucket—set out to discover how design might impact decisions and attitudes around coastal resilience. Could design reach across disciplines and allow coastal residents to consider the future impacts of climate change and rising seas with a hopeful lens? Could graduate students be a powerful vehicle for painting a picture of an adaptive Nantucket waterfront that inspires change? 

Sunny day flooding, also known as nuisance flooding or high-tide flooding, continues to set records year after year, measured by data collected from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association’s 98 tide gauges set along the U.S. coastline. In July, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released its 2021 State of High Tide Flooding and Annual Outlook report. High-tide flooding in coastal communities in the U.S. continued to set records in 2020, a trend that experts expect will only continue. Between May 2020 and April 2021, the number of sunny day flooding events across 14 coastal communities was the same or set a new record as the prior year. During that same time period, the number of high-tide flooding days was double what it was in the early 2000s. The report authors predict that by 2050, there will be 25 to 75 high-tide flooding days each year in U.S. coastal communities.1 

Right as the Town of Nantucket officially adopted NOAA’s high scenario sea level rise projections for planning purposes in September of 2020, ReMain Nantucket had developed a model that would bring together the insights of local experts, the innovative thinking of graduate students, and the stories of people who call the island home. The model came to be called the Envision Resilience Nantucket Challenge,2 a spring 2021 virtual design studio led by Carolyn Cox of the University of Florida’s Florida Climate Institute. There were five participating universities: the University of Florida College of Design, Construction and Planning, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, University of Miami School of Architecture, the School of Architecture at Northeastern University, and the Yale School of Architecture. 

Northeastern student Ke-Ping (Cammy) Kuo’s concept for an integrated coastline protection and aquaculture structure; image courtesy of Northeastern University

Rendering by Erika Blandon; image courtesy of the University of Florida 

The goal of the Envision Resilience Nantucket Challenge was to inspire the community to imagine a future that is adaptive in the face of sea level rise; to empower residents in coastal communities around the world to imagine rising water in a positive, even hopeful, way. Instead of being consumed by fear, the questions became, can we live productively and positively with rising sea levels? Can we adapt in ways that view increased water as an opportunity rather than a threat? 

For coastal communities, including island communities like Nantucket, the data can be staggering. By 2050, an estimated 900 buildings on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard could see daily high-tide flooding.3 That’s according to The Trustees of Reservations 2021 State of the Coast report, which highlighted probabilities of extreme storm events under which Nantucket could see 69 miles of flooded roadway and 1,436 flooded structures in the event of a 10-year storm and 95 miles of flooded roadway and 1,932 flooded structures in the event of a 100-year storm. The report emphasized that vulnerable communities, like the islands off the coast of Massachusetts, have just 10 to 20 years before the impacts of a changing climate are lapping at the front door and the ability for the community to change and adapt is no longer viable. 

Today, however, students who took part in the Envision Resilience Nantucket Challenge might not see those numbers as staggering. Where some typically saw disaster, these designers saw opportunity. Teams of students from leading design schools spent the spring semester collaborating to reimagine development and use along the Nantucket waterfront. Guided by the leadership of advisory committee co-chairs Morris (Marty) Hylton III—historic architect for climate change adaptation for the National Park Service—and Robert Miklos—founding principal of designLAB architects—the teams took an iterative, design-driven approach focused on three study areas along the harbor: 

Low-lying Brant Point neighborhood, which was built on wetlands and is thus one of the most vulnerable to increased storm-related and sunny day flooding.

The island’s historic downtown with ports for the only two ferry terminals offering service to the mainland.

Washington Street, which is the main artery for traffic in and out of downtown Nantucket and the only corridor large enough for trucks carrying fuel and food to access the rest of the island. 

By April, the students—who were working across as many as 14 time zones and had not yet stepped foot on the island because of the Covid-19 pandemic—had pioneered a diverse array of adaptive designs for not just protecting, but enhancing the island’s infrastructure, coastline, neighborhoods, and public spaces against the impacts of sea level rise. 

“I think one of the real benefits of the Challenge is that no one expects students to solve the problem,” said lead professor Jeff Carney, associate professor, School of Architecture, University of Florida. “They’re learning. So we’re freed from that responsibility, but at the same time we have a real opportunity to provoke the conversation around the issues of climate change. It’s really exciting for me to see communities rise to that opportunity.” 

Proposals for an adaptive Nantucket4 included buoyant foundations for private residences, a flood-resilient town square, and green energy systems to replace existing grey infrastructure. Students proposed landscapes serving as retention basins, artificial reefs to curb storm surge and aid sand movement, permeable surfaces along major streets, and areas restored to natural sanctuaries. Several groups imagined new economies fueled by ecotourism and aquaculture.

Rendering by Alexander Boucher; image courtesy of the University of Florida 

Instead of being consumed by fear, the questions became, can we live productively and positively with rising sea levels? Can we adapt in ways that view increased water as an opportunity rather than a threat?

“[This Challenge] is a brilliant use of academia,” said Professor Anne Tate of the Rhode Island School of Design during an internal jury review of student work in April. “People don’t know how to move forward if they can’t see where they’re going. Providing this plethora of visions and solutions, all packaged together in this very forward-looking and optimistic way, is an absolutely tremendous gift to Nantucket and to the public officials who are going to have to figure out how to move forward.” 

So how does a community begin to imagine a future under rising sea levels? Did we decide what deserves to be saved and who will make those decisions? Can the work of the students influence leaders and constituents to inform policy and regulations? 

These are big questions to tackle. And they certainly can’t begin to be tackled without first identifying the unique makeup of a town, the value systems of the community, and the livelihoods and ways of life of its inhabitants. But through the remarkable design work of the students, Nantucket as a community can envision a future that is wetter, but no less beautiful. 

Image courtesy of the University of Miami

Image courtesy of the University of Miami

Images created by Casale Ulloa 

The diversity, the thoughtfulness, and the integrity of the student presentations far exceeded all expectations in inspiring the ReMain Nantucket team and the advisors to look differently at issues of resilience and to perhaps take on these challenges with renewed strength. On June 2, the community of Nantucket gathered outdoors for a public presentation to learn from the five university teams and discuss how, in unison with coastal communities worldwide, we might learn to live with water. 

“There’s something pretty magical about a community being able to bring together all of these students and academic professionals,” said Paula Christina Viala, a participating student on the University of Miami team. “That meaningful community engagement was a big takeaway of the Challenge for me. A lot of beautiful things can come out of that.” 

Forums, exhibitions, and conversations like those that the Envision Resilience Nantucket Challenge continues to foster are essential in moving coastal communities forward in the face of sea level rise and the impacts of climate change. The hope through this Challenge is that beyond the island of Nantucket, coastal towns and cities around the world are also inspired by the innovative and adaptive proposals of the students to be creative and bold in envisioning a resilient future. 

ReMain Nantucket and ReMain Ventures are funded by Wendy Schmidt and her husband Eric to support the economic, social, and environmental vitality of the island of Nantucket.

In addition to providing grants and sponsorships to support sustainable and cultural initiatives across the island, ReMain Nantucket has worked in conjunction with ReMain Ventures to revitalize the downtown district year-round through the preservation of historic buildings that are home to a mix of nonprofit and commercial businesses.

For more information, visit envisionresilience.org

1. https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/publications/2021_State_of_High_Tide_Flooding_and_Annual_Outlook_Final.pdf
2. https://www.envisionresilience.org
3. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ce308a7514487000112e19b/t/610729cb96cbc243b9e38fdb/1627859414380/SOC_2021_IslandsReport_Web.pdf
4. https://www.envisionresilience.org/meet-the-teams

Cultivating a Counter to Climate Change

Regenerative Practices in Agriculture

Photos by Leia Vita Marasovich

A conversation between Jonathan Anderson, Human Centered Design Practitioner, and David Leon, Co-founder and Executive Director, Farmer’s Footprint

In the following conversation, Human Centered Design Practitioner and CoDesign Collaborative Council Member Jonathan Anderson leads a conversation with David Leon, the Co-founder and Executive Director of the Farmer’s Footprint, a coalition of farmers, educators, doctors, scientists, and business leaders aiming to expose the human and environmental impacts of chemical farming and offer a path forward through regenerative agricultural practices.

Jonathan and David discuss the pitfalls of traditional commercial farming, what can be done to combat the negative impacts of farming on the environment, and how designers can get involved in catalyzing the change that is necessary to promote sustainable and regenerative agricultural practices into the future.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. 

Jonathan Anderson: I am thrilled that we are able to have this conversation, because this is an opportunity for us to put some really good information out there that allows people to reframe the way that they see some of the challenges that we face around climate, agriculture, and human health. And to begin this information exchange, David, I would love for you to introduce yourself and talk about Farmer’s Footprint.

David Leon: Absolutely, so I serve as the Co-founder and Executive Director of a nonprofit called Project Biome; the front-facing program is called Farmer’s Footprint. We founded the organization in 2019, with the initial inspiration coming from my co-founder, Dr. Zach Bush, who’s a clinical physician, was a cancer therapies researcher, and has worked in academia. When Zach transitioned out of cancer therapies research, he started a rural clinic in Virginia and he noticed right away that there was a lot of chronic disease in those populations. He was working with nutrition as one of the main ways that he was treating those patients, putting them on plant-based diets in an effort to lower what he understood to be high inflammation markers, perhaps coming out of the food that they were consuming. However, even with the healthier diet, he was actually seeing inflammation markers increase, in some cases. That got him really curious about what was going on with the produce that they were eating. 

To find some answers, he started to look into food production. Specifically, he looked at glyphosate, which is probably the most ubiquitous herbicide that’s used in modern agriculture. He began his analysis along the Mississippi River and started measuring the water for glyphosate. His full grasp of what was going on really came to fruition, though, when he started meeting some of the farmers along those systems. What he found was farmers grappling with the effects of modern agricultural practices—the changes that they were seeing in their land and that they were feeling themselves. Zach found communities trapped in a prescriptive, big-agriculture paradigm, where someone comes out to the farms— the equivalent of a pharmaceutical rep—runs some tests, and prescribes farmers a slew of inputs to treat the problems that were in the fields. 

For the farmers that want to transition from this system, they often face stigma in their communities, and really grapple with the internal tensions of, “This is everything I was taught not to do. I was taught to trust the science on this. We have all of these chemical inputs that produce green plants and increase yield. And this was supposed to be the right way to do it.” However, they are now seeing that, year after year, those input costs increase, the soil is unable to sustain production that it once was easily able to do, and there is an ever increasing need to add more and more fertilizers and pesticides. 

We saw this tension between the scientific community trying to explain all of these complex relationships going on between the plants, the soil, and the human microbiome, and there is still so much work to do on that front. We’ve unleashed a massive number of chemicals at a population scale, in a very uncontrolled scientific experiment that we’re all a part of, unwittingly or not. 

The goal of the Farmer’s Footprint is to tell the stories of these farmers that would resonate with people—we are all attached to this, and we all have a stake to play. We’ve gone about building a robust public platform and media organization that humanizes farmers and shares regenerative practices, and the way that this line of thinking can alter individuals’ mindsets and health, their communities, and the landscape. We sought to develop a mission that would radically scale adoption of regenerative transition. We focus on public awareness and scaling education for stakeholders in those value chains. We also work on scaling the economics of a region; scaling the dollar amounts of investable capital that can come in and meaningfully be deployed on the ground in service of this transition that we’re undergoing. We have a multi-trillion dollar food, agricultural, and industrial complex that stands at the precipice of a massive shift in the way that it approaches its work. 

We created an organization that’s about progress over perfection. We’re not demonizing the farmers or the corporations for the practices that have come to be over the arc of history. We strive to create a space that is free of prescriptive solutions and more about collaborative co-creation. That means remaining agnostic as it relates to certification paradigms that have largely stratified access to food and have not delivered the economics to farmers that was promised. We need to create spaces for first steps, small steps. And then from there, we need to find those pressure points that will radically shift systems. That’s what we’re focused on, on a day-to-day basis.

JA: One thing that strikes me is that the process to transition to regenerative agriculture is not as simple as turning on a switch and making the change. I think one of the major impediments that I’m seeing is not so much the actual physical work in the transition. Rather, it’s the actual people part of it— enabling farmers to make that transition and step out beyond the system that they have now. Is that something that you’re seeing, as well? That it’s not only about being educated, but also it’s trusting to make that leap and take that transition period, which could have an impact on revenue.

DL: That’s absolutely right. We often cite that the biggest barrier to transition is between the farmer’s ears. And that is not entirely fair, either, because it’s not just the farmer. There’s a whole system around them, including processing, logistics, CPG, and consumer tastes. There’s a lot of shifting that needs to happen, and a lot of it is in this ingrained mindset, in organizations, and in the public. This is why we unabashedly pursue the storytelling strategy. 

As an entry point for the design audience, I often think about the work that we do as deeply searching for metaphor. I think the best designs allow us to see or understand something in a way that maybe had not landed previously, or doesn’t land just in reading a book or being exposed to a TED talk. It’s this concept of, “How do you have an embodied sense of what this agricultural actually means?” Metaphors can be really valuable tools for seeing something through a different lens, a lens that, perhaps, has relevance to us in our day-to-day lives, but isn’t the obvious choice to go to in a farming context or a food context. We need folks with deep design experience that understand the process that it takes to actually change cultural norms and mindsets, which I think a lot of designers have great potential to be contributing to. 

It’s become clear to us, with the organizations that have been in the space, working on the science, and producing some really exciting results around what these practices can generate, that despite this progress, the knowledge accrued hasn’t broken into the public sphere in a way that is truly embodied and felt. In order to get people on board with this and get their expertise in front of the challenges that that incumbent community is facing, we need to also extend to designers an invitation that says, “The expertise that you’ve built, building giant brands or producing art that moves culture—we need that same expertise in service of this work.”

JA: It’s as simple as that. In my research recently, I have seen a general takeaway that we don’t need extremely complex systems to farm. Regenerative agriculture is really mimicry of nature. Of course, market gardening doesn’t exist in nature, but we try to mimic it as much as we can. The real point here is simple tools and processes can make the farm more efficient and reduce the cost. But that initial transition can be a little bit challenging, because in that transition, the systems have to recalibrate and equalize. Rather than looking at the dirt as a medium to grow plants, we’re actually looking at the microbiology in the soil to then grow the plants. It’s just a different shift. We’re becoming soil farmers instead of just farming plants. It’s a holistic system that we’re looking at.

DL: Correct, and I think what regenerative practices show us is we need to start reorganizing our ways of being in organizations and in relationship with one another to one of deep collaboration. As you get into the complexities of the microbiome and the incredible consequences that come out of that diverse collaboration, you start to wonder about some of the things that we’ve taken for granted in nature. 

That’s what nature is screaming at us to come and figure out. When the system is out of balance, we no longer have all that nature can produce. In its own brilliance, the land has provided all of the tools for us to have incredible abundance on the output with less input. We need to get into that cycle. We need to get back into that rotation. We’ve separated ourselves from it, and it is no longer serving us.

JA: It’s like the earth’s respiratory system is out of balance, and we’ve got to help right the ship. In the summertime, at least in the northern hemisphere, the impact, from what I’ve read, is that when the leaves are out and everything’s green in parts of the world, the levels of carbon in the atmosphere drop. But the problem is, this is not a healthy system; it’s broken down. And we’re seeing the impacts of climate change all around us. I wanted to put that out there to see what your thoughts are around it.

DL: I am glad that you brought up the topic of carbon levels, because I’m a little bit worried about the pervasive approach to climate change as being solely focused on sequestering carbon. Carbon is just one of the elements that must be addressed. Yes, we’ve focused on it because it’s easy to see and comprehend the negative impact of the accumulation of CO2, but it is one of many cycle centers that is in trouble in our landscape.

I have recently been struck by the way that nature moves in cycles all around us. For instance, the cicadas that we saw this year that have emerged from their 17-year cycle are a very visual representation of a long-form cycle. Everyone knows, “Oh, it’s coming, and there it is, and oh, my gosh. This is ridiculous. There’s so many bugs.” Imagine what cycles we don’t even see because of the time or scale that they’re on. So in addition to these shorter-form cycles of carbon moving through at a seasonal or daily rate, we have to think about water cycles, nitrogen cycles, and so much more. What landscape-level cycles are happening over hundreds or thousands of years that we treat as a blip on our radar for the blink of an eye that we’re on earth?

We’ve created a system fitting in productivity in a way that’s expedient for capitalism to work well, and this has been one of the downfalls of modern agriculture. We have had a laser focus on annual yield, instead of where the roots of regeneration really come out of in indigenous thought, which very wisely looks at seven generations of impact, that every year is just another step in a much longer cycle. We must observe and listen to the land and allow what we’re seeing to teach us, to give us clues about where we are, and to react responsibly and compassionately with what we’re seeing coming out of those cycles. Every time we look up and we reflect for a moment on the phase of the moon, or where the tide is today, or how the winds have shifted due to the seasonal changes or the currents in the water, these are all invitations for us to jump back into these natural cycles in a way that is ingrained in our DNA, because we have coevolved alongside the breathing of this planet.

So let’s be very careful about just focusing on just carbon. Or at least let’s acknowledge that carbon might be a moment of triage that we need to address today and urgently. Let’s not pretend that sequestering it, that putting it down deep into the ground and hoping it stays there, is what we’re ultimately after. We need to go after a balanced system once again. And that’s going to take a lot more humility than I think we’re currently approaching with some of these solutions.

JA: That is a great point, and I think we also hear the term sustainability being thrown around a lot. To me, what sustainability says is that it’s about maintaining the status quo. So I think in addition to promoting sustainability, we need to move beyond and strive for the land to end up in a better place after we’ve interacted with it. It’s not about me forcing it to go in the direction I want it to be. It’s about being the shepherd or the steward of that land, and then allowing nature to run the show. If we can do that, I think we can have a much more productive and much more balanced way of living.

DL: I love that notion, and I think what comes to mind is the idea of the tribe figure, which is the average of the five people that you spend the most time with. I would encourage people to reserve one of those slots for being in relationship with the environment. You don’t have to have access to go out into an old growth forest or a jungle waterfall. It’s not just about that. You can look up in the middle of New York City and see the moon cycle happening, or see the cicadas descending upon you, and you can be in relationship with nature at that moment. Just imagine having a friend like that. Someone that you have a deep relationship with, that is an endless fount of innovation. We mimic the folks that we look up to and that we seek to become and learn from. What an opportunity, to be four people plus nature, because what can we learn from a knowledge source like that? And how is that going to make us better at our jobs, and better at being in relationship with our family, our community, and the land we live on? 

I’ve come to start to define regenerative agriculture as relationship agriculture. I want folks to start to think of this term, not in just a set of discrete prescriptive practices like using natural fertilizer, but as an invitation to be in relationship with the farm, and that’s what stewardship really is about. If we can start to come up with that vernacular and metaphors for describing this relationship, we are going to have such a rich journey on the way to these regenerative practices. We need the best creative minds in the world thinking about how to make the concept of our relationship with the environment a tangible thing. I’m really excited to continue to get a lot of fresh ideas about how we can accomplish this, and storytelling has been one of those ways, because we can feel something artistically, poetically, that is not just the data on a page.

JA: This really excites me. It’s such an opportunity, because I think one thing that is missing in our culture right now is community. COVID, in a way, woke a lot of people up to that. We were all laser focused on our jobs, carting our kids all over the place, and when we came home at night, there was very little thought on interacting with one’s community. What’s happening now is this recognition that when the option to interact with the community is taken away, we then are able to see its value in our lives. 

We have relearned the value of support, so that when my barn burns down, my neighbors are going to come in to help me rebuild. And if I have a crisis, there are people there for me. That’s the shift that I see regenerative agriculture having, it’s bringing that community back into play, and being in equal balance, too. It’s the idea of, ”I need to work hard, but I also need to collaborate and work along with my neighbors and friends. It’s not just me out there by myself.” Nobody can have success in their life without other people helping them along the way.

DL: That’s right, and I point to something that Zach talks about a lot, that cancer, which he spent so long studying, is essentially a cell that has forgotten how to be in community with the rest of its system. A cancer cell is just any other cell, but it doesn’t perform its function in community anymore. You essentially have nonspecific multiplication of the cells that’s just substance. I think there’s a really important lesson there for us. We’ve seen cancer rates explode, and we need to extrapolate what is happening down at our cellular level, up through the population, landscape, and planet. Nature is demanding that we be in community with it and with each other. 

We’re going to see, I think, really painful ramifications if we don’t find our way back to that very essential skill that allowed us to be so successful as a species on this planet. If we can choose to understand it, there is incredible abundance at the other end of that road. It may start with not tilling your field or planting a cover crop, but it ends in community prosperity. It ends in more mutual understanding. It ends in prioritizing how we want to live and be in the world amongst each other. These are the happy consequences that spiral out of regenerative agriculture, and what agriculture can teach us. 

I’m so inspired that the farmer is set to be a model of this hero’s journey toward sustainable and regenerative practices that all of us are being asked to now go on. Those that are closest to the land, that have the highest capacity to perhaps be in relationship with that land, will lead us all to be in relationship with our place. And these places whisper at us. They whisper all sorts of signals that I think guide us to where we want to be. 

I’ll say one last thing in closing. And that is again a call-to-action for the design audience. One of the pushes for transformation comes when we are facing existential threat. That’s true in addiction, it can be true in a health crisis, and it’s true for farmers. Many of the farmers who were the early adopters of regenerative practices did so because they were facing existential threats to their farms. They were going to lose the farm, or the farm was going to stop producing. The question is not, “Are we going to fix this?” The question is whether we want to be along for the ride going forward or not. That’s something that we all need to humbly accept—if we want to be here, changes are going to have to happen. The world is going to go on without us, and it’s going to be okay. So don’t wait for the world. We need to choose to listen to the signals that are coming out right now, that’s our challenge. We need folks who can design ways to amplify those signals. We need designers who are going to translate it so that it lands with as many people as possible. 

Beyond that, we must think about how to make this transition happen before the farmer is facing that existential threat. A job for all of us, and especially the design community, is how we are going to make this transition before we’re in dire straits. We can avoid a whole lot of suffering if we can move more quickly. I think that’s just a matter of landing and embodying some awareness. I hope that that’s one of the things that touches readers, and I’m just very grateful to be able to share some thoughts with them through this conversation.

JA: David, thank you very much for your input, wisdom, and the work that you do. You’re telling stories that people can relate to, and that’s crucial, because if we’re just lecturing at people and telling them, “These are the steps we have to take,” it’s not going to land. It’s the stories that resonate with us, because we can see ourselves in the story. When I got involved with the community in Farmer’s Footprint, I met so many different people that have allowed me to start to see what my role can be in this work. Being in community with people, building those relationships, having conversations, and listening have all allowed me to check my preconceived biases and notions of how we can make a difference. This has enabled me to uncover the very thing that you’ve talked about here—it’s all about relationships. And that’s the exciting piece of it, because that’s within our control. 

For more information about Farmer’s Footprint, please visit their website at farmersfootprint.us 

What Does Good Look Like?

The Living Product Challenge Reinvents Manufacturing

Photo by Nix Lehoux, Courtesy of the Bullitt Center

By Ren DeCherney, Business Development Manager for Manufacturers and Interiors, International Living Future Institute (ILFI)

The question, “What does good look like?” guides everything we do at the International Living Future Institute. We help designers, product manufacturers, and organizations to create buildings, spaces, and products that give back more than they take.

Our programs provide a framework to create places and products that work with and are inspired by nature, that rely only on renewable energy, replenish our waterways and aquifers, eliminate exposure to toxins, generate opportunities to engage with one another in community, and restore our relationships to nature and to one another. ILFI believes that what we need is a positive, hopeful vision of the future, and our programs like the Living Product Challenge provide that—a tangible example of what a Living Future looks like.

Philosophy 

Imagine if everything we used in our daily lives, no matter how small, helped create a better world. Clothing, tools, electronics, building materials, toys—every manufactured good—could contribute to a healthier future. Imagine if even the packaging of everyday products wasn’t discarded without consideration, but designed to create value and abundance over time. Why should we accept environmental and social degradation as a consequence of all the trappings of a modern society? As Paul Hawken has said, “Doing the right thing should be as easy as falling off a log.” The average person shouldn’t have to be a toxicologist or a life cycle expert to understand if the purchases they make support their values. 

The Living Product Challenge, developed by the International Living Future Institute, is a philosophy, product certification, and advocacy tool all in one. It provides a revolutionary framework for manufacturers to create restorative products, and it fundamentally shifts the way products are designed and manufactured, while giving consumers the information they need to choose better products. The Challenge seeks to dramatically raise the bar from a paradigm where simply doing less harm is laudable to a world in which doing good and giving more than we take becomes the standard. It aims to transform how we think about every single act of design, production, and purchasing as an opportunity to positively impact the greater community of life and the cultural fabric of our society. 

Over the last 20 years, awareness of green manufacturing has grown alongside awareness of green building. Just as there have been huge steps forward in the design, construction, and operation of buildings, progress has been made in the manufacturing realm. Still, compared to the rate of change necessary to avoid the worst effects of climate change and other environmental challenges, our global progress in this regard has been minute and barely recordable.

Every major ecological system is in decline and the rate of that decline is increasing. Global temperature increases mean shifting rainfall distributions, acidified oceans, and potentially catastrophic sea level rise. Nothing less than a radical change in manufacturing is required. Indeed, this focus must be the great work of our generation. We must remake our cities, towns, neighborhoods, homes, offices, and all the goods we use within them as part of the necessary process of reinventing our relationship with the natural world—re-establishing ourselves as part and parcel with creation. Since we launched our flagship challenge, the Living Building Challenge, in 2006, it has inspired and motivated rapid and significant change. Projects have cropped up all over the world: currently there are more than 18 million square feet of Living Building Challenge projects underway in more than two dozen countries, each project showing it is possible to create regenerative buildings in any community. 

The Living Product Challenge reinvents product manufacturing in an equally revolutionary fashion because we believe the materials used to construct our buildings must be held to the same high standard as the buildings themselves. The things we place within and around them shouldn’t undermine our health and well-being; they should instead create positive social and environmental change. In turn, designers and consumers need a mechanism they can use to compare products so they can select products that are healthy and sustainable.

Incremental change is no longer a viable option. 

Sometimes the amount of change we need to tackle seems unsurmountable, and that the choices you make as a single individual make no difference. However, taken together, the amount of power the design community wields is impressive. Every year, through their specifications alone, designers and architects control billions of dollars of the US GDP and billions of square feet of construction. They have the power to literally transform the world around us, and we’re starting to understand the impact these choices have on our bodies and in our communities. 

Take for example, “Little Things Matter” project by Bruce Lanphear for the Simon Fraser University and the Artemis Fund. This was a national study of 5,000 children in Canada which found heavy metals and pollutants are present in young children’s blood. This included finding mercury in 89% of the kids, Organophosphate (OP) pesticides from food in 80% of the kids, BPA in 96% of the kids, PCBs (a persistent pollutant banned in the 1970’s) and PBDE flame retardants in 100% of the kids, and lead in blood of 100% children regardless of race. This upends the narrative that once installed, products and materials do not affect us. We are finding that they have such a profound effect that we are passing these effects down to our children before they are even born. Designers and architects have not only a direct impact on this, but a responsibility to mitigate the potential for harm as they select the materials that go into our buildings. 

In addition, as we begin to better understand the direct correlation between the chemicals in building materials and the effects on building users and inhabitants, designers and architects may start to be held liable for those effects. On August 9, 2018, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) wrote a letter to EPA regarding the Asbestos New Use Rule where they stated “historically, architects and other design professionals involved in a construction project strive to avoid liability for hazardous construction materials such as asbestos, lead, PCBs, mercury, etc. Recent lawsuits and regulatory citations have pinned responsibility on design professionals and building owners who seemingly had nothing to do with the exposure that caused, or could cause, a crippling illness.” 

In this letter, the AIA recognizes the power designers have to make an impact and the potential liability if they do not take this responsibility seriously. It’s time to harness that power! Until recently, designers have been limited in their efforts to select sustainable products by a general lack of transparency and reporting on the ingredients in a product and the manufacturing process required to make them. Enter the Living Product Challenge! 

The Living Product Challenge label takes complex, multi-attribute information about a product and provides it to consumers in an elegant, easy-to-understand format. Like everything we do at ILFI, the certification is performance-based, which means it relies on performance data and continuous monitoring rather than modeled or anticipated performance. Manufacturers must provide proof that they are complying with the standard on an annual basis to an Institute-approved, third-party assessor. This means consumers can be certain they are selecting products that don’t just say they’re sustainable, but have the data and performance to prove that they are truly sustainable and regenerative.

It’s time to wield your collective power, as designers and as individuals. Whether you are working as a designer, or simply selecting new home office furniture, you can transform not only our built environment, but also the way we design and produce materials around the world.

The Living Product Challenge comprises seven performance categories, or Petals: Place, Water, Energy, Health + Happiness, Materials, Equity, and Beauty. Petals are subdivided into a total of 20 Imperatives, each of which focuses on a specific sphere of influence. This compilation of imperatives can be applied to every conceivable product—of any size and manufactured in any location—whether it is a new innovation or a reinvention of an existing item. 

The Living Product Challenge incorporates the Declare label, also developed by ILFI, which allows manufacturers to publicly disclose the chemical ingredients that make up their products. Products with a Declare label and Living Products must disclose this chemical information down to 100 parts per million, so consumers can see what is in a product, much like a food nutrition label. Not only that, but a Living Product must contain no chemicals on The Red List—a list of the worst-in-class chemicals in terms of destroying the environment and ecosystems and are detrimental to human health, both for factory workers and end users. 

Living Products must also disclose how much carbon, energy, and water is used to create the product as well as how much waste is created during the manufacturing process. This radical transparency not only informs consumers about a product, but it is also meant to inspire other manufacturers to make positive change by showing that it is possible to design truly sustainable products. 

Products that succeed in this challenge can claim to be the greenest and most socially responsible on the market: their manufacturing processes are restorative, regenerative, or operate with a net positive impact, and they have made the proof available to consumers. 

Handprinting: measuring positive impacts

Unique to the Living Product Challenge is the concept of handprinting, which is our way of measuring the positive impacts a company has on the earth and their community. The Challenge is the only of its kind to measure both Footprints and Handprints. 

The Footprint of producing a product is the sum total of negative impacts caused by the processes necessary to produce that product. In the Challenge, these are represented by the carbon, energy, water, and waste impacts of the manufacturing process. 

To qualify for the Living Product Challenge, manufacturers must evaluate the manufacturing process from “cradle to gate:” by including not only the manufacturer’s operations, but all the processes of their suppliers such as the energy, materials, and equipment needed to extract the raw materials. This makes up their Footprint. Often, most of the product’s Footprint happens upstream of the manufacturer, through supply chains of energy and raw materials. The problem with only measuring Footprints is that smaller Footprints are still Footprints. We can never achieve a Footprint of zero, and in solely focusing on Footprint reductions, we face diminishing returns. 

It is often said that you can only change what you measure. So far, sustainable manufacturing has largely focused on measuring and reducing our Footprints. While this is a critical place to start, it is a tragic place to stop, since it does not account for the positive impact a product or company can make in the world. Through the Living Product Challenge, manufacturers can not only measure and reduce their negative impacts — but they can now also grow and expand their positive impact with clear, measurable actions. 

We call these Handprints. The Handprint of a product comprises all the positive impacts we cause to happen across the life cycle of a product and can be created anywhere and everywhere outside of the supply chain and in our communities. The only requirement is that the Handprints be real and measurable, and there are myriad ways to create them. Some Living Product manufacturers have invested in the energy retrofit of a school, installed rainwater catchment systems in a nearby community, or protected a key ecological habitat. There is no limit to the potential of businesses and their employees to create positive impacts, and such impacts can count as Handprints as long as they can be measured.

Making a big impact, together.

Using Handprinting, designers of Living Products can go further than is typical when designing a product. They use human creativity and ecological inspiration to design products and business models that create positive Handprints as they shrink their negative Footprints. In turn, designers can use the Challenge to specify products that they know are truly sustainable. Living Products contain no toxic chemicals to factory workers or end users, are regenerative, and have measurable positive impacts in their communities. What’s not to like? 

It’s time to wield your collective power, as designers and as individuals. Whether you are working as a designer, or simply selecting new home office furniture, you can transform not only our built environment, but also the way we design and produce materials around the world. Start asking for products with a Declare or Living Product Challenge label, so you can see what is in a product before specifying or purchasing it. Talk to the companies whose products you are considering about the positive impact they can have through their products. Seek out healthy products in every project. Every small step you take contributes to a larger transformation. Let’s do it!