The power of collaboration

With each passing year, we gain more knowledge about how buildings affect our climate, our environment, and our health. Given this information, it is crucial that architects consider the role they play and how careful design contributes to a healthier and more sustainable world for everyone. While we are accustomed to considering the well-being of the occupants of our buildings, designers do the world a disservice when we take a narrow view of sustainability. Therefore, we must expand our thinking to include human and environmental impacts through the full lifecycle of the products we specify.

While the scale of change required can seem daunting to the individual designer, as a collective advocating for shared goals, we have tremendous power to create change. And just as no one person can create this type of change, neither can one discipline. Architects, engineers, manufacturers, owners, and contractors must all be aligned behind common goals. Our collaboration among disciplines is crucial to achieving big outcomes in sustainability.

The Lighting Advocacy Letter is an example of this type of collaboration. The Letter is hosted on mindful Materials, a collaborative hub and online material library. The Letter was inspired by the AIA Materials Pledge and focuses on the same five impact areas: human, ecosystem health, climate health, social health and equity, and the circular economy. This alignment between the Letter and the Pledge gives strength to the signal being sent. The Letter is addressed to manufacturers and asks for increased transparency to allow specifiers to make more informed decisions about the products they select and to select products that align with project goals. For many years, the focus of sustainability in lighting has been on energy efficiency. Because simple energy efficiency has historically been considered sufficient when thinking about lighting and sustainability, the lighting industry has lagged behind other product sectors when it comes to material transparency. This in turn has led to a lack of information when considering lifecycle impact, material health, and embodied carbon. The Letter aims to make manufacturers consider a move toward greater transparency and more sustainable product offerings.

Transparency is important, but it is only the starting point. Architects and designers use specifications to formalize their sustainability requirements in detailed technical terms, but to select products that align with firm values and project goals, greater transparency is required. Once there is more information available about the products we are specifying, we will be able to make truly informed decisions and create buildings that improve both human and environmental health. Ultimately, the market will respond by creating products that are optimized to reduce impacts on human health and the environment.

Signing on to the Lighting Advocacy Letter is the first step toward improving the holistic sustainability of the lighting products you specify. If you are interested in supporting the Letter, you can sign on at the mindful Materials website.

Alexandra Gadawski, AIA, WELL AP, LEED AP BD+C

Gadawski is an architect and sustainability leader at HMFH Architects in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is a co-chair of the mindful Materials Architecture & Design Engagement Working Group.