Green Label to Highlight Sustainable Building Products in Resource Libraries

Enter HKS Architects and its new Mindful Materials label. Its simple checkboxes are designed to attach to binders and product samples to indicate when a product meets specific health and environmental targets. Its criteria cover:

• Health Product Declaration (HPD)
• Participation in the Pharos product database
• Declare label
• Other material ingredient list
• Absence of PVC
• Cradle to Cradle certification
• Environmental product declaration (EPD)
• BuildingGreen Approved
• Pre- and post-consumer recycled content
• Place of manufacturing

HKS is already using the label in several of its own offices, including Dallas, Detroit, Chicago, and Indianapolis.

The firm refers to its labeling system as “a practical means to incorporate transparency information into designers’ everyday work process.” HKS emphasizes that the label puts the relevant information—much of which can help projects qualify for LEED v4 material transparency and optimization credits—“where designers search for it most often: on resource library shelves.” At HKS, this process involves a “labeling champion” to fill out the boxes.

The firm is offering free downloads of its mindful material labels for designers at hksinc.com/mindfulmaterials.

More on building product research and transparency

Take Control of Your Materials: Four Empowering Lessons from Teams That Beat the Red List

Finding Products for LEED v4: A Guide

Product Watchdogs Pledge Standardized Ingredient Reporting Platform