Healthcare Design - November 2017 - 13

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T H E S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y
STORY

Manufacturers are making incredible strides in
sustainable product development, and they're
happy to tell you about them. Other resources can
then provide the right context for comparison
By Kristin D. Zeit

EVERY TIME I meet with a vendor, I learn some-

thing new-and not just about product launches. I pick up valuable details about their specific
industry (textiles, lighting, furniture) and its
manufacturing processes and challenges, and
often I get a different perspective on the wider
healthcare industry, as well. We talk a lot in
these pages about how healthcare design is a
broad team effort, with unique and critical input from various players having a profound
effect on the final space. Your vendors, as you
know, are among those important voices.
The depth of knowledge some vendor representatives have in the field
of sustainability was on full display recently at the 2017 Living Products
Expo in Pittsburgh. I attended the event on the invitation of flooring
manufacturer Tarkett, which was one of the
panelists during a session called "Can PVC Be
THERE ARE SOME
Transformed into a Living Product?" (a very
interesting, difficult, and complex topic).
SERIOUSLY COOL
There are some seriously cool innovations
INNOVATIONS
happening in sustainable product developHAPPENING IN
ment. Are you keeping up with them? You
should. But they can be difficult to explain fully
SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT
in a quick elevator pitch (or even a short magaDEVELOPMENT.
zine column). The manufacturers themselves,
however, tend to be really good at having those
conversations, especially if you're able to meet with someone whose job
title includes "environmental strategy," "sustainability," or something
similar. If you're attending the Healthcare Design Expo this month-and
if sustainable building materials and interior products for healthcare

facilities are important to you-you're in the
perfect position to ask the right questions of
hundreds of vendors in one place.
Of course, you may not just want to take a
manufacturer's word for it. When specifying
products for healthcare projects, transparency
is key, and it's useful to see how a certain product line's sustainability ratings compare with
others. One growing tool for doing that research
is Mindful Materials, a free, open-source platform that combines manufacturer-submitted
data across many credentialing organizations
(including Cradle to Cradle, Declare, Healthier
Hospitals Initiative, LEEDv4, and WELL) into a
more easily searchable library for designers and
specifiers. Born out of an initial effort created
by design firm HKS in 2014, the Mindful Materials Collaborative took shape and launched
this simplified, aggregated web-based database
in 2016.
Since then, the Mindful Materials Collaborative has grown to more than 800 user and manufacturer members. Its library currently provides
information on more than 3,400 products, all of
which have been vetted by the collaborative's review teams.
Manufacturers and users are encouraged
to become involved to help grow those numbers. For more information on how to use and/
or contribute to this online tool, go to Mindful
materials.com. 

Kristin D. Zeit
Publisher
Healthcare Design
kristin.zeit@emeraldexpo.com
513.717.1155

NOVEMBER 2017

http://www.mindfulmaterials.com http://www.mindfulmaterials.com

Healthcare Design - November 2017

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