“Sustainability Meets Specification”
Eighty percent of architects want to integrate more sustainability into their specifications. Two in three say they aren’t meeting the goal. Building product manufacturers can help them bridge the gap between sustainability and specification.
The modern architect faces a sometimes-overwhelming challenge that defies intuition: how to balance the performance and wellness of the built environment against cost. As the demand for building products supporting high-performance buildings has increased, so has the pressure on architects and specifiers to integrate sustainability into their specifications. Built-environment stakeholders—we're talking everyone from manufacturers to specifiers to owners—are having to recalibrate their decision-making process when it comes to the materials making up a structure.
This shift in focus affects all stages of the construction process, but as with a fine dish at a Michelin-starred restaurant, it begins with quality ingredients. Similarly, building product manufacturers recognize the important role they can play in equipping specifiers with the building blocks they need to bridge the gap between sustainability and specification.
For Specifiers—the Formidable Challenge of Material Health
The impact of “quality ingredients” comes into sharp focus when analyzing the effect material health has on overall building health and the wellness of its occupants. Famously—or perhaps infamously—the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reported the startling statistic that haunts every level of the building industry. “Indoor levels of pollutants,” states their Report on the Environment, “may be two to five times—and occasionally more than 100 times—higher than outdoor levels.”1
But why?
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), it is directly tied to the materials—the “ingredients” that make up a building. In their report, Indoor Air Quality in Commercial Institutional Buildings, they noted that concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) “are consistently higher indoors (up to 10 times higher) than outdoors.” At room temperature, the high vapor pressure of these organic chemicals allows them to become airborne when off-gassing occurs. Many of these compounds, some of which are known carcinogens, are found in standard building products that have been specified by architects for years.
That is especially concerning since Americans spend up to 90 percent of their time indoors, according to the EPA. The best reference for this key figure appears to be “The National Human Activity Pattern Survey (NHAPS): A Resource for Assessing Exposure to Environmental Pollutants,” by Neil E. Klepeis and others, and published by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 2001. According to that survey, we spend 87 percent of our time in a building, and an additional six percent inside an enclosed vehicle. We are only outside, on average, 10 percent of the time.
Of course, that figure was published more than 20 years ago, before remote and hybrid working became more commonplace, and long before the public health measures surrounding the current COVID-19 pandemic forced everyone indoors for many months at a time. Today, that statistic may be arguably higher than it was in 2001, meaning more exposure to indoor pollutants like VOCs.
With all of this in mind, it’s little wonder architects and specifiers are feeling the pressure to think and build more sustainably. But doing so doesn’t have to be revolutionary. It can start with small, calculated choices in building products that precipitate meaningful refinements to the specification process. In this regard, building product manufacturers can help.
Small Choices, Meaningful Refinements—How Building Product Manufacturers Can Help
According to the American Institute of Architects (AIA), architectural practitioners count on building product manufacturers to provide advisory support throughout the many phases of construction projects.4 They see them as important influence agents in the specification stage of a project, which represents an opportunity for manufacturers of building products and materials to help architects and specifiers with the details of improving material health through their product choices.
“It’s a journey,” said David Keegan, Commercial Specification Manager for A&I Manufacturing. “Stakeholders at every phase of the building process are learning to integrate more sustainability into their products and practices, but it doesn’t have to be all at once. Small, strategic choices add up and make a difference in the overall health of a building.”
Adhesives and sealants, paints, carpet systems, composite wood, furnishings, flame-retardant foams and fabrics, and window treatments all emit harmful chemicals that can drastically reduce building health.
“In many cases, it’s as simple as asking ‘why not choose a GREENGUARD-certified product that doesn’t off-gas? Why not choose Cradle to Cradle fabric that can and will be recycled?’” Keegan said. “These are relatively small choices that are easy to make as opposed to feeling like you have to reinvent the wheel during the specification process.”
Did you enjoy this article? Consider scheduling a lunch-and-learn! Visit our list of courses on our Continuing Education page, or contact Dave Keegan, Commercial Specification Manager, at dkeegan@a-imanufacturing.net to schedule a free one-hour AIA continuing education course.
