海角视频

Material sustainability poses significant challenges to the building industry 鈥� mindful MATERIALS has emerged as a pivotal force, driving transparency and collaboration across sectors.

海角视频鈥檚 journey with began three years ago, when a critical gap in the industry was identified: a lack of accessible, digitized material data. This insight led to the creation of 海角视频鈥檚 ‘Healthy Materials Toolkit’ and a partnership with mindful MATERIALS (mM), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that is leading efforts to promote sustainability and transparency in building materials

As a mindful MATERIALS Forum Member, 海角视频 has contributed to the collaborative mission to align the building industry around shared sustainability goals, streamline the exchange of verified material data, and accelerate access to healthier, more sustainable products.

Importantly, mindful MATERIALS does not develop its own technology. Instead, it facilitates industry-wide collaboration to connect existing platforms and tools, making product data more accessible across the value chain. By focusing on transparency, harmonization, and collective action, mindful MATERIALS is helping to drive systemic change – empowering architects, designers, manufacturers, and owners to prioritize occupant health and environmental stewardship in alignment with 海角视频鈥檚 sustainability values.

Our Journey with mindful MATERIALS

Shivanie Rambaran: A few years ago, Michael Hoehn and Ofek Bruhis at 海角视频 bolstered development of internal tools such as the ‘Healthy Materials Toolkit’ that sought to enable efficient decision making on materials. They encountered significant gaps in material sustainability data – the data was not digitized, quantified, or centralized. 

That’s where they were able to align visions with Annie Bevan, CEO of mindful MATERIALS and continue development of our tools in parallel with their work. In a blink of an eye, we are entering our third year of partnership. 

Working with mindful MATERIALS has been incredible. 海角视频 is deeply committed to reducing the environmental impact of our projects, and this partnership aligns perfectly with our mission. By working together, we can create meaningful industry change. Our team contributes expertise in sustainable design, participates in working groups, and helps promote mindful MATERIALS across our network and projects.

Collaboration and Cross-Sector Learning

Shivanie Rambaran: What drew me in was the cross-sector collaboration. It鈥檚 rare to see such a diverse mix of manufacturers, owners, reps, and design firms come together to pursue a common goal.

In my day-to-day work, I rarely interact with manufacturers鈥攂ut through mindful MATERIALS, I鈥檝e gained new insights into the materials we specify. That broader understanding of product impacts is invaluable.

Sustainability is about more than carbon. There are supply chain health and ethical sourcing concerns that are hard to quantify and often overlooked. Coming from an engineering background, I was intrigued by the idea of quantifying these multi-attribute impacts in a way everyone can understand. With mindful MATERIALS, we鈥檙e working toward exactly that.

Driving Circularity Through Transparency

Kathleen Hetrick: mindful MATERIALS is leading efforts around transparency and circular supply chains. To achieve circularity, we must avoid toxic materials like PVC and halogenated compounds, which hinder recyclability and contaminate material streams.

Our work on initiatives like New York City’s SPARC and the California Circularity Committee reinforces this – non-toxic supply chains are essential. During the Santa Monica City Hall East Living Building Challenge project, we saw how little supply chain awareness existed. Many manufacturers didn鈥檛 know what was in their products – whether it was lighting components or wiring.

mindful MATERIALS is addressing these transparency gaps by setting a baseline, helping us make better decisions and engage all stakeholders. While embodied carbon has gained momentum since 2019, material health hasn鈥檛 seen the same level of buy-in. It鈥檚 often viewed as too complex or expensive. But mindful MATERIALS is helping shift that perception by creating network effects – systemic, scalable change.

And this goes beyond buildings. Their work supports environmental justice by protecting communities near manufacturing plants and the health of construction workers. For example, during the Palisades fire in Los Angeles, toxic building materials released chlorine gas into the air – affecting both residents and first responders. With circular, non-toxic materials, we can prevent harm, reduce cancer risk, and protect children鈥檚 health.

The Common Materials Framework (CMF)

Shivanie Rambaran: mindful MATERIALS has served as a central hub – almost like a 鈥淯nited Nations鈥� of sustainability – bringing together three major working groups: Architecture, Engineering & Construction (AEC), Owners, and Manufacturers.

Over the past two years, these groups have co-developed the Common Materials Framework (CMF) – the industry鈥檚 first shared language for sustainable materials. The CMF maps over 650 sustainability factors across five key impact areas: human health, climate health, circular economy, social health & equity, and ecosystem health.

By aligning certifications, ecolabels, and verified data under this common structure, the CMF enables better decision-making and consistent tracking of progress. It makes the complex more understandable and scalable.

It also reduces confusion during product selection – empowering designers and specifiers to make more informed, sustainable choices with clarity and confidence.

Market signals and future goals

Shivanie Rambaran: For me, the biggest impact is the market signal. As an engineering firm, we play a key role in setting expectations. By establishing material requirements, we tell manufacturers what we value – and why.

And with tools like the CMF, firms like Gensler are already embedding it into their standards. It helps them specify expectations across all five impact areas, making transparency and optimization more achievable.

Ethical sourcing is another example. With initiatives like , we now have the language and framework to define and require those values in project specifications.

Kathleen Hetrick: This approach isn鈥檛 new – it鈥檚 worked before. Think about energy efficiency and net-zero buildings. Standards like ASHRAE helped create baselines, which led to major progress: from heat pumps to decarbonized grids and EV integration.

We need the same approach for materials. 海角视频 has been working with the Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF) to build benchmarks using EC3 tools and establish carbon benchmarking from Living Future. We can now identify high-impact materials and phase them out in favor of alternatives like mass timber or sheep鈥檚 wool insulation.

mindful MATERIALS is doing the same for material health – providing a transparent, benchmark-driven roadmap that manufacturers, architects, and engineers can use to phase out toxic chemicals and avoid regrettable substitutions.

Shivanie Rambaran: Now in our third year of partnership, we鈥檙e proud to continue contributing to mindful MATERIALS鈥� progress. Our team is helping shape the CMF itself, working across all five impact areas, and providing feedback to ensure tools and resources meet industry needs. 海角视频 is looking forward to being part of the movement building a healthier, more sustainable materials ecosystem – together. 

Our relationship with mindful MATERIALS was established through Ofek Bruhis, and we are deeply grateful for his contributions.