mindful MATERIALS launches Forums Signaling Building Industry Alignment
The Forums bring together industry leadership to accelerate the creation, specification and use of holistically sustainable materials, facilitating a more equitable, just, and sustainable future.
Release Date: July 26, 2023
mindful MATERIALS (mM) today announces the official launch of three building industry groups, The Forums, representing leading owners and over 80 individuals from more than 40 leading companies across the manufacturing, architecture, design, engineering, and construction industries.
“These Forums are the building industry’s collective opportunity to leverage holistic materials leadership and learnings for the benefit of all,” says Steve Kooy, mM Board Chair. “It’s time to stop redoing work and start aligning to have more impact. Together.”
The Forums assemble proven materials leaders in the building industry to find common ground, identify alignment opportunities, build shared resources and knowledge, and accelerate impact by sending a clear market signal. These groups offer participants a neutral, precompetitive space to navigate and solve shared challenges, and help to accelerate meaningful action by others in the industry.
The three groups launched in 2023 are the Owners Forum, the AEC Forum, and the Manufacturers Forum.
“The Forums send a powerful signal to the rest of the industry that we are aligned as owners around the Common Materials Framework, and a shared ask of the industry to drive sustainability investment and impact for healthier, more sustainable products,” says Heather Henriksen, Chief Sustainability Officer at Harvard University Office for Sustainability, a catalyst member of the Owners Forum.
Other Catalyst Owners Forum members include AvalonBay Communities, Brookfield Properties, The Durst Organization, Google, The Green Cities Company, Kaiser Permanente, Mastercard, Salesforce, and Wayfair.
2023 Owners Forum Catalyst Members
“We have put so much effort over the years into learning how to source healthier, more sustainable products for our clients, and we practice this on every project, but the effort needs to scale up beyond the few dozen leading firms, if we really want to shift the industry,” says Simona Fischer, Director of Sustainable Practice at MSR Design and a catalyst member of the AEC Forum.
Other Catalyst AEC Forum members include Boulder Associates, Buro Happold, Dialog, DLR Group, DPR Construction, Dyer Brown & Associates, Gensler, Handel Architects, HKS, IA Interior Architects, Kieran Timberlake, Perkins Eastman, Perkins&Will and ZGF Architects.
2023 AEC Forum Catalyst Members
“I think the Forums are uniquely exciting as an industry initiative, because they are designed for cross-Forum collaboration” says Amy Musanti, Director of Sustainable Building Solutions at ASSA ABLOY Opening Solutions, a catalyst member of the Manufacturers Forum. “Each Forum will produce individual accomplishments and resources for their sector, but together we’ll be able to solve larger challenges as part of the materials decision flow. It’s about breaking out of our silos to support collective action as an ecosystem.”
Other Catalyst Manufacturers Forum members include Armstrong World Industries, CertainTeed, Construction Specialties, GAF, Humanscale, Kingspan, Legrand, MAPEI, Mecho, nCompass, Patcraft, Saint-Gobain, Shaw Contract, and Superior Essex.
Participation in the Forums is closed for 2023 but mindful MATERIALS plans to expand the groups, with potential sector additions, in 2024. Interested companies may reach out to hello@mindfulmaterials.com to join the waiting list.
To learn more about the Forums visit mindfulmaterials.com/the-forums. Sign up for mindful MATERIALS’ newsletter and follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn for updates on the Forums’ work and all things mindful MATERIALS.
“The launch of these groups represents almost a decade of work,” says Annie Bevan, mM CEO. “The potential that this alignment and unification represents to the market in terms of demand and supply cannot be overstated. We’ve always asked ourselves, ‘What if Google, Harvard, etc. were on the same page with what they’re asking of the market? What if manufacturers had a streamlined way to answer these requests?’ This is now possible. It is incredible to work with each and every one of these companies and amazing individuals as they recognize the power they have together to truly drive market shift.”
About mindful MATERIALS, Inc.
mindful MATERIALS Inc. (mM) is dedicated to reducing, and ultimately reversing, the embodied impacts of the built environment through our collective material choices. mM furthers its mission through a global cross-sector Collaboration Hub, convening to share learning and drive informed decisions around an industry-aligned, digitized Common Materials Framework (CMF) for health, sustainability, and resilience. Visit mindfulmaterials.com to learn more.
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mindful MATERIALS
Alex Muller
alex.muller@mindfulmaterials.com