Designing a More Humane Future
Designing a More Humane Future
The Movement to Eliminate Forced Labor in the Building Materials Supply Chain
In recent decades, the AEC industry has been focused on sustainable design and minimizing adverse environmental impacts. This prompted specifiers and manufacturers to take a closer look at the contents of the materials they source and be more mindful of their impact on the environment. Until recently, there has been much less awareness around the social sustainability of these materials and whether they are ethically sourced and forced-labor-free.
Across the world, a shocking 28 million people are currently held in modern slavery or forced labor, including 3.3 million children, according to estimates from the International Labor Organization. Forced labor is the exploitation of individuals who are unable to refuse or leave a situation due to threats of violence, coercion, deception, abuse, or penalty. Forced labor is prevalent in almost all modern construction projects worldwide. This is the result of supply chains rampant with unchecked forced labor permeating the extraction, manufacture, and transport of thousands of raw and composite materials most commonly used in the construction sector. A growing list of “risky” raw and composite building materials - those at risk of being produced with forced and child labor under dangerous working conditions - includes brick, copper, glass, minerals, polysilicon (used in the production of solar panels), rubber, steel, iron, stone, textiles, and timber. Also included are “precursors” like soda ash and limestone, used to make glass and cement.
Design for Freedom (DFF), an initiative of the humanitarian nonprofit Grace Farms Foundation, is a global movement raising awareness and removing forced and child labor from the building materials supply chain. The program, launched in 2020 by Sharon Prince, CEO and founder of the Grace Farms Foundation, urges the AEC (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) industry to understand the source of the materials they use and ask for fair labor documentation from suppliers. While materials with certifications from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Cradle to Cradle, and Declare or Just labels from the International Living Future Institute require suppliers to support the social and economic well-being of their workers, every day thousands of materials, even certified and sustainable ones are arriving on project sites without a fair labor inspection.
The DFF initiative has developed a toolkit to assist design teams with identifying and prioritizing forced-labor-free materials. The toolkit identifies high-risk materials, features relevant certification programs, and provides a guide to incorporating ethical sourcing into specifications as a project priority. The toolkit also provides a questionnaire and cover letter for design teams to send to potential suppliers inquiring about a material's supply chain.
Partnering with architects, artists, and builders, DFF has developed several pilot projects that use the toolkit to trace the origins of materials modeling transparent and forced-labor-free supply chains. Eight pilot projects are underway, with more expected to be announced at DFF’s March 2024 summit.
The New Canaan Library, located n New Canaan, CT, was the first DFF building project in the United States. DFF collaborated with Centerbrook Architects, Turner Construction, and twenty-one subcontractors to trace thirty raw and composite building materials as far back as possible within the supply chain. Although most suppliers disclosed their material's supply chain, most could only be traced back to the direct supplier of the final product. Further investigation uncovered suppliers lacked the requested supply chain information but wanted to know if it would be a requirement for doing business with the firm in the future. For Misha Semënov-Leiva, sustainability coordinator at Centerbrook Architects, "that [was] an aha moment that said to me that, if enough of us get on board with this and prioritize manufacturers that do disclose, we could actually help shift the building industry."
The new library project, which opened in February, 2023, is a state-of-the-art knowledge and learning center constructed with low-risk materials - a tangible example of what is possible with broader transparency of the global building materials supply chain.
As architects, designers, and manufacturer representatives, we can make an impact through our specifications. Manufacturers and suppliers have responded to the industry demand for increased transparency of material sustainability and environmental impact. If design professionals begin to ask whether products are ethically sourced and forced-labor-free, manufacturers will be compelled to answer, potentially shifting how and from where they source their materials.
Want to learn more? The 3rd annual Design for Freedom Summit hosted by Grace Farms at their headquarters in New Canaan, CT is on March 26th. Register to attend here.
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