Materials Pledge
Architects and designers can help improve the health of the planet and people by giving careful thought to how they evaluate products and finishes. AIA developed the Architecture & Design Materials Pledge to inspire a positive shift in materials specification.
Will you join the pledge?
Applying more intentional materials specification across your portfolio can contribute to better indoor air quality, less construction waste, and other crucial benefits. It's an opportunity not only to make a genuine difference in our world but also to meet your firm's AIA 2030 Commitment goals.
Participating firms in the Materials Pledge commit to supporting:
- Human health by preferring products that support and foster life throughout their life cycles and seek to eliminate the use of hazardous substances
- Social health and equity by preferring products from manufacturers that secure human rights in their own operations and supply chains, positively impacting their workers and the communities where they operate
- Ecosystem health by preferring products that support and regenerate the natural air, water, and biological cycles of life through thoughtful supply chain management and restorative company practices
- Climate health by preferring products that reduce carbon emissions and ultimately sequester more carbon than emitted
- A circular economy by reusing and improving buildings and by designing for resiliency, adaptability, disassembly, and reuse, aspiring to a zero-waste goal for global construction activities
There's no right or wrong way to implement the pledge in your practice, as long as you're constantly working to specify healthier materials. Everyone who participates will help AIA establish reliable, consistent metrics for propelling our industry forward.
The five pledge statements
The design community has a responsibility to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the occupants we design. The human health pledge statement commits designers to include the evaluation of emissions and harmful substances in products as part of The Standard of Care. It also commits design professionals to consider the material ingredients in manufacturing and the impact on workers and surrounding communities.
Human rights abuses and violations of decent work conditions occur globally in the supply chains of many goods, including building products. As primary advisors and decision makers on material and product selection, the architecture and design community has a responsibility to support supply-chain human rights for all materials used in building projects. Firms can prioritize education around supply chain issues, training on determining whether products and manufacturers support the intent of the social health and equity pledge statement, and creating specifications and product libraries for projects and contracts. In addition, architects should advocate to manufacturers and owners for building products unburdened by human suffering.
The extraction, production, and assembly of building materials often create negative environmental impacts, including air and water pollution, soil degradation, and habitat destruction. Destructive impacts to natural systems are typically excluded from material costs, however. The ecosystem health pledge statement aims to close gaps in knowledge about how the building products we use increasingly threaten the building blocks of life. It's important to prioritize building materials that respect and restore the health of the environment in their creation through the thoughtful use of soil, air, water, and other natural resources. This responsibility includes considering impacts throughout the supply chain, including how sourcing and manufacturing materials affect ecosystems and those living in them
While the building industry needs to drastically reduce operating emissions, there must also be a coordinated effort to reduce embodied carbon from materials. Construction materials generate over 11% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. If we continue with business as usual, more than 50% of the emissions from new construction will come from the CO2 emitted in the production of materials, particularly cement and steel. The climate health pledge statement commits those who design buildings and select materials to accelerate the drive to zero by building less, reusing and retrofitting more, and choosing materials and products that will store carbon in our buildings in the long term. Designers should make use of environmental product declarations and whole building life-cycle assessmen
For far too long, we have constructed new buildings with limited lifespans. Since demolition and renovation activities contribute significantly to global waste, this approach is both inefficient and wasteful of the earth's finite natural resources. A much better option is to capitalize on the significant investment and reuse buildings and building components for generations. The circular economy pledge statement aims to transform attitudes toward building design by encouraging teams to prioritize reusing existing building stock over new construction. Renovation and new-construction methodologies and specifications must evolve to be based on product modules (thus eliminating cutoff waste), design for disassembly, and reuse.
The Materials Pledge Starter Guide is a resource on how your firm can holistically evaluate building products using the Architecture & Design Materials Pledge.
This resource provides an overview of the reporting process for 2024 and 2025, including the methods and schedule, eligibility, content and structure, definitions, FAQs, and product types and definitions.
This PDF displays this year's annual Materials Pledge reporting questions, as expected to be completed and submitted by Materials Pledge signatory firms.