Materials Pledge: What’s new and what’s coming
by Tanya Eagle and Eana Bacchiocchi
The architecture and design industry is increasingly understanding the crucial role materials have in both human and planetary health. To turn aspiration into action, the A&D Materials Pledge program is excited to announce its official reporting framework, released in-person last month at the AIA Conference on Architecture and Design by our Materials Pledge Working Group. Launched in 2018 and formally adopted by the AIA in 2020, the Materials Pledge community now includes 265+ signatory firms.
The goal of the Materials Pledge reporting framework is to help push the industry toward an aligned and holistic vision of material health that encompasses five Impact Categories: Human Health, Climate Health, Ecosystem Health, Social Health & Equity, and a Circular Economy. The reporting framework provides firms with direction on how to best focus material efforts across their firm’s practice and introduces a unified set of metrics that can be used to track progress across the industry and within each firm. Signatories will see the reporting framework in action as they officially report for the first time this summer.
What does the reporting framework entail?
The Materials Pledge includes reporting at the Firm-, Project-, and Product-level scales.
- Firm-level questions are mandatory for reporting and include general information about each firm, firm commitments, resources, knowledge, and implementation.
- Project-level reporting, optional in 2024, includes general material strategy questions that apply across the project.
- Within each project, project teams can then choose how many Product Types to report and how many Impact Categories to address for each Product Type.
The Materials Pledge is not intended to capture every product on every project; rather, it is meant to encourage focused material goal setting and reporting. For more information, the first version of the A&D Materials Pledge Reporting Guidebook is now located on Knowledge Net.
How does the reporting framework align with industry efforts?
The Materials Pledge reporting framework has been developed in alignment with industry partners such as USGBC and mindful MATERIALS (mM) to ensure that material efforts are complementary across the materials landscape. The Common Materials Framework (CMF), developed by mM, maps the current product certification and disclosure landscape to the five Materials Pledge Impact Categories to create a consistent language for sustainable building products. The CMF forms the foundation for reporting at the Product Level, and the Materials Pledge metrics have significant overlap with the CMF data points. Alignment with certification systems has also been a priority, and Materials Pledge reporting crosswalks with certifications such as LEED, LBC, and WELL will be developed in the future.
How will reporting work?
Reporting in 2024 and 2025 will be in survey format, with the intent of moving into the DDx as soon as feasible. The first reporting cycle is targeted for Summer 2024, with subsequent reporting cycles likely conducted in February-May of each year. Later this summer, AIA will host an introductory webinar to the reporting structure and give the opportunity for signatory firms to come ask questions. Like the AIA 2030 Commitment, the Materials Pledge program will release annual reports summarizing progress across signatory firms and evolution in the materials industry. The material landscape is constantly changing, and Materials Pledge Reporting will evolve to reflect increased access to data.
While firm-level reporting is mandatory for signatories, we encourage firms to try to report as much as they can for one (or more!) projects this year as well. By starting to collect these metrics, signatories will understand what’s needed for future, more comprehensive reporting processes and use them to start setting firm baselines.
What’s Next?
We are excited to continue to collaborate with our COTE community and utilize the Materials Pledge framework and signatory network to contribute to AIA’s goal for climate action for human and ecological health. If your firm is not yet a signatory, we strongly encourage signing onto the Materials Pledge. Together, the Materials Pledge community strives to be a data-driven catalyst for industry action as we build towards a more sustainable, resilient, and equitable built environment.