By Healthcare Facilities Today

Pushing the envelope further on building product content transparency, the International Living Future Institute is rolling out a product labeling program on social justice and equity issues.

Launched at the Living Future's conference in May, the JUST label will function as an extension of the Declare label and will focus on issues such as "diversity, worker rights, health care and employee happiness, occupational safety and stewardship practices," according to an article in GreenBiz.com.

The International Living Future Institute launched the Living Building Challenge (LBC) in 2006, a green building program, which famously features a Red List of ingredients banned from facilities if a project hopes to earn the certification. LBC currently has almost 5 million square feet of projects in the world, including companies such as Google, says the article. 

The article argues that product transparency through labels, and labels required by specific building certification programs, drives concrete benefits for the environment. For example, formaldehyde emissions decreased 80 percent from 2005 to 2010, it says.

One of the founders of the Living Building Challenge is quoted as saying that equity and social justice simply have not been a part of the sustainability conversation. By creating a voluntary label for these attributes, the market could put pressure on building products manufacturers to perform better in those areas. "It could change who does business with whom and it could change the supply chain, resulting in greater social justice," says architecture firm BNIM founder Bob Berkebile in the article.

Read the article.