Design for Freedom by Grace Farms and the U.S. Coalition on Sustainability formed a partnership to advance shared goals regarding sustainable and ethical building material supply chains that are free of forced labor.
SustainChain, the coalition’s technology platform, uses advanced digital technology and machine learning to bring together innovators, impact investors, businesses, NGOs, and public-private sector alliances to advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). That program is a comprehensive plan consisting of 17 interrelated goals that address and resolve global humanitarian challenges.
“The next step in architectural justice is to include social equity and ethical material transparency in the evaluation of our supply chains so we can understand where our building materials come from and how they are made,” said Grace Farms Foundation CEO and founder Sharon Prince. “Design for Freedom is doing just that—raising awareness of forced labor embedded in our building materials and initializing responses to disrupt forced labor in the building materials supply chain and to come together to create more transparency.”
“As a first of its kind accelerator for achieving a more just and sustainable world, SustainChain is providing a free public utility designed to unify and rapidly scale sustainability efforts,” said Jacqueline Corbelli, founder of the US Coalition on Sustainability and creator of SustainChain.
Related Stories
| Oct 8, 2014
Denver transit project wins design-build Project of the Year honor
The Denver Union Station Transit Improvement Project is among 25 projects honored by the Design Build Institute of America for excellence in design-build project delivery.
| Oct 7, 2014
Analysis: Student loans will cost housing industry $83 billion in 2014
More than 410,000 single- and multifamily home sales will be lost in 2014 due to student loan debt, according to analysis by John Burns Real Estate Consulting.
| Oct 7, 2014
Economic gains are rallying rents in Raleigh, N.C.
The greater Raleigh, N.C., market appears to be getting back on its feet again, which is good news for rental property owners.
| Oct 7, 2014
Structured, not stirred: The architecture of cocktails [infographic]
In this downloadable graphic, technologist Shaan Hurley dissects 37 cocktails and analyzes their architectural makeup.Â
| Oct 6, 2014
Moshe Safdie: Skyscrapers lead to erosion of urban connectivity
The 76-year-old architect sees skyscrapers and the privatization of public space to be the most problematic parts of modern city design.Â
| Oct 6, 2014
Houston's office construction is soaring
Houston has 19 million square feet of office space under construction, 54% more than a year ago, and its highest level since the booming 1980s, according to local news reports.
| Oct 6, 2014
Retelling an old story: Why women are underrepresented in architecture
Women account for more than half of the U.S. population. But even with significant gains over the past 25 years, their numbers and positions among the ranks of practicing architects appear to have stalled.
| Oct 3, 2014
New survey tracks Americans’ attitudes towards transit use
A record 10.7 billion rides were taken on public transit in the United States last year. And a national survey of Americans finds that the speed, reliability, and cost, more than any other factors, determine people’s willingness and frequency of use.
| Oct 2, 2014
Effective use of building enclosure mock-ups within the commissioning process
Engineers from SSR offer advice and guidelines on implementing building enclosure mockups on any project.
| Oct 2, 2014
Budget busters: Report details 24 of the world's most obscenely over-budget construction projects
Montreal's Olympic Stadium and the Sydney Opera House are among the landmark projects to bust their budgets, according to a new interactive graph by Podio.Â