PHAROS: Signaling The Future of Material Selection
The Pharos Project is a consumer-driven method for evaluating green building materials that is in harmony with principles of environmental health and justice. The success of this project relies on a partnership between those who use building materials and those who study the products’ impacts on health and the environment. Using a transparent web-based model, the Project is made up of three elements: the Framework, Lens, and Wiki.
Mapping a 360 degree view of green material attributes, the Pharos Project aims to put the control back in the hands of the consumer. The Pharos framework is organized into three categories (1) Health + Pollution (2) Environment + Resources and (3) Social + Community.
Comprised of a series of wedges, the Pharos Lens comes from the lighthouse metaphor and offers a guide to the information in the Pharos Project. This lens is a tool for signaling and documenting the environmental and social performance of products in the marketplace. The Pharos Label accompanies the lens and offers more information than any other green label in the market. The lens and label together will allow Pharos users to determine the most important attributes to them. The Pharos Wiki is a virtual commons where material users can discuss green materials.
Pharos is not meant to replace other materials standards; it is rather designed to work with current standards, labels, and rating systems to help place them into context. This will provide a more complex picture of the full impact of a product.
The Pharos Project is a collaborative initiative of organizations including the Healthy Building Network, the University of Tennessee Center for Clean Products and Clean Technologies, and Cascadia.
REGISTER NOW for an upcoming workshop on The Pharos Project + Green Building Materials Selection.
