(E09) The Path to Red List Free Affordable Housing

Most affordable housing project teams are doing their best to build the healthiest environments possible for their residents. However, it can be challenging to know how to begin integrating healthier materials, especially if there is not a clear understanding of the hazards that specific chemical classes present. The Red List was created to help architects and building practitioners quickly identify the worst-in-class chemicals that are prevalent in the building product industry. The demand for transparency and healthier buildings has grown dramatically to avoid these chemicals. This is particularly critical for affordable housing teams building homes in communities that have historically been the most burdened by the production of and construction with toxic materials. Affordable housing today includes many people uniquely vulnerable to health impacts of poor air quality, toxic chemicals, or other environmental hazards, due to the inequalities in health that are prevalent in our communities.

This panel will explain the science behind the Red List from a materials health researcher and help attendees understand how Red List chemicals present serious health hazards on manufacturing workers, building occupants, surrounding communities, and the environment.. It will introduce attendees to the Path to Red List Free Affordable Housing, a program borne out of the International Living Future Institute’s work in healthy materials with more than 50 affordable housing projects. This is an action plan for healthy affordable housing with discrete steps that can be scaled across portfolios - it provides a place to start, but also encourages movement and advocacy to make progress collaboratively, across the whole sector. The panel will describe a case study project and how designing a healthier affordable housing building influenced the architect behind this project to advocate to local government and funding structures for Red List Free affordable housing.