Pharos Lens – Designer Profile

The Mission of the Pharos Project is to establish Pharos as the leading materials evaluation tool used by green building and procurement professionals.Through informed specification and selection of building materials, we can measurably enhance the environmental, human health, and social benefits associated with the contemporary building industry, and contribute towards the future we want our children to inherit – a socially just society, free of toxic byproducts, in balance with the natural world.

About the Pharos Project

The Pharos Project seeks to define a consumer-driven vision of truly green building materials and establish a method for evaluation that is in harmony with principles of environmental health and justice. The Project’s foundation is a partnership, pairing those who use building materials with those who study the products’ impacts on health and the environment.

Over the last decade, a great deal of discussion and debate has ensued over what makes a building material “green.” Increasingly owners and designers alike are seeking assurance that the materials they use in their buildings are good for our health and good for the environment.

The building materials industry has responded with a plethora of new products, new marketing claims and a myriad of green rating systems. With no consensus or clarity on what constitutes a truly green material, it is no easy task to weigh the marketing claims for competing new products, nor to know the value of these rating systems.

How does one decide between a product that has a high-recycled content and one that is made of virgin materials but claims to be non-toxic and healthy? And who can be trusted in a field where most of the information and rating systems come from the industry selling the products?

While those who specify or purchase products may be aware of environmental attributes, they are often unprepared to weigh legitimate product-specific information and competitive priorities of a product in order to make the best choices . Lacking knowledge or information about the relative importance of environmental impacts and a product’s ultimate performance, users are challenged to make sound decisions on the appropriateness of one material, product or technology over another.

The Pharos Project aims to put the control back in the hands of consumers – the building industry at large – mapping a 360° view of green material attributes , putting those claims in context and testing them against verifiable data and community consensus of ideal goals.