Sustainability at Pivot North

Sustainable Design

June 25th, 2024 | by: Allison Furlan and Mae Myers

At Pivot North we acknowledge the impact that

the design and construction industry sectors have on

the planet and its inhabitants.

While we are making progress in prioritizing sustainable design, it remains an ongoing effort. Therefore, as a team, we carefully evaluate the buildings we design and the products we specify, considering their impact on carbon offset, energy efficiency, and the well-being of end users—including raw material sources and workforce conditions.

Stay tuned as we continue developing our firm’s Climate Action Plan in the coming year. In the meantime, we’re excited to share how our Interiors team is applying their knowledge to material specifications and our product library.

Our Passion for Sustainability

Hello Readers! Allison and Mae here, Pivot North’s Interior Design Studio Leads.

As passionate advocates for sustainability, we want to put our values into action by deepening our understanding of material composition.

Here we chose to focus on flooring, a major element in most projects. Therefore, we set out to learn more about its carbon impact, end-of-life disposal, and the social justice and equity initiatives of major manufacturers supplying flooring.

We began by combining our foundational knowledge to develop a list of key questions and criteria for discussions with company sustainability specialists. After gathering insights, we created a spreadsheet cataloging products by manufacturer, serving as a reference guide that ranks notable sustainable attributes.

This process gave us a clear understanding of the life cycle of carpet and resilient flooring products which helps us identify standout options. By evaluating each company’s sustainability goals, social justice and DEI initiatives, and take-back programs, we gained valuable insight—not just into the products themselves, but also into the manufacturers behind them.

Selecting Sustainable Design Manufacturers

After thoroughly analyzing product composition, we created a detailed profile for each major manufacturer. The highlighted products include key sustainability attributes, such as: carbon-neutral or negative materials, carpet backings with high recycled content, non-PVC or bio-based resilient options, Red List-free products, and other notable specialty items.

The image below offers a snapshot that provides a high-level overview to guide us in making the best material selections.

With this knowledge in mind, we dedicated a physical bookshelf in our materials library to showcase “star products.” These products are from manufacturers that meet one or more criteria on our sustainability checklist. Our collection features a diverse range of materials, including bio-based resilient linoleum, newly released PVC-free planks—an excellent alternative to LVP—Red List-free flooring, and carbon-negative products.

As we expand our focus beyond flooring, our criteria remain central to our research and exploration of new materials. Innovative technologies, such as molecular recycling of plastics and fungi-based product decomposition, are just a few recent advancements that have caught our attention (see links below for more on these manufacturers). It’s exciting to witness how new innovations are driving the industry forward.

Our interiors team is committed to researching sustainable materials beyond flooring and curating a materials library that prioritizes the well-being of both the planet and its inhabitants. Our ultimate goal is to stock only healthy materials, gradually eliminating products that fail to meet our criteria.

Meanwhile, our architectural team is also making significant strides in sustainability, focusing on energy modeling, carbon offsets, and product specifications. As part of this effort, the Pivot North team is actively developing our own Climate Action Plan—stay tuned for updates on our progress!