A uniquely interdisciplinary capstone, the Sustainability Exchange is a thesis-project based course that gathers select students from varying undergraduate fields to "deliver applicable end products for community problems requiring innovative methods and solutions." More info about the Sustainability Exchange can be found here.
Produced under the supervision of a local architecture firm, the goal of this project was to design a prototype for a categorization system that could be used as a basis for comparing the environmental impacts of various building materials, allowing architects to quickly evaluate and source materials that would help their clients meet LEED certification standards.
Distilling a multitude of factors into just seven distinct categories, the cards use an intuitive color code to highlight areas in which the materials fall short, allowing architects to make more informed decisions during the often hasty sourcing process. Scores on the rear side of the card reflect environmental impacts across the entire lifespan of the material, which are then combined into a series of composite scores on the front.
