[094] – The Design for Freedom Movement

How can architects eliminate forced labor in building material supply chains to create a more equitable future?

“Over the past few decades, substantive strides have been compounding to sustainably design and construct with less harm to nature; yet there is a startling blind spot in terms of the entropic brutality forced upon the workers who are critical to the production of the very materials we source. Their suffering should not be built into our construction”

– Sharon Prince, CEO and Founder of Grace Farms Foundation

The $12 trillion construction industry is the #1 industrial sector at risk of forced labor. Sharon joins us to discuss the new Design for Freedom Toolkit and her work to help implement ethical, forced labor-free material sourcing strategies across the AEC industry. 

Guest:
Sharon Prince is the CEO and Founder of Grace Farms Foundation and commissioned SANAA to design Grace Farms in New Canaan, Connecticut. The Foundation’s interdisciplinary humanitarian mission is to pursue peace through nature, arts, justice, community, faith, and Design for Freedom, a new movement to eliminate forced labor from the building materials supply chain. The open, porous architecture of the River building at Grace Farms is embedded into 80 acres of natural landscape. The building, designed to break down barriers between people and sectors, invites all to pause and reflect, while also encouraging engagement with its initiatives, creating new outcomes.

Show Links: 
https://gracefarms.org/

Continue Learning:
Learn about the comprehensive resources for design and construction professionals to help ensure ethical material sourcing strategies: https://www.designforfreedom.org/

Read the Fast Company article “The construction supply chain is plagued by slave labor. She’s changing that” from August 2022