GreenBox and Product NutritionLabel
Product NutritionLabel™. Elizabeth Redmond, Matt Grigsby, and Joe Gebbia, Ecolect Inc., and Joep Meijer, theRightenvironment Ltd. United States, 2008–9. Courtesy of designers
Ecolect, founded by designers Joe Gebbia and Matt Grigsby, is the first materials library to focus solely on eco-effective materials. In 2008, Ecolect introduced the GreenBox, a material subscription service to complement its free online library. Every three months, GreenBox subscribers receive physical samples of innovative, eco-effective materials presented on a die-cut card with an integrated hook, allowing them to be easily hung. The cards include information that synthesizes research, applications, technical attributes, pricing, and manufacturer contact information. The service enables designers to build their own library with a card system designed to be simple, user-friendly, and recyclable, conveying the sustainable attributes Ecolect promotes.
Product NutritionLabels, developed with partner theRightenvironment, integrate into Ecolect’s offerings to convey the sustainability performance of materials and products. The label distills a material’s technical life cycle analysis (LCA) data, presenting them as factors that include embodied energy, chemical health, contents, and social responsibility. The LCA data are presented on a label that employs a similar visual language as that of FDA-mandated nutrition facts labels. This accessible format for visualizing the data brings unprecedented transparency to the life of materials and roducts and anticipates that one day, such labels will be mandated for all products.
Location: united states