For decades, we’ve explored how to design the healthiest interior environments. From stories of Google’s founders walking around our early buildings measuring indoor air quality with handheld particle counters, to vetting thousands of products over the years to ensure we weren’t introducing unnecessary toxics to our retrofitted interiors, we have long been focused on creating healthy workspaces. We’re proud that Gradient Canopy is one of the largest projects ever to achieve the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) Living Building Challenge (LBC) Materials Petal certification, which aims to help create a materials economy that is non-toxic, ecologically restorative and transparent.
We prioritized materials that are healthy for people and the environment within Gradient Canopy and the Google Visitor Experience. Every material installed in the building has been reviewed with the manufacturer to ensure it is free of LBC’s Red List ingredients, which represent worst-in-class chemicals that negatively impact human and environmental health. In total, more than 8,000 products were reviewed at Gradient Canopy, working with manufacturers participating in our effort to drive transparency in the building industry.
Our approach to healthy materials at Gradient Canopy extends far beyond the interior spaces and the Googlers who work inside day-to-day. By looking at materials inside and outside the building, including the six public artworks installed around the building’s exterior, we set out to prioritize the health of communities along the supply chain and the entire lifecycle of our building products. That means materials — from things you can see and touch, such as carpet and walls, to those less readily apparent, like window coatings and the building’s insulation — were carefully vetted with their manufacturers to ensure health was a driving factor in its selection.
