Supporting More Sustainable Specification
How Mecho helps architecture and design teams navigate evolving sustainability and material health priorities
Sustainable specification used to come with a relatively familiar set of criteria: low-VOC materials, recycled content, responsible sourcing, and requirements tied to programs such as LEED.
Those considerations haven't gone away. But architecture and design teams are now evaluating material health, embodied carbon, ingredient transparency, circularity, supply chain impacts, and other factors alongside performance, aesthetics, durability, budget, and occupant needs.
Mecho supports that process with shading solutions designed to meet a range of sustainability and performance goals, accessible product information and documentation, and knowledgeable representatives who can help design teams understand the details behind a specification.
Specification Goals
LPA Design Studios has watched specification criteria move beyond requirements such as low-VOC materials, recycled content, and responsible sourcing to address embodied carbon, chemicals of concern, circularity, supply chain transparency, and other material impacts.
BA has experienced a similar evolution. Its internal material evaluation framework considers sustainability alongside durability, maintenance, performance, aesthetics, budget, and client requirements.
Little has also incorporated material transparency into its architectural specifications and corporate materials standards. The firm's approach has moved beyond compliance-based requirements to a broader evaluation of material health within Architectural specifications.
The result is more information for designers to evaluate and more nuance in determining how sustainability attributes apply to the exact product, material, or option being considered.
Mecho Solutions
Check out our Red List Free shade cloth with available product transparency and sustainability documentation :
Designers need sustainability documentation to be readily available, but they also need to be able to use it.
At Little, accessibility is a key part of that.
Even when documentation is available, applying it to a specification can be complicated. An environmental or material health disclosure may not apply to every product in a portfolio. Sustainability attributes can vary between materials or options. A PVC-free or Red List Free choice may need to be identified specifically.
That makes product-level guidance particularly valuable.
Mecho provides sustainability information and resources that map certifications and attributes across product lines, helping designers identify options that align with project requirements. Those resources are paired with choices including PVC-free EcoGlass, EcoSheer, and EcoVeil shade cloths and a broad selection of Red List Free textiles.
For BA, that range allows designers to address the needs of different spaces without setting aside the firm's material health priorities.
Partnership in Practice
That support can also extend to the product itself.
For BA, Mecho's value also comes from the expertise and responsiveness of its team.
“Having knowledgeable representatives who can clearly explain sustainability attributes and quickly provide supporting documentation is invaluable to our specification process,” Park says.
For BA's Seattle office, that partnership was put into practice when one of the firm's larger clients needed a healthier material option for a blackout shade fabric.
Rather than asking the design team to find an alternative that met the requirement, Mecho’s sales and product development team presented a newly reformulated fabric to support the project.
“That level of collaboration and commitment to continuous product improvement is highly valued and makes Mecho a strong partner,” Park says.
Partnership Results
Pedro has relied on Mecho for window shade systems and fabrics for the past decade and continues to recommend the company in her sustainability-focused role. Breemes works directly with Mecho through mindful MATERIALS working groups focused on advancing material transparency across the industry. For BA, the Red List Free blackout fabric is one example of how feedback from designers and clients can translate into product improvement.
As sustainable specification becomes more nuanced, designers need to understand what documentation applies, how options differ, and which products can meet both sustainability priorities and project requirements.
Mecho's role is to make those decisions easier with shading solutions that give designers options and the product knowledge and support to help them choose the right one.