Materials Red List
Arup Auckland Office © All Good Media
Friday 29 August 2025
12-1pm AEST / 2-3pm NZST
Learning outcomes
- What is the Red List, and why do we need it?
- How to download and search the Red List.
- Better understand PFAS (Perfluorinated and Polyfluorinated Alkyl Substances), one of the Red List chemical classes, from current research.
- Examples of toxic substances in building/ interior products.
- Tips for vetting products for projects.
Learning Level
This course is appropriate for anyone wanting to know more about toxicity in commonly-used building materials, and how to avoid them. A basic understanding of regenerative design for the built environment may provide additional valuable context.
Description
Knowing what is in the materials we specify and that they are safe, is vital to our own health, the health of our planet and the circular economy. The LBC Red List, and materials transparency platforms like Declare®, help to facilitate this by identifying harmful chemicals, equipping specifiers to make healthier product choices. Hear from Nicola Smith, LFIA Technical Officer, Erin Leitao, Associate Professor at the University of Auckland, who specialises in PFAS research, and Laura Cowie, who has been sourcing healthy products for many years on Arup projects.
This one hour webinar will give built environment professionals (and everyone who cares about building with healthy materials) a good overview of the LBC Red List as a tool for avoiding toxicity in building products and projects, landscapes and interiors.
Speakers
Nicola Smith is a UK-Registered Architect with extensive experience working at a senior level in Architectural and other built environment practices, and has been a Green Star Accredited Professional since 2009. Nicola is the Technical Officer at the Living Future Institute of Australia, which includes working with the LFIA Technical Working Group to help contextualise the Living Future programs to our region, and managing the Declare program in Australia. Nicola is passionate about materials health and transparency, circularity and enabling positive change through regenerative design.
Erin Leitao is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Science at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Erin is also Principal Investigator in the MacDiarmid Institute and Co-deputy Director of the Centre for Green Chemical Science. Erin’s areas of expertise are materials science, main-group synthesis, catalysis, polymers, reaction kinetics, mechanisms and green chemistry. Erin’s research is currently focussed on Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), known as “forever chemicals”. PFAS chemicals are associated with human and environmental harms and are on the LBC Red List.
Laura Cowie is a sustainable building design consultant with Arup in Melbourne specialising in regenerative office design. She played a lead role in implementing the Living Building Challenge® (LBC) for the recently completed Arup offices in Auckland, Perth and Brisbane. This push towards healthy, net-positive design represents Arup’s desire to pursue sustainable development. Laura’s current work focuses on materials, where she works closely with designers and industry to advocate for transparent and healthy products, and promotion of circular economy principles.
1 CPD point
