Sharon Prince, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Grace Farms Foundation, announced this week Design for Freedom, a new movement to eradicate modern slavery from the built environment by addressing the systemic use of forced labor in the building materials supply chain.

"Examining our building materials supply chain is a moral and legal imperative,” said Prince in a statement. “Almost all modern construction projects are subsidized with slavery, due to unchecked forced labor that permeates thousands of raw and composite materials sourced both locally in the United States and globally. While initial attention concentrated on developing ethical labor practices on construction and job sites, we now seek to extend these regulations to the building materi­als supply chain, including oversight of sub-contractors, manufacturers, and commodities-level providers in such areas as forestry, fiber, and mining."

Design for Freedom began back in 2017, when Prince and the late Bill Menking, Founding Editor-in-Chief of the Architect's Newspaper, came to the conclusion that the elimination of forced labor in the building materials supply chain was not a priority in the industry.

The Design for Freedom Working Group (formerly known as the Grace Farms Foundation Architecture + Construction  Working) has expanded to  a group of more than 60 experts and leaders from various sectors who have come together to "actualize or influence the built environment" and "raise awareness of modern slavery across industries and to create outcomes that will ensure a clean, ethical building materials supply chain."

The public can participate in this new movement through a two-part webinar that will feature members of the Working Group. Continuing education credits from the AIA are available for those who attend. the series will begin on October 29th. For more see the Design For Freedom website.