Living Product Challenge
Industrial Louvers began a Living Product journey with the international Living Future Institute in 2016. We were among the first manufacturers to partner with the organization and earn Petal Certification under versions 1.0 and 2.0. We are active participants in developing the updated version 3.0.
We are proud to have earned Petal certification for our custom aluminum sunshades with Fluropon Pure 70% PVDF finish. We earned petals for Place, Water, Health & Happiness, Materials, Equity and Beauty and achieved 18 of 20 imperatives.
Changes to the Red List have prevented us from renewing our LPC label in 2025, but we continue to support the spirit of the program.
Place – The intent of the Place Petal is to influence in positive ways how people related to the natural environment that sustains us. For this petal, the manufacturing must not diminish habitat quality and the capacity for life to regenerate. ILI’s facility is not located on a greenfield. When we expanded our facility, we minimized the impact to our site and maximized our employee’s connection with the natural world. We invest in restoring habitat through donations to the Nature Conservancy.
Water – The intent of the Water Petal is to realign how manufacturers use water and redefine waste in the manufacturing environment so that water is respected as a natural resource. Although only 1.06% of the water used to make ILI’s painted sunshades happens on our site, they still save more water in their life cycle than they use. In other words, their handprint is larger than their footprint. To further create a net positive life cycle, we implimented a system to capture rainwater from our roof. The water is also recycled and purified so the water leaving our facility is cleaner than the potable water available from the city.
Health & Happiness – The intent of the Health & Happiness Petal is to focus on the most important conditions that must be present to create products and materials that truly benefit consumers, workers and the communities in which products are produced. ILI has designed a facility that provides daylight and connection with nature for all employees. We have phased out the many harmful chemicals generally found in manufacturing facilities like ours and continue to evaluate the materials we use to ensure maximum worker and user safety.
Materials – The intent of the Materials Petal is to help create a materials economy that is healthy, ecologically restorative, transparent and socially equitable. Our pursuit of LPC helped us eliminate PFOA and heavy metals from our paint, and we established the first chrome-free finishing line in the U.S. We published our first Declare labels in 2016 and continue to renew them annually. We source most of our products locally and have implemented policies to support sustainable and red-list free packaging. Although our products are meant for permanent installation, we provide resources for finding recyclers if the product is removed from a building or the building is demolished.
Equity – The intent of the Equity Petal is to create consumer and industrial goods that allow equitable access and treatment to all people regardless of physical abilities, race, gender, sexual orientation, age or socioeconomic status. Although our products are not generally used in residential applications, we support efforts to provide safe, non-toxic materials to the affordable housing market through our support of the Healthy Affordable Products Project. We demonstrate our responsibility through responsible co-products and support charitable organizations through direct contributions, our employee charitable giving program and volunteerism. We were the first manufacturer to earn the Just label.
Beauty – The Beauty Petal requires that products contain design features intended solely for human delight and the celebration of culture and spirit appropriate to its function. The product must be artfully designed and pleasing to use.
ILI is excited with what we have achieved and what we have learned about how we can make further improvements in our products and operations.
