Learn how you can support the work we do

Here are a few ways you can support our work:

• Make an online donation.
• Join “Friends of Healthy Materials” to support research and events at the Lab and Library.
• If you are an organization looking to share resources, collaborate on curricula, or facilitate an event relating to affordable housing or the use of healthy materials please contact us at affordhealth@newschool.edu.
• Prospective students, or active Parsons and New School students interested in assisting in research please get in touch.

Healthy Materials Lab is generously supported by Parsons School of Design and a grant from The JPB Foundation.

A grant from the Angelo Donghia Foundation keeps the doors open at the Donghia healthier Materials Library at Parsons School of Design.

To achieve our goals, Healthy Materials Lab produces a wealth of content and resources.

Material Collections

We feature 19 Collections including over 135 products showcasing examples of healthy materials for designers, builders, and housing owners. Since 2020, traffic to these resources grew 87% and visitors spent over 20% more time on pages than in previous years.

Podcast

Our Trace Material podcast includes multiple seasons with over 20 episodes. The latest season is focused on plastics and continues to receive much attention. To date, we have more than 50,000 downloads, maintained a 4.9 out of 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts and ranked in the nation’s top 10% by the Buzzsprout streaming service.

“I know the substance on which Trace Material focuses … I’ve not heard a single slip-up. What I have heard is smart, accessible, engaging, and accurate communication of which even Alan Alda would be proud.” – Pete Myers, Founder of Environmental Health News

Academic and Education Opportunities

Sharing resources and inspiring connections, our Academic Network has grown by 300% from the launch of the network, with growth attributing to the new membership profile pages.

Our Role Model contest for students receives submissions from over 10 countries worldwide. We continue to reach out to a global audience to engage the world’s progressive student innovators around healthy design.

Our online courses hosted by The New School had nearly 3000 registrants across 18 sessions offered in 2022.

Moving Forward

We continuously and exponentially build momentum for the Material Health movement. Soon we will offer our courses on Coursera, a large platform that reaches new and broader audiences, and we’ll continue to deliver critical content and knowledge through our free live events, healthy material resources, youtube, social, and media appearances. We need support from individuals and institutions to do all this and more. Please consider donating or contacting us to become a Friend of Healthy Materials Lab and support one or more of our programming efforts.

We aim to build momentum for the Material Health movement. With your support we will deliver a new season of our podcast, Trace Material focused on mycelium, a revolutionary fiber, we’ll be offering our courses on Coursera, a large platform that will reach new and wider audiences, and we’ll continue to deliver critical content and knowledge through our website, social, and media appearances. To do all of this and more we need support from individuals and institutions. Please consider making an individual donation or contact us to become a Friend of Healthy Materials Lab and support one or more of our programming efforts.