Our Portfolio: GIGA

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Website: www.gigabase.org
Location: Shanghai, China
Sector Focus: Environment; health
Region Focus: China-wide, international

The Problem

China is the world’s manufacturing hub, and the second largest construction market in the world. Many building materials used worldwide are harmful to the health of building occupants and cause serious negative effects on the environment in their manufacturing and disposal.

China’s building materials industry is very fragmented, with hundreds of choices in each material category and various eco-labeling schemes. Despite their desire to build green, architects do not have the time or knowledge to assess all available materials and determine which have the least negative impact on human health and the environment.

The Solution

The founders of GIGA are designers and architects working in China who identified an opportunity to increase the demand for green materials and give manufacturers the incentive to produce more of them. By creating a web-based platform, GIGA enables designers to easily find, source and use green materials and thus drive the market demand for them.

GIGA is free to users, and brings all of the various ecological information available about building materials under a common review system based on the Cradle-to-Cradle methodology. This allows users to quickly compare materials and make the best choice given their constraints, budgetary or otherwise.

As demand for ecologically better materials increases, manufacturers will have the incentive to produce better materials, creating a cycle of incremental changes in the direction of production and usage of materials that cause less negative effects on the environment and human health. The goal is to eventually see more materials that have positive ecological impact, and actually improve the environment through their production and use.

The Impact

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GIGA founder Raefer Wallis and Ryan Dick were invited to participate in the 2009 Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting to present GIGA to an international audience from the government, business, and NGO sectors.

The website was re-launched in the fall of 2010 and is now available to architects and designers not only in China, but also to users worldwide who source materials from China. Participating manufacturers have seen increased demand for their materials as GIGABASE is becoming the go-to source for ecological information on building materials. GIGABASE has excited not only architects, but also developers and others who want to build green and now have an innovative tool to quickly source the best materials. GIGABASE has received requests to expand to other countries, and plans for expansion are currently being considered.

GIGA in the Media