Jonsara Ruth

it’s been so much fun to to design this exhibition space with @emicapilla at @healthymaterialslab with the excellent support of @kamilla.csegzi.studio to bring it to life with all of our generous partners! today is installation day. go team go! #reuse #repair #regenerate #biomaterials #reducetoxicsandcarbon

Special announcement to kick off #EarthWeek - we’re bringing regenerative, biogenic materials to ICFF ✨ Join us at the new @icff_official 2026 Materials section in The Oasis as we explore how design can regenerate, repair, reuse, and reduce - drawing from both time-tested practices and emerging innovations in biogenic, biofabricated, biodegradable materials. 🟡 Material Innovations with Ancient Roots: An Exhibition by Healthy Materials Lab 📍 Javits Center, NYC 📅 May 17-19, 2026 This exhibition brings together a community of designers, makers, and thinkers advancing healthier, climate-positive material futures - with a focus on sourcing secondary byproducts, extending material lifecycles, repairing and reusing resources, and rethinking what we build with. Alongside the exhibition, join us for hands-on workshops + talks: 🟡 Repairing Design with Veterans Caning | May 17, 1 - 3 PM A live recaning demonstration exploring craft, care, and longevity - reminding us to repair rather than replace. 🟡 Designing Out Toxicity: Toward Healthier Material Futures with @metropolismag + @studiogang | May 17 3 - 4 PM Panel discussion on how design can reduce toxic exposure while addressing industry challenges and social well-being. 🟡 Unboxing Carbon with @marthallewis , @henninglarsenarchitects | May 18, 11 AM - 12:30 PM A deep dive into embodied carbon and how material choices shape a project’s footprint. 🟡 Paint with Minerals Instead of Plastic with @alkemispaint | May 19, 11 AM - 1 PM A hands-on workshop exploring mineral-based paints as a healthier alternative to petrochemical coatings. We’ll be sharing more soon - including sign-ups for each workshop. Will you be at ICFF in NYC? Let us know in the comments. 🔗 Learn more at the link in our bio.

We’re grateful to be included in conversation with @archdigestpro LIVE: The Longevity Home - a timely discussion on what it really means to design for longer, healthier lives. Our cofounder @jonsara welcomed the AD PRO team into our materials library at @parsonsschoolofdesign to share a simple but urgent reality: Americans spend over 90% of our time indoors, yet many of the materials that surround us are still made with petrochemicals and additives that can negatively impact our health over time. From potassium silicate - a mineral at the root of truly breathable coatings - to mineral paints by @alkemispaint , as well as milk paint and linseed oil paints, we highlighted alternatives that move away from the “soup” of toxic ingredients found in many conventional finishes. Thank you to the AD PRO team for the opportunity to contribute to this important dialogue. 🔗AD PRO members can explore the full video + Longevity Home Report at the link in bio.

it was thrilling to host a plastering workshop with @liz_earthen_endeavors last weekend. especially to learn how a hempy lime mixture could be applied to the wall of hemplime blocks that we made at @healthymaterialslab with @coexist_build years ago! great to learn how @earthaus.plaster works and feels #lime #limeplaster #hemp

We’re honored to share that @alison_mears and @jonsara Ruth from Parsons Healthy Materials Lab were nominated for the 2026 Design Visionary Award as part of the @cooperhewitt National Design Awards. The Design Visionary Award celebrates individuals and organizations whose long-term contributions have advanced design in transformative ways. To be considered alongside leaders who have shaped design culture over decades is deeply meaningful to our team. While we were not selected as this year’s recipient, we extend our sincere congratulations to the recipient of the visionary award, Robert Earl Paige. An artist, designer, and educator whose work bridges fine art, craft, and design, Paige’s decades-long practice has expanded access, representation, and material imagination in American design. His work exemplifies what it means to be a true visionary. We’re grateful to the multidisciplinary jury and to everyone who continues to support HML’s mission: advancing healthier materials, reducing toxic chemical exposure, and shifting the building industry toward regenerative, biogenic futures. Gratitude to all at @parsonsschoolofdesign that continue to support this vital work. Design shapes how - and how well - we live. We’re proud to be part of that ongoing conversation. Thankful to a fellow nominee @danielmichalik for inspiring this post 🟡

PART 3 - How do we move beyond plastic-based interiors? In this clip, HML co-founder + designer @Jonsara holds up something radically simple: a hemp-lime block. While so much of the modern American home - from flooring to towel racks - is made of petrochemical-derived materials, this “hemp brick” represents a different building future. The PA Hemp Home pilot in New Castle, Pennsylvania uses hemp-lime (hempcrete) as a high-performance wall system designed to: ➡️ Regulate indoor humidity through vapor permeability ➡️ Improve indoor air quality by reducing reliance on toxic, plastic-based materials ➡️ Provide natural thermal insulation for energy efficiency ➡️ Absorb sound, creating interiors that feel soft and quiet - not hollow ➡️ Lower embodied carbon compared to conventional construction systems As Court, CEO of DON Construction, explains in this segment, hemp mixed with lime becomes a remarkably versatile bio-based building material: it can be applied as an exterior stucco-like cladding, installed within wall assemblies as insulation, or finished as an interior plaster. This isn’t a niche material experiment. It’s a demonstration of climate-responsive design, carbon-sequestering construction, and healthier housing systems rooted in agricultural byproducts. Rethinking residential construction means rethinking public health, material toxicity, acoustic comfort, and climate impact - all at once. ➡️ Follow for Part 4 as we continue exploring how hemp-lime construction can advance affordable, low-carbon, healthy homes. 🎥 America @bydesigntv : Innovations 🤝 @reclaimdon , @americhanvre , @ukhempcrete , @phrcpennstate , @paagriculture

Behind every material in our collections is rigorous, independent research. At Healthy Materials Lab, we’ve evaluated over 300 building products to build a trusted, free repository for designers, architects, and builders. Each product must disclose at least 75% of ingredients by weight, undergo screening for harmful substances, be checked against low-embodied carbon benchmarks, and be verified through trusted certifications. Our newly expanded Material Collections Portal brings this work together in a refreshed interface with newly added products and curated collections - organized by use case and material origin, and adapted for both U.S. and EU regulatory landscapes. Rooted in transparency, guided by science, and always independent. Explore the relaunched Material Collections Portal and find building products you can trust.

New this week: the Plaster Collection, released as part of the relaunch of our Material Collections portal. Used for thousands of years worldwide, natural lime and clay plasters are breathable, vapor-permeable surface coatings that naturally regulate indoor climates and air quality. Plasters can also absorb airborne toxics and odors, helping keep living spaces cleaner. Lime plaster cures by absorbing carbon dioxide. Experts say it continues to absorb CO2 for decades. Lime and clay plasters are a healthier alternative to gypsum and cement-based systems that rely on synthetic additives, higher energy inputs, and lack vapor permeability. The Plaster Collection features products vetted for health impacts, certifications, and available disclosures, with direct links to manufacturers for sourcing details. Each collection also includes spec guidance to help designers understand what to look for - and what to avoid - when specifying plaster systems. Explore Plaster → Visit Material Collections to learn more.

Healthy Materials Lab’s @jonsara Ruth joined the 2025 @iida_hq + @interface Converge Sustainability Summit, an annual convening focused on material innovation, carbon-conscious manufacturing, and the future of sustainable design. At Interface’s LaGrange, Georgia campus, the Summit included a rare tour of the company’s carpet manufacturing facilities - showcasing new equipment and systems designed to expand carpet recycling, reduce landfill waste, and lower greenhouse gas emissions. The visit also raised essential questions for architects and designers: recycling matters - but so does WHAT is being recycled. If materials contain toxic chemistries, circularity alone does not resolve risk. Inside Interface’s R&D labs, chemists and material scientists are testing biobased binders, healthier approaches to microbial resistance, and ways to maintain low embodied carbon across recycled loops, reframing performance through both a health and lifecycle lens. Seeing innovation at this scale underscores what’s possible when material health, carbon, and circularity are addressed together - and why informed specification is critical to making healthier, sustainable design the norm. Explore the full recap on healthymaterialslab.org - link in bio 🟡

In the most recent 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗙𝗶𝗲𝗹𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗺 event, co-organized with @healthymaterialslab , we convened voices from across the bamboo ecosystem: growers, manufacturers, architects, and innovators to explore 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗯𝗮𝗺𝗯𝗼𝗼 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆 𝗮 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗲𝗿, 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝗲𝗻𝘃𝗶𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁. Watch the full discussion at the link in our bio. “We need to rethink the way that we’re using all materials and which ones we use and then have them all work together with us to have a healthy world in the future.” — Elora Hardy, founder and creative director of @ibukubali “I think that the other role that bamboo plays in our context—in this very room, or in my lab or in my classrooms—is having students, having designers, having craftsmen, be challenged with a material that is not ordinary.” — Jonas Hauptman, co-leader of the Bio Design Research Group at Virginia Tech and a fellow with the university’s Institute for Creativity and Innovation “...cost performance and design competitive solutions are what would help get bamboo into a higher percentage of that housing that’s demanded.” — Lucas Oshun, founder and director of @regenerationfieldinstitute

Behind the work you see is a deeply committed team - researching, questioning, collaborating, and showing up for one another every day. This past year was full of long days, big ideas, hard conversations, and a lot of laughter in between. We’re grateful for the people who make this work possible and for the care they bring to building healthier, more just material futures. 2026, we’re ready 🟡

Looking back on 2025, we’re amazed at what we accomplished together 🟡 Behind every project, event, and resource is a dedicated team working across disciplines with willing partners and collaborators - made possible by generous donors. Highlights from the year: 🏠 Analyzed toxicity & carbon in manufactured homes with the @lowersioux , supported by @the11thhourproject ♻️ Launched Circular Resources directories for recycled furnishings & salvaged building materials 🇺🇦 Hosted conversations on post-conflict reconstruction in Ukraine, centering adaptive reuse & biogenic materials, supported by @razom.for.ukraine 🌱 Advanced biobased construction during #NYCClimateWeek with Biobased Materials Collective, Brightworks Sustainability, @living_future , @yalecea , @henninglarsenarchitects , @massdesigngroup , & @metropolismag 🎉 Celebrated 10 years of HML with performances, a material showcase, and fundraising for the next decade - honoring @designerjamiedrake & @kayungerdesign 🎓 Expanded education through HML Master Class, topic-focused courses on material health & sustainable design 🌿 Explored cork & bamboo during From Field to Form with the @archleague , featuring global experts and moderated by Paul Lewis & @jonsara Ruth 🇺🇦 Developed student-led adaptive reuse proposals for Kryvyi Rih, submitted to the municipality with @neoeco_ukraine & @kharkiv.school 🌊 Showcased marine biomaterials at Seaweed City – Regenerative Futures (@parsonsproductdesign & @parsonsindustrialdesign ) and convened global innovators at Marine Materials: Designing the Future with the Ocean 🌍 Launched a global initiative with @henninglarsenarchitects , supported by the @rambollgroup , advancing awareness of material impacts on health & climate 🏭 Visited Trbovlje’s Thermal Power Plant (TET), laying groundwork for a Spring 2026 @parsons_archd Studio with the @obcinatrbovlje & @nontoxunikum 🪵 Student-led timber & straw housing in Vermont progressed from prototypes to construction documents with @smokeyhousecenter Even amid major funding cuts and a rapidly changing landscape, we made meaningful impact - together 💛