It’s Material shares stories and strategy on what we need to do to make the economy function in a more just and sustainable way. It draws on two decades of work advancing human rights, climate action and corporate responsibility.
You’ll get insights on sectors that have an outsized impact on people’s lives and the planet – particularly real estate, infrastructure and construction; finance; and technology. And I’ll share ideas on strategies that work at various levels – like municipal as well as national-level policy; coalition-building; and perspectives from people who are transforming institutions from the inside.
There will be references to fiction and design as well, as art is what makes the world go round.
My social enterprise of the same name is here.
Why “It’s material”
Material is a multi-faceted word. Some of the definitions - from my clunky “Shorter” Oxford English dictionary - that this newsletter will interpret and play with are:
“Forming the material or substance of a thing. Serious, important, of consequence.”
“The matter of which a thing is or may be made…The constituent parts of something.”
Here are a couple of riffs on the meaning to get started:
Whose materiality? Companies, for example, define materiality as that which has implications for the bottom line. But how about what’s material to the future of the planet? How about what’s material for the lives of workers and communities affected by their operations? How do we account for – literally and figuratively – what’s material in those ways?
The essence of what people bring to the table: Writing teachers encourage students to dig deep to identify their unique “material” – an ongoing process. Similarly, everyone has unique material that they bring to a particular project or organization: the more that there are opportunities for people to draw on their unique material, the better.
About me:
I’m Principal at It’s Material. Common threads throughout my work are building programs that push boundaries, and linking local and global action. A few highlights:
Created and led the Dignity by Design program on human rights and the built environment with IHRB, Raul Wallenberg Institute, Rafto Foundation and Melbourne School of Design
Helped grow the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre into a thriving global non-profit with a presence in over ten countries, having joined as its second employee back in 2003 and set up the New York office in 2007
At the local city level, led coalitions, strategy and research at the intersection of climate, jobs and community with ALIGN (Alliance for a Greater New York)
Researched and wrote “100 union actions on climate justice”, for Building and Woodworkers International
Coordinated, together with Amita Nagaraja, the FORGE funder collaborative through its formative phase (Funders Organized for Rights in the Global Economy)
Consulting projects - among them a strategic alignment process for a group of US-based labor rights groups, advice for a foundation on purposeful business in the United States, and guidance for a large engineering association on social return on investment
Englishwoman in New York, firmly rooted in Queens! Check out my local projects “NYC 51-1”, “30th Ave – A Year in the Life of a Street,” and “I Live Here – Queens”. And a series of stories about people who are transforming the way we build in NYC.
It’s Material content is global but US-skewed given that that’s where I live, and human rights start close to home. Who knows - how about editors based in other regions down the road?! And I aim to balance exposure of problems with elevating solutions: a 40:60 ratio or thereabouts. After all, we know the world is at a breaking point, so it’s best to focus on ways to respond to that, and what to do about it.
If you’re still here, here are two recent pieces of writing:
Interventions in hospital construction - early action for the realization of human rights (book chapter)
“Cities: A growing and necessary target for human rights advocacy”
Enjoy! And most importantly, engage with the content here by sending me your reactions and ideas.
In solidarity,
Annabel
