Plia is a purpose-driven design lab within 44LLC that researches materials and manufacturing techniques to create objects intended to connect beauty with environmental responsibility. Envisioned by Jessica Corr, the initiative explores forms including the Anhedral aluminum studies and the Lina table in hemp wood while considering how products can encourage changes in behavior. Its work is framed as a new kind of protection for the biosphere—an approach reflected in the name Plia, drawn from the ancient Greek “Panoplia.”
MaharamMaharam creates design-driven textiles and surface materials for interiors, pairing commercial upholstery and wallcoverings with collaborations by artists and designers such as Alexander Girard, Paul Smith, and Hella Jongerius. The company’s environmental work is unusually measurable: its North American facilities have held ISO 14001 certification for more than 20 years, and Maharam introduced a sample-return program in 2002 that now reclaims more than 300,000 sampling tools annually. Maharam was also the first in its industry to develop textiles that achieved GreenScreen certification, and all products introduced since June 2021 are free of intentionally added PFAS.YAPHANK, NY
ILIA BeautyFounded in 2011 after Sasha Plavsic set out to remake her everyday lip balm with safer ingredients, ILIA Beauty creates clean makeup and skincare designed to make skin look and feel better. The brand is distinctive for treating makeup and skincare as one, pairing active skincare ingredients and mineral SPF with color while pursuing packaging that can be kept out of landfills.
Material MaximMaterial Maxim is a collective of specialists organized around the idea that the built environment can become regenerative rather than extractive. It helps global brands and other businesses rethink material lifecycles and develop practical routes toward circularity, using hemp-based solutions as one way to connect carbon reduction with new manufacturing systems.ONEONTA, NY
E13 WorkshopE13 Workshop is a Cincinnati design-build firm known for turning unusual materials into purposeful contemporary work. Its projects include interiors shaped with reclaimed wood and bags made from airbags handpicked in Midwestern junkyards, with each design responding to the material and setting.CINCINNATI, OH