by Shane Henson — April 9, 2012—Thirty leading building product manufacturers have begun a two-month pilot program to test and improve the Health Product Declaration Open Standard (HPD), a voluntary format for disclosing product content and related health concerns that are typically not reported even when a product, or a building, is certified “green.”
The program is being administered by the Health Product Declaration Working Group, a volunteer organization comprised of experts from the community of designers, specifiers and building owner/operators that authored the HPD Open Standard format.
According to the Health Product Declaration Working Group, the companies participating in the pilot program manufacture a diverse array of building products, from structural components to finishes to office systems. Each has agreed to complete an HPD for as many as three products, and to provide the HPD Working Group with feedback. The Working Group will evaluate and synthesize the feedback, and revise the draft HPD into a final version that will be officially ratified and made available to the public later this year.
The pilot program will help us work through the real and perceived barriers to transparency in building products, ultimately leading to better choices for designers and contractors, said Nadav Malin, president of BuildingGreen, a company committed to providing accurate, unbiased, and timely information designed to help building-industry professionals and policy makers improve the environmental performance, and reduce the adverse impacts, of buildings.
