The Health Product Declaration has been developed to be the industry standard format for conveying details about product content and associated health information.
It is designed to:
- save time and money for customers by making research efforts more productive;
- increase efficiency for manufacturers by reducing redundant – and sometimes conflicting – reporting formats;
- help project teams to achieve the new LEED® Building product disclosure and optimization credit and the Living Building ChallengeSM Materials Red List Imperative;
- provide health information in Environmental Product Declarations and other similar documents.
- Stimulate innovation and collaboration between customers and manufacturers who desire to improve the healthiness of building products
The HPD Open Standard is needed in the building industry to increase the availability and accuracy of reported product content and associated health information. By providing a common language, it levels the playing field: The Health Product Declaration helps manufacturers communicate important data in a consistent and transparent manner so that customers can make fully informed decisions about specifying, purchasing, installing, and using building products.
A brief history of the Health Product Declaration
In July 2011 an ad hoc group of experts from the community of building designers, specifiers, and building owners got together to discuss the concept of creating a standard format for reporting product content and associated health information of building products. The idea was to create a means for sustainability leaders to more easily make informed decisions about the products they purchase and their impacts on human health, and to reduce the burden on product manufacturers juggling multiple types of information requests and reporting formats. The group came together at the invitation of the Materials Research Collaborative, a non-profit alliance of the Healthy Building Network and BuildingGreen, Inc. and met over two days.
By the end of the meeting the group had created a working draft of the Health Product Declaration Open Standard, and committed itself to refining the document and introduce it publicly as a draft at Greenbduild in November 2011. We called ourselves the HPD Open Standard Working Group.
At Greenbuild 2011 HPD Working Group released our first draft of the HPD Open Standard endorsed by 23 leading design, construction and building management firms. We also announced the formation of a Steering Committee to guide the evolution of the Working Group towards a membership organization that could accommodate widespread participation from a cross section of the building industry, and oversee the further development and long term management of the standard. A small group of manufacturers joined in this announcement and volunteered to participate in a Pilot Program to test the draft format. They were later joined by a total of 29 manufacturers in the Pilot Program.
The Pilot Program took place in the summer of 2012. Thirty leading product manufacturers submitted 40 draft HPDs for review. Fifty independent expert reviewers from the building industry provided additional feedback. We set a goal for Greenbuild 2012 to release an official Version 1 of the HPD Open Standard at, and to open the Health Product Declaration Collaborative as a customer-led, membership organization.
PILOT PROJECT COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Anne Less Google Green Team, Mary Davidge Associates Amanda Kaminsky The Durst Organization Beth Sturgeon Google Green Team, Mary Davidge Associates Eden Brukman Concenter Solutions Jean Hansen Sustainable Interiors Manager, HDR Jennifer Atlee Building Green, Inc. Kirsten Ritchie Gensler Max Richter Perkins+Will Peggy White White+GreenSpec Architectural Specifications Priya Premchandran SERA Tom Lent Healthy Building Network
PILOT MANUFACTURERS
The following companies completed at least one Pilot Health Product Declaration and offered suggestions for improvement throughout the development process.
| 3form | Forbo | Knauf | Tandus Flooring |
| Alpar Architectural | GAF | Knoll | Teknion |
| Armstrong | Globus Cork | LDI Corporation | Wilsonart |
| ASSA ABLOY | Haworth | Neil Kelly | YOLO Colorhouse |
| BASF | Herman Miller | PROSOCO | |
| CertainTeed | InPro | Scranton Products | |
| CROSSVILLE | Interface FLOR | Shaw | |
| CertainTeed | Johns Manville | Steelcase | |
| Dunn-Edwards | Kingspan | Stego Industries |
Founding Endorsers
Boora Architects, Cannon Design, Center For Maximum Potential Building Systems, Durst Organization, FXFowle, Gensler, Google, HDR, HLW, HKS, HOK, International Living Future Institute, KMD, Mary Davidge Associates, Mithun, Pankow Builders, Perkins+Will, Sasaki Associates, SERA, Smith Group, Specifications Consultants, Symmes Maini & McKee Associates, White+GreenSpec, and Yost Grube Hall Architecture.
Founding Manufacturers
| ASSA ABLOY | Interface | Scranton Products | YOLO Colorhouse |
Working Group Steering Committee
| Anthony Bernheim | Susan Kaplan | Mike Manzi | Bill Walsh |
| Mary Davidge | Nadav Malin | Peter Syrett |