The Harmonization Task Group (HTG) announced the development of common language, new technology and tools to increase designer, manufacturer and non-government organization collaboration that will dramatically increase human health associated with built environment interaction. The group held a joint press conference during the Materials & Human Health Summit at Greenbuild 2014 to announce development of a new API and individual process and standard developments directly related to ongoing harmonization efforts.
The HTG members share a core commitment to informed consumer choice that leads to healthier built environments, and formed a taskforce this past year to streamline the inventorying of ingredients, screening of chemicals, and hazard assessment. The U.S. Green Building Council, host of Greenbuild 2014 in New Orleans, and Google funded the collaborative work. The HTG is actively sharing knowledge and best practices about the human and environmental impacts associated with products to drive the phased removal of hazardous chemicals and the adoption of 100 percent green chemistry.
Initial collaboration focused on formal revisions of inventory and screening processes, and hazard assessment methodologies. This work will establish a process to ensure consistent data within their varied tools, empowering manufacturers to provide information to all major product evaluation tools and end-users with a wider range of results.
The HTG formally announced the creation of the Application Programming Interface (API), as the first deliverable under the supporting grant. The API will increase uniformity of data shared by manufacturers and simplify distribution of it to a range of certifiers and other NGOs in this space. Pharos and Google’s Healthy Materials Tool will formally beta test the API during Greenbuild, with rollout to other partners beginning in early 2015.
“The API will be continuously modified to accommodate any additional data that is collected via the HPD Builder or other systems using the HPD reporting format,” said Brendan Owens, VP, LEED Technical Development at U.S. Green Building Council.
The API directly addresses manufacturers’ long-standing complaint that ingredient data sharing is complicated by the existence of too many programs with varying requirements. The API will save manufacturers significant time and money in sharing their material ingredient information with users and specifiers.
The API is good for end-users because it will encourage more manufacturers to disclose what’s in their products and provide end-user clarity on building material content and health hazards. The tools available from HTG members provide a variety of open standards for disclosure and hazard screening, and the unprecedented collaboration guides manufacturers, designers and all parts of the built environment community to unified goals, while providing different entry options to ensure the most inclusivity in participation.
“Together, these organizations are demonstrating best practices in, and making progress toward material health for the built environment,” said Anthony Ravitz, Green Team Lead and Real Estate Servicesat Google. “Google has adopted this system and we are confident it will soon become the standard for the built environment, and beyond because the HTG is already meeting its goal of creating a more harmonized assessment and reporting ecosystem that will lead to increased manufacturer participation and disclosure, and greater consumer choice in the products used in the development of places we work, live and play.”
In a joint statement, HTG members said about the collaborative work:
“We believe that ingredient transparency and disclosure in the supply chain are fundamental behaviors to create a foundation for effective assessment and continuous improvement, and our common objectives for ecological and human health will only be realized with wide spread manufacturer participation in the process. We recognize the current state of green discourse, sourcing, design and development, and navigating an array of third-party certifications, tools and services can be a challenge for product manufacturers seeking to optimize chemical formulations, and for specifiers seeking the most appropriate products for a given project.
We commend manufacturers who stepped forward early in their work with HPD’s, Pharos, GreenScreen and Cradle to Cradle, who set a positive example by their exploration of disclosure, screening, assessment, and optimization. The discussion has now moved beyond these early adopters and is being driven by market forces, as virtually all of the leading architecture firms and an increasing number of property owners in the green building movement require some form of disclosure as part of their product specification. We are committed to streamlining the process and engaging more stakeholders in dialogue about its development.”
Individual HTG Member Announcements
Each organization shared individual product and service announcements at the press conference that are directly impacted by the HTG collaboration and harmonization efforts, including:
Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute
The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute will now offer a Material Health Certificate, a tool for manufacturers across industries to communicate their work toward chemically optimized products. Cradle to Cradle Certified products are assessed in five categories: Material Health, Material Reutilization, Renewable Energy, Water Stewardship, Social Fairness. Companies now have the option to pursue only the Material Health assessment, marking the first time the Institute has offered reporting of its comprehensive methodology in only one category.
“While highly regarded as a trusted third-party product certification program, Cradle to Cradle Certified is also widely recognized for the depth and rigor of its Material Health Assessment Methodology,” said Stacy Glass, VP, Built Environment at the Institute. “This new offering allows manufacturers to do the hard work of identifying and assessing the materials in their products, find the known human and environmental impacts associated with their ingredients, and from there, they can reformulate, redesign, or innovate to find safer solutions. Safe ingredients perpetually cycled is our mission, and the material health certificate is fundamental step in that direction.”
The requirements for the Material Health Certificate are identical to those of the Material Health requirements of the Cradle to Cradle Certified Product Standard Version 3.0 which is governed by the Institute’s Certification Standards Board. The Standard requirements for continuous improvement and optimization as well as a site visit of the production facility must also be met. Accredited assessment bodies that have been trained and audited by the Institute will conduct the assessment and the Institute will administer the certificates. Once granted, the certificate will be valid for two years and listed on the Institute’s new Material Health Certificate Registry.
GreenScreen/Clean Production Action
Clean Production Action has launched the GreenScreen Store, where fully transparent and high quality GreenScreen assessment reports can be downloaded for low and/or no cost and used by manufacturers in support of informed decision-making including for the LEED Disclosure and Optimization credits. See: www.greenscreenchemicals.org/gs-assessments.
Hundreds of GreenScreen assessment reports will soon become publicly available at the GreenScreen Store thanks to agreements with licensed GreenScreen Profilers. And through discussions with HPDC, HBN and HPD users, and thanks to generous support by a private foundation, a number of challenging ingredients of great interest to the building sector will soon be assessed and made available. These include silica, titanium dioxide and carbon black.
Finally, GreenScreen is launching a partnership with its first certification partner, GreenCircle Certified to provide a certification option for those looking to comply with the LEEDv4 Disclosure option using the Manufacturer Inventory and the Optimization Option using GreenScreen. GreenCircle Certified will provide a well-respected certification mark that will be easy to recognize by specifiers and GBCI LEED Reviewers. GreenScreen will provide a “how to” document for manufacturers to use independently or in consultation with the GreenScreen Profilers for support in the inventory and GreenScreen assessments.
Health Product Declaration Collaborative
The Health Product Declaration Collaborative made three primary announcements during the press conference, including Board of Directors ratification of the new HPD 2.0 standard and creation of a charitable foundation.
“It became clear early on in my tenure at HPDC that the disclosure and reporting ecosystem needed a coral reef structure to provide the foundation for all entities in this space to build from, including a common language, reporting structure and manufacturer engagement,” said John Knott, HPDC Executive Director when making the announcement.
The HTG collaboration members and manufacturers informed the development of HPD Builder 2.0, which was ratified by the Board this month, and will be beta tested with HPDC’s 65-member Manufacturers Advisory Panel in fourth quarter 2014, before formally launching early in 2015.
The HPDC also announced the launch of its HPDC Foundation, which is focused on building a global consumer constituency to support the collaborative goals of the HTG community. But the new foundation primarily acts as the HPDC’s educational arm to drive understanding of the connection between our built environment and human and ecological health.
Finally, the HPDC launched a Constructors Advisory Panel – the first in a series of working groups to garner consumer feedback – in recognition of the fact that only 96 percent of all annual construction is influenced by Architects. This will lend an important and oft-neglected voice to the discussions.
Healthy Building Network
The Healthy Building Network is pleased to announce the next version of the Pharos Project, Pharos v.3, the most independent and comprehensive database for understanding material health. We are introducing a new orientation around projects that will allow subscribers to invite anyone involved in a project to use Pharos on that project – including partners from others firms. In this way, everyone on the project is kept up-to-date on material health criteria and product decisions.
Pharos will also be much easier to use. Streamlined product, chemical and material profiles allow for easier search and navigation among critical information including material contents, health hazards and Greenscreen data. “Pharos v.3 continues HBN’s commitment to providing the green building market with leading edge tools to help manufacturers communicate accurate information to their customers, and help customers make informed decisions, as a means of accelerating innovation to healthier products,” said Bill Walsh, Executive Director of the Healthy Building Network. The new project-oriented Pharos debuts on 10/31/14. More Pharos details are available at www.pharosproject.net/preview beginning on Oct. 22.
