The Harmonization Task Group (HTG) held a joint press conference during the Materials & Human Health Summit at Greenbuild 2014 to announce the latest developments in their efforts to streamline the inventorying of ingredients, screening of chemicals, and hazard assessment,
Representatives from all member organizations (Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, Healthy Building Network, Health Product Declaration Collaborative, and GreenScreen/Clean Production Action), and speakers from the USGBC and Google, who have funded the collaborative work, presented a long list of new developments they’ve achieved both as a group and individually to increase designer, manufacturer and non-government organization collaboration that will dramatically increase human health associated with built environment interaction.
“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,” the HTG said in a joint statement leading up to the event.
Initial collaboration focused on formal revisions of inventory and screening processes, and hazard assessment methodologies.
Together, their 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.
“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,” the HTG said in a joint statement.
The first major deliverable HTG announced under the supporting grant from the USGBC and Google is the creation of the Application Programming Interface (API) that directly addresses manufacturers’ long-standing complaint that ingredient data sharing is complicated by the existence of too many programs with varying requirements. By increasing the uniformity of data shared by manufacturers and simplifying the distribution of it to a range of certifiers and other NGOs, the API promises to save manufacturers significant time and money in sharing their material ingredient information with users and specifiers.
Pharos and Google’s Healthy Materials Tool will formally beta test the API during Greenbuild, with rollout to other partners beginning in early 2015.
Each organization shared individual product and service announcements that are directly impacted by the HTG collaboration and harmonization efforts:
The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute will now offer a Material Health Certificate, giving companies the option to pursue only the Material Health assessment portion of the Cradle to Cradle Certified Product Standard Version 3.0, and helping manufacturers across industries to communicate their work toward chemically optimized products.
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. 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.
Health Product Declaration Collaborative
The Health Product Declaration Collaborative (HPDC) announced that the HPD Builder 2.0 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 primarily acts as an educational arm to drive understanding of the connection between our built environment and human and ecological health; and a Constructors Advisory Panel (the first in a series of working groups to garner consumer feedback) that will lend an important and oft-neglected voice to the discussions.
Healthy Building Network
The Healthy Building Network announced the next version of the Pharos Project, Pharos v.3, with a series of updates and tools to make the database more accessible and easier to navigate, ensuring that everyone on the project project is kept up-to-date on material health criteria and product decisions.
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.
“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,” the HTG said in a joint statement.
About the Organizations
Learn more about each organization:
Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute at http://www.c2ccertified.org/
GreenScreen/Clean Production Action at http://www.greenscreenchemicals.org/
Health Product Declaration Collaborative at http://hpdcollaborative.org/
Healthy Building Network at http://www.healthybuilding.net/
