Streamlined programs simplify product manufacturers data management and demonstrate proven leadership in the building industry.
San Diego, Calif. – HPD Collaborative (HPDC) and Green Seal® have announced a strategic alliance to bring the expertise and certification leadership of Green Seal into alignment with the capabilities of the HPD Open Standard. The result will be expanded options for product manufacturers to enhance their sustainability reporting and certifications for products used in the built environment.
Green Seal is a nonprofit that develops environmental standards and certification programs for products and services based on performance, health, and sustainability criteria. HPDC is a nonprofit that manages the building industry’s leading open standard specification – the Health Product Declaration® (HPD) – for manufacturers to accurately, reliably and consistently report product contents and associated health information.
The alliance will enable building product manufacturers to simplify their data management and reporting when they use both the HPD reporting format and the Green Seal certification program, using an automated data exchange.
The first collaboration coincides with Green Seal’s newly revised paints standard Edition 4.0, which was issued in September 2021. HPDC and Green Seal will launch a pilot for dual reporting and certification programs for manufacturers who produce paint and/or use paint as an ingredient in their building products.
“This collaboration allows us to create greater business value for manufacturers by providing them with tools that help them identify opportunities to improve the material health of their products,” said Wendy Vittori, Executive Director of HPDC. “Transparency in reporting and optimization for improved material health makes products more attractive to project teams. Increasingly architects, designers and others who select and specify building products are showing a preference for products with these features. These efforts by manufacturers also demonstrate industry leadership and due diligence with Sustainability and ESG compliance.”
Green Seal’s paint standard requires uncompromising functional performance while restricting VOC’s and prohibiting carcinogens, reproductive toxins, hazardous air pollutants, alkylphenol ethoxylates, and a host of other harmful chemicals. Green Seal recently announced that products certified to its updated GS-11 paint standard are designated by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) as complying with the requirements for the LEED v4 and v4.1 low-emitting materials credit, making the Green Seal mark the only one to qualify products for both LEED v4.1 credit requirements and Amazon’s Climate Pledge Friendly badge.
For more than 30 years, Green Seal’s standards have focused on eliminating hazards from the supply chain. Building on its successful Formula Facts platform for ingredient communication for cleaning products, and its recently launched raw material verification program, this partnership represents another step in Green Seal’s work towards increasing transparent reporting of ingredient information to consumers and commercial buyers alike.
“Not only are consumers demanding transparency these days, but leading manufacturers are requiring transparency in ingredient disclosure from their suppliers,” said Doug Gatlin, CEO of Green Seal. “The goal of this partnership is simple: align reporting metrics and methods for greater ease of use by suppliers and manufacturers throughout the building industry. Green Seal is excited to be part of this important collaborative effort.”
Harmonization and data exchange with other programs are a main objective of HPDC, supporting the widespread, transparent access to higher quality product data, at a lower cost, available throughout the building industry ecosystem through any certification or rating system.
The alliance will bring about greater transparency and harmonization in material health, resulting in:
• Efficiencies and value add in manufacturer data reporting and certification through easy reuse in complementary programs.
• Better understanding of chemicals of concern and safer alternatives in product areas common to both the HPD and Green Seal Certified programs, opening up opportunities for industry innovation in safer products.
• Educational offerings that help building owners and operators understand the health and environmental impacts of building product selection.
HPDC and Green Seal plan to build on this alliance to continually advance product transparency in material health through innovative data reporting and certification in the building industry. They will also work to extend the collaboration to other product categories, such as cleaning products, which are complementary in their use in the built environment.
ABOUT HPDC
HPDC is a not-for-profit, member association with over 330 organizational members, representing the full spectrum of the building industry: architects, designers, building owners, manufacturers, consultants, tool developers, and others who all share a common purpose to improve the transparency of information and the material health of the built environment. The HPD Open Standard has become widely adopted as the industry standard for reporting on building product contents and associated health information, since its launch in 2012, with over 7,000 HPD reports publicly available. HPDC members champion the continuous improvement of the building industry’s performance through transparency, openness and innovation in the practices of reporting, disclosure, specification and selection of building products. For more information, visit hpd-collaborative.org or with HPDC on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
ABOUT GREEN SEAL
Green Seal® is a global nonprofit committed to making sustainability everyone’s business. The ecolabelling movement we pioneered decades ago has helped people make informed purchasing decisions and driven the marketplace toward healthier, greener choices. Hundreds of the world’s leading companies carry our certification on their products, services, and spaces to quickly signal how they’ve met a high benchmark of health and environmental leadership. Numerous federal, state, and institutional purchasing policies specify Green Seal and certified products are eligible for Amazon’s Climate Pledge Friendly badge. Look for, partner with, and lean on Green Seal so you can make healthier, safer choices with confidence. Visit greenseal.org or connect with Green Seal on X and LinkedIn.