HPDC, Green Seal Announce Complimentary HPD Reports with Paint Certification

Green Seal-certified paints earn points toward LEED credits for material ingredient reporting and low-emitting materials

San Francisco, Calif., November 1 – HPDC and Green Seal announced today that Green Seal is now an approved Health Product Declarations (HPD) preparer and third-party verifier and will prepare and verify HPDs free of charge for any manufacturer that pursues Green Seal’s paint certification.

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.

With this new partnership, manufacturers of Green Seal-certified paints receive additional exposure for their products through publication in the HPD Public Repository, broadcasting the products’ safer formulations and compliance with LEED and WELL certification criteria.

Green Seal-certified paints automatically qualify for points toward the LEED v4.1 low-emitting materials credit. With this new partnership, products now also qualify for points toward the LEED v4.1 material ingredient reporting credit, making Green Seal-certified paints the only products in the marketplace to earn both. Green Seal-certified paints and coatings also are compliant with WELL and Fitwell standards.

“Green Seal is delighted to partner with the HPD Collaborative, a true leader in advancing material health in green building projects,” said Doug Gatlin, CEO of Green Seal. “Now, specifying Green Seal certified paints and coatings is like pressing the easy button to find products that fully align with LEED v4.1 and meet the leading industry standards for transparency, material health, and functional performance.”

“Green Seal and HPDC have teamed to streamline and simplify the entire data, certification, and transparency process for manufacturers, beginning with the paint product category” said Wendy Vittori, Executive Director of HPDC. “The synergies of our data exchange platform make it convenient and efficient for Green Seal to include preparation and verification of an HPD report in their certification services. As a result, manufacturers can match a fully-compliant HPD report with their Green Seal paint certification. Green Seal’s integrated offering shows the future path to more cost-efficient and effective assessment and optimization for building products.”

Green Seal certification indicates a paint or coating product is safer for people and the planet than similar products while providing uncompromising performance. Specifying a paint that is Green Seal certified ensures the product has met low-VOC criteria for both chemical content and measured emissions, providing comprehensive protection from these prevalent indoor air pollutants. Beyond VOCs, Green Seal certification also prohibits other types of hazardous ingredients that are still found in paints, including the common preservative formaldehyde, and other chemicals linked to cancer and reproductive harm. Combined, these criteria ensure that Green Seal certified paints provide the strongest health and indoor air quality protections, while also passing rigorous testing to ensure uncompromising functional performance. 

Green Seal and HPDC will hold information sessions at the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo in San Francisco on Wednesday, November 2nd at 10:30am and Thursday, November 3rd at 2:30pm at booth 1758 to illuminate how this new partnership can help paint manufacturers and project managers achieve their material health goals.

ABOUT HPDC 

HPDC is a not-for-profit, member association with over 360 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 10,000 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 connect with HPDC on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.