SDLers,
Great to see many of you at Greenbuild! It was nice to have the opportunity to remind everyone how our collective energy continues to make a real difference with the HPD, born at a summit 13 years ago after being nurtured through a BuildingGreen-HBN collaboration (see my HPD is a Teenager presentation).
To be able to continue this work, HPDC needs your support. We’re in the last year of a grant that has provided significant funding for our efforts for the past decade. We’ve made effective use of these funds, building a massive collection of HPDs to make building product transparency real. A pollution-free building industry is within our grasp regardless of what governments do…but we need to keep the momentum going. Without this substantial grant funding, the financial support we receive from firm membership dues and sponsorships becomes much more critical to our continued success.
The SDL group helped establish the HPD to make it possible for every design project to use healthier building materials. HPDC chose to make HPD resources available to the design community at no cost, with the expectation that many of our colleagues would support these efforts by becoming members and sponsors. This hasn’t been the case; manufacturer members outnumber user members (us) 10 to 1. Maybe this is because manufacturers get unlimited access to the Builder to create HPDs while HPD reports are free to download. But now there is added value for everyone with the new dashboards and precheck filters in the Material Health ToolSuite, available only to members.
HPDC’s new tools greatly streamline the effort needed to obtain HPDs and make the data easier to understand. Material health practice can be scaled to any project in our firms. For example, the Bora dashboard that can be used by all members includes filters and readouts linked directly to our internal chemicals of concern policy. HPDC has what most certainly is the largest database of product ingredients linked to health impacts, enabling research we could never do before. An example has been HPDC’s rapid response to our SDL PFAS initiative. A new PFAS reporting method will be introduced into HPDs by the end of this year.
When we asked for transparency, manufacturers answered the call, big time. But now they wonder where we all went and if we value this information. With almost 14,000 HPDs published, covering well over 40,000 building products, finding products with HPDs is no longer a big challenge. Our increased support for HPDC will demonstrate that material transparency is important to us and show our appreciation for the considerable efforts manufacturers have made to share data and improve their products.
A recent conversation on this platform asked where we can invest money to keep important programs alive during the coming administration. Investing in HPDC is a relevant and meaningful opportunity.
To support HPDC, visit: https://members.hpd-collaborative.org/page/membershipoverview, or contact me directly if you want to discuss further: manzi@bora.co. Thanks!
