By Tristan Roberts, HPDC, Director of Technical and Education Programs
Health Product Declarations (HPDs) offer an easier path than ever to LEED credits under LEED v4.1. The HPD Collaborative (HPDC) has published new guidance for LEED project teams and manufacturers looking to earn points under the new version of the rating system recently released by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).
Although LEED v4.1 is still officially in beta, building projects can register under the system, and LEED v4 projects can update to LEED v4.1 credits. This is particularly attractive for MRc: Building Product Disclosure and Optimization: Material Ingredients, whose Option 2 has not been attainable under LEED v4.
Many LEED v4 projects are taking advantage of updated requirements for this credit, and use of the 5,000+ published HPDs remain one of the most popular forms of documentation for it.
Option 1: Boost to third-party verification
The requirements for Option 1 under Material Ingredients are basically unchanged from LEED v4. Most complete, published HPDs qualify for Material Ingredients Option 1.
But now, third-party verified HPDs and Declare labels are worth 1.5 products for credit achievement calculations, rather than just one.
Option 2: Several compliance paths for HPDs
In Option 2 of the Material Ingredients credit, LEED v4.1 provides several ways that project teams can document product optimization, or the reduction of health and environmental hazards.
In all of these paths, the Material Ingredients credit rewards increasing degrees of products with full health assessments for their chemical ingredients, as well as removal of ingredients with the most toxic health assessments. Third-party verification is also a requirement for most of the Option 2 compliance paths.
HPDs provide a consistent, rigorous, reliable format for product manufacturers to disclose this information, and for LEED project teams to review it.
The LEED v4.1 Pre-Check is Coming
Manufacturers publishing HPDs using the HPD Builder have the option of performing an automated LEED Pre-Check. HPD users accessing HPDs in the HPD Public Repository can use the search filter there to find HPDs that have passed the LEED v4 Pre-Check for Material Ingredients Options 1, 2, or both.
What about LEED v4.1? HPDC is currently updating this LEED Pre-Check for LEED v4.1, with anticipated completion by Q4 2019. In the meantime, HDPC is offering this detailed guidance to checking HPDs for LEED v4.1 compliance. This guidance has been reviewed by USGBC and other experts.
Tristan Roberts is Director of Technical and Education Programs for HPDC. You can reach him with comments and feedback at troberts@hpd-collaborative.org.