HPD 2.3 Standard
What’s New In HPD v2.3
The Health Product Declaration Collaborative (HPDC) released HPD Open Standard v2.3, including revisions to the standard’s instructions and format, on May 12, 2022. This release includes the publication of revisions to the standards instructions and format, which can be downloaded on this page.
HPD v2.3 was implemented in the HPD Builder, becoming the current “Effective” version of the HPD Open Standard, on July 11, 2022.
For all details, please download the HPD Open Standard v2.3 PDF, and the blank HPD v2.3 formats. Current HPDC Best Practices guides also apply to HPD v2.3.
The following summarizes key themes and changes in HPD v2.3.
New in HPD v2.3: Visual Updates to Highlight Data Quality
Published HPDs are Now Full Color. An HPD is a report from the manufacturer of product contents and associated health information. Part of what makes any published HPD credible to the users of this data is the manufacturer’s usage of the HPD Open Standard’s rigorous reporting methodology. The recognized orange-and-blue HPD format is a required part of a published HPD.
In the early days of the HPD, a manufacturer could fill in a blank HPD and simply email it to users who asked for it or publish it on their website. Since the launch of the HPD Public Repository in 2016, there has been a single, authoritative source of all published HPDs. The Repository has an API so that those published HPDs are distributed to materials libraries. HPDC quality-checks all HPDs published to the Repository via the HPD Builder.
HPD v2.3 now requires a visual indicator that distinguishes unpublished or draft HPDs from a published HPD. An unpublished or draft HPD contains a “DRAFT Unpublished HPD” watermark on the document as well as a gray color. A published HPD will contain an orange color.
Third-Party Verified Logo. A “Third-Party Verified” logo with a blue checkmark was also added as a visual indicator and will appear at the top of HPDs that have met the rigorous requirements of HPD’s third-party verification program. HPDs showing this mark have been checked by independent verifiers to ensure that HPDs are compliant with the HPD Open Standard. The third-party verified button at the bottom of Section 1 also remains.
Indicators for Characterized, Screened, Identified. In, HPD v2.3 indicators have been simplified to show the top-level quality indicators that project teams need to know to understand if the HPD is complete and disclosed. Notation around Special Conditions (“SC”) that was added in HPD v2.1.1 has been removed from the indicators, as these policies have been simplified.
Data Consistency for Special Condition Policies
The HPD Open Standard introduced Special Conditions in HPD v2.1.1. These policies provide more specific reporting rules for materials added as content to building products. Previously these contents were inventoried using the same processes as chemical substances. HPDC has published Special Conditions policies covering the following:
- Biological Materials
- Geological Materials
- Mixed Recycled Content
- Electronic components
- Form-specific hazards
- Minor Fasteners
- Metal alloys
- Polymers
HPD v2.3 introduces data-entry fields customized to these key building material contents. These updates support automated completeness checks, better data validation, and smarter policies. The update also provides visual consistency with other content in an HPD.
Increased Material and Substance Data Transparency and Quality
Update to Inventory of Material Content. HPD v2.3 introduces improved features around inventorying material content.
New data entry fields fit better specific kinds of material addressed in HPDC’s Special Conditions policies, i.e., wood, stone, mixed recycled content, metal alloys, fasteners, etc.
The result will be that users of HPDs will no longer see confusing notations relating to “SCs” or Special Conditions. And manufacturers can inventory material content with data entry fields that fit the specific kind of material.
A material, by the way, is defined as a uniform solid, liquid, or gas composed of one or more substances and/or materials. HPD v2.3 maintains a structure called Nested Materials to inventory this kind of material. However, previously this format recognized substances, i.e., chemicals, as the basic ingredients of products. Some Nested Materials, such as plastics, can be completely inventoried by their chemical substances, one CAS RN at a time. However, materials (note the small “m” here) such as the ones noted above with Special Conditions, can also be considered as content in a Nested Material.
For example, wood dust is a material. Add to that material a few substances such as phenol formaldehyde and you have fiberboard. Fiberboard could be the main product inventoried on an HPD. Or it could be a Nested Material that is inventoried alongside other Nested Materials such as a metal frame to make a table, which could be the product reported on the HPD.
Either way, HPD v2.3 gives manufacturers streamlined options to enter materials as content, and add them to Nested Materials. HPD v2.3 also includes more automated and thorough compliance checks for this data entry, which improves the support to manufacturers and improves the quality of published HPDs.
Updated Guidance for Substance Names.
HPD v2.3 has provided more guidance on how to enter a useful substance name in the content inventory. Substance names can become complicated and lengthy due to the complexity of chemical formulas, so manufacturers may want to simplify chemical names. Most users will find “Water” more clear to read on an HPD than “Dihydrogen monoxide.” But sometimes the full technical name provides more complete and specific transparency. In v2.3, manufacturers are given discretion in choosing the most useful and clear name and are encouraged to add in synonyms for the substance.
Residual and Impurities Display.
After several years of experience with reporting of Residuals & Impurities, HPD v2.3 introduces a couple minor updates. These do not change the reporting process for the manufacturer but modify the display of the reporting result for better clarity. The term “Completed” (previously “Considered”) is now displayed to indicate whether the manufacturer has completed the Residuals & Impurities evaluation for this HPD.
Removal of “Undisclosed” Percentage Weight.
The HPD Open Standard offers manufacturers several ways to keep their formulas and ingredients proprietary, to their desired degree. The standard includes a procedure for keeping the name of an ingredient proprietary, and small ranges in the percentage weight of an ingredient is allowed for the same purpose. Another option specified in the HPD Open Standard had been to report “Undisclosed” for percentage weight. However, the use of this option was not in demand by manufacturers, so it has been removed in HPD v2.3.
Multiple Products with Content Differences Greater than 10%.
Normally multiple products can be listed on one HPD when they have identical content, or the content differences between the products or product types account for 10% or less of the total mass of each product. HPD v2.3 recognizes practical situations in building product manufacturing when that upper limit of 10% may be exceeded.
Alternate Materials and Substances.
Previously in HPD v2.2, it was common for substances or materials marked as “Alternate” to be listed with large percentage weight ranges, which caused confusion because there is an assumption that an alternate ingredient would have the same percentage weight as its primary ingredient, but the formulations may be more complex.
In v2.3, the actual percentage weight must be listed for the “Alternates.” An annotation “ALT” or “ALTERNATE” is added to the %weight field. Listing rules in v2.2 will continue into v2.3 where an “Alternate” will not appear in the Summary of Contents or other HPD summary sections.
Additional Listings Added to the HPD v2.3
HPD v2.3 has added an “Additional Listings” section that reports when substances appear on key restricted substances lists (RSLs) or other non-hazard listings that are complementary to the hazard listings on an HPD. These listings provide a supplemental perspective for interpreting hazard screening results and support decision-making for manufacturers as they develop new products. This new section is listed below the Hazard Listing and labeled as “Additional Listings.”
HPDC may add Additional Listings over time as they are proposed by HPDC stakeholders. The following are currently approved for HPD v2.3:
- LBC Red List
- C2C Banned List
- Safer Chemical Ingredients List (SCIL)
- GSPI Six Classes (4 of the 6)
- REACH Exemption List
- Perkins & Will Precautionary List
Improved Procedures in Accessories
Having information on a product’s required accessories, such as an adhesive used to install a flooring product, gives HPD users a more complete picture of a product’s health information. However, this section of the HPD has not been frequently or consistently used by manufacturers. Our committees reviewed this issue and decided this information is important to users. The goal of v2.3 was to provide an easier and clearer way of adding accessory information.
This was done by adding a “Type” field which gives manufacturers more ideas on what to list and provides a clearer view of the product. Clarification was also added that allows manufacturers to use generic entries in the Accessories section.
Update to LEED Pre-Check to Comply with LEED Version 4.1
LEED has been updated to LEED v4.1, while LEED v4 also remains in use. The LEED pre-check in the HPD Builder and Repository display should be updated accordingly. While some requirements for LEED remain the same from v4 to v4.1, LEED v4.1 introduces significant new pre-check requirements. Specifically, an analysis of the HPD content inventory, including percentage weights for ingredients and corresponding GreenScreen scores, is required to perform a complete pre-check.
For questions on the HPD v2.3 release, suggestions for future developments, or anything else, please contact HPDC at support@hpd-collaborative.org.
License for Use
The Health Product Declaration Open Standard is the intellectual property of the HPD Collaborative, and provided to the public, free-of-charge, under the Creative Commons: Attribution-NoDerivs CC BY-ND 4.0 license. Anyone using the HPD Open Standard must comply with the terms of this license agreement, which will be enforced by the HPD Collaborative. For information on use of the terms, logos and trademarks, please click here.