HPDC Client Toolkit Section 3: Firm Process
Understanding your firm’s process for practicing Transparency and Material Health will bring clarity to team members, save time and money on internal workflow and educate clients about key milestones in the development process of your firm’s projects. Utilizing the resources below is a great way to get started on your internal firm process.
SECTIONS:
Outline of Processes and Steps
Outline the processes and the steps that your firm has in place to effectively practice transparency/material health. Before completing the worksheet for this section, visit these valuable resources to help your team identify Process Tools and steps involved.
AIA’s Prescription for Healthier Materials
Materials matter, and this document offers project teams a protocol to put these words into action. The protocol guides owners, design professionals, contractors, and facilities managers toward best practices for choosing and installing products that are healthier over their full life cycle for humans and the environment. Unlike chemical avoidance list approaches, which have their place, this guide does not declare any bans on specific materials or product content.
Link to AIA’s Prescription for Healthier Materials
HPDC’s Project Team user Guide Version 2.3
Today, building materials are no longer quarried, harvested, or gathered from nature; they are formulated, engineered, and extruded in factories – a global, industrial building materials system. At the same time, growing awareness of material science and indoor air quality— and their impacts on occupant and community health— are placing owners, designers, and specifiers in this industrial building materials marketplace at increasing risk, with little guidance or navigational tools to assist in understanding and evaluating material choices.
Link to HPDC’s Project Team user Guide Version 2.3
Four Simple Ways to Practice Transparency Now
From the outset of the HPD Open Standard initiative in 2012, it has been our goal to encourage manufacturers to provide product decision-makers with information about the contents and associated health information of their products. We have now reached an unprecedented level of information availability, with over 10,000 HPDs published by manufacturers in the HPD Public Repository and 200 or more new HPDs being published monthly. This represents a dramatic increase in the scale and velocity of participation by manufacturers. More than 700 manufacturing companies are now registered in the HPD Builder!
Link to Four Simple Ways to Practice Transparency Now
The New School Parson’s Healthy Material’s Lab
The Healthy Material’s Lab is a design research lab at Parsons School of Design that is dedicated to a world in which people’s health is placed at the center of all design decisions. The lab raises awareness about toxic chemicals in building products and offers resources for designers and architects to make healthier places for all people to live.
Link to The New School Parson’s Healthy Material’s Lab
The Healthy Building Network Chemical Hazard Data Commons
The Healthy Building Network (HBN) has rolled out a new tool for identifying chemicals of concern and finding less hazardous alternatives. The Chemical Hazard Data Commons combines the power of HBN’s Pharos Chemical and Material Library with new tools for visualizing hazard scoring, comparing hazards for chemical lists, staying on top of changes, finding safer alternatives, surveying other databases, and tapping the wisdom of the Data Commons community to collaborate on problem solving and solutions.
Link to The Healthy Building Network Chemical Hazard Data Commons