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The Material Health Open Innovation Symposium: The Art & Science of Material Health Innovation.

On November 16, 2021, HPDC hosted the second Material Health Open Innovation Symposium. During this free Virtual Zoom event, more than 250 attendees learned about the latest innovations taking place in the field of Material Health from researchers, educators, manufacturers, architects, designers and ecosystem partners. U.S. Green Building Council and mindful MATERIALS joined the Symposium as a co-sponsors. Nadav Malin, President of BuildingGreen, moderated the Material Health Open Innovation Symposium.

“We have again seen significant advances in Material Health practice in the past year,“ said Wendy Vittori, HPDC Executive Director.  “The Symposium provides a comprehensive report out on what’s happening right now – and where the innovators see things moving in the coming months.  Whether you are an expert or just beginning your Material Health work, the Symposium is a quick and efficient way to learn what you can do to save time, lower costs and increase your performance in this important aspect of green building.”

Watch each of the three sessions below.

Session 1 – Introduction 

Welcoming message from Wendy Vittori, HPDC, Wes Sullens, USGBC, Alex Muller, mindful MATERIALS and moderator Nadav Malin
Keynote Speaker Robin Guenther, from Perkins+Will
Q&A with Nadav Malin and Robin Guenther

Session 2 – Leading Edge of Practice Case Studies: Project & Product Innovation 

Project Presenters: Heather Henriksen, Chief Sustainability Officer, Harvard University, presents “Systems Change to Scale Healthier Materials, ” and Mary Dickinson, Co-Director Material Performance Lab / Associate Principal Perkins&Will and Maria Del Mar Ceballos, Facilities Design & Construction, Georgia Institute of Technology present “Transparency to Optimization – Georgia Tech’s Updated Yellow Book.”

Product Presenters: Carrie Claytor, Copper Development Association, Director, Material Stewardship (US) | Sustainable Development Lead, Material Stewardship (Global) presents “Looking Beyond the CAS Number: Considering Form Specificity in Hazard Assessment of Metals, ” and Adi Alamuru, Technical Project Manager, Rockwool presents “Innovating Stone Wool Insulation.”

Session 3 – Ecosystem Programs

Presenters: Wendy Vittori, Executive Director, HPDC, presents: “Tracking the Field – Introducing Social Equity in Material Health Practice,” Christina Raab, C2C, presents: “Optimizing products for circularity with Cradle to Cradle Certified,” Stacy Glass, ChemFORWARD, presents “ChemFORWARD: Enabling Optimization with Shared Data,” Pete Girard, ToxNot, presents “Supply Chain Connections: How to Increase HPD ROI,” Terry Swack, Sustainable Minds, presents Product Transparency – Key Performance Criteria in Product Marketing,” Gina Ciganik, Healthy Building Network, presentsJump start safer product selection,” and Annie Bevan, mindful MATERIALS, presents “A Common Materials Framework highlighting comprehensive collaboration: how we can all enable being ‘mindful’ as the norm”