A book I’m reading (Nexus, by Yuval Noah Harari) has me thinking about the nature of information, especially its relationship to the truth. After all, the HPD’s fundamental purpose is to provide truthful health information about building products in support of our core mission to reduce and eliminate the use of toxic chemicals. Furthermore, the AIA Materials Pledge asks us to consider the full truth of building materials.
While just one of its five pillars, I consider Human Health to be the overarching concern of the Pledge and of Sustainability itself. In the end, we care about climate, ecosystems, and social fairness primarily for their impacts on Human wellbeing.
In this, as in other contexts, the truth is hard. It would be far easier to pretend all that matters is durability, aesthetics, and cost, or to just focus on what’s simplest to quantify. But despite the complexity, the nuance, and the occasional contradictions, it all matters.
The truth is uncomfortable. It forces us to think about the fact that various portions of the building material industry, as it exists today, make people at all lifecycle stages sick, is dangerously warming our climate, and forces children into hard labor.
The truth is elusive. Despite great strides over the past decade, there is much we still don’t know. As just one example, consider recent work by HPDC to uncover PFAS (link) when it exists below the 100-ppm threshold of most disclosure protocols.
Nevertheless, the truth is essential. We will never achieve the stable climate, diverse and robust biomes, or fairness that humans need to thrive by ignoring some parts of it. HPDC recognizes this and is committed to expanding our data gathering and sharing tools to capture the full breadth of these factors.
Finally, the truth is not free. Manufactures have spent enormous sums gathering supply chain data, certifying products, and researching safer alternatives in the years since the design community started demanding this information. They have also strongly supported HPDC, which has led the development of a harmonized and collaborative ecosystem, built supportive tools, and collected data on thousands of building products. But we no longer have the grant funding that largely made this possible. We will not stop pursuing the truth, but our capacity to do that at the urgent pace needed is now dependent on robust support and engagement from the design community.
If not already involved, please join HPDC and start doing something today.
Mike Manzi
Bora Architecture & Interiors
