The Health Product Declaration (HPD) Collaborative has released HPD Open Standard Version 2.2, the latest update to its industry-leading open standard for transparency and reporting for building product contents and associated health information.  The Release of Version 2.2 provides the opportunity for users to review the updated Standard and prepare for full implementation.  Planned for Q3 2019, full implementation is when the HPD Builder, HPD Public Repository and APIs for electronic data exchange with other information systems will be updated to compliance with Version 2.2, and all newly-published HPDs will be required to be Version 2.2 compliant.

This update introduces a major new feature – the Supplier HPD, a specification and methodology for enabling standard-based ingredient reporting and transparency throughout the building product supply chain.  Using the HPD Open Standard, manufacturers are able to provide accurate, reliable and consistent information to decision makers – architects, designers, building owners – to enable the selection of products featuring transparency and healthier building materials.

“The introduction of the Supplier HPD to the HPD Open Standard is a real breakthrough for transparency reporting,” said Jane Abernethy, Chief Sustainability Officer at Humanscale.  “For complex products such as ours, the Supplier HPD offers a welcome tool for receiving and managing information from our many, global suppliers.  Humanscale is committed to providing transparency to our customers, and this new capability will help us both reduce the cost and increase the quality of information.” 

“HPD v2.2 reflects a lot of careful listening and learning from the creators and users of HPDs,” said Tristan Roberts, HPDC Technical and Education Director. “This new version means that we are fulfilling our promise to our members and users to continually improve the HPD specification. With now almost 5,000 published HPD reports there has been a rapid adoption of the standard that we need to support. For example, the Supplier HPD will extend the benefits of HPD-based reporting and transparency to all companies in the supply chain, enable more granular data on ingredients, and support new initiatives moving us toward a circular economy. All of the updates here maintain and increase the highest level of consistency and rigor that the HPD is known for.” 

Key features of the HPD v2.2 Release are:

• Product HPD/Supplier HPD – The global supply chain is a complex and constantly evolving network.  One of the greatest challenges for a manufacturer who wants to participate in transparency reporting using the HPD Open Standard can be to determine the chemical contents of their own products.  Reflecting this complexity, reporting options for HPDs within the Supply Chain are broadened in v2.2 to enable direct reporting of information by both manufacturers (the producer of the end product, such as a “chair”) and suppliers (the producer of a component part of the end product, such as a “chair caster”).  The existing HPD report, created by the manufacturer, will now be referenced as the Product HPD, and remains as previously defined in the HPD Open Standard. Newly introduced with v2.2, the Supplier HPD provides a focused specification, a proper subset of HPD Open Standard data, for direct reporting of information by an ingredient supplier.  Supported by the Supplier HPD extension to the HPD Builder online information system, manufacturers and their suppliers will be able to communicate and share information, including provisions for confidential business information, and be assured of compliance with the HPD Open Standard.

• Part Inventory Display – If a Supplier HPD has been used to describe a component of a product, for example, the caster of a chair, the optional Part Inventory Display will enable the manufacturer to display part information in the Product HPD report.  When used, the part display will enable a designer to see which chemicals are associated with various parts of a product.

• Product Variations – Product variation is common in many building materials, where the same product is offered in many sizes and products can also be customized in ways that do not materially affect the chemical composition of the product or the associated health information.  HPD v2.2 improves the specification for reporting these variations, enabling a single HPD to be used to report on a wider range of product variations, while maintaining rigor on chemical composition.

• HPD Issuances – With the growing adoption of the HPD Open Standard, manufacturers are encountering the situation where they have multiple versions of a product available concurrently.  This situation can arise, for example, when a product is reformulated (often indicated by an additional notation, such as “improved”), and is marketed under the same product name as an existing version of the product already in the market.  To address this situation, HPD v2.2 provides the manufacturer with the capability to publish multiple issuances of a Product HPD report under the same product name, denoting the validity dates for each issuance.

“We work closely with manufacturers and their suppliers on reporting supply chain information.  Managing all the interactions and information flow about ingredients is definitely one of the most challenging aspects of transparency,” commented William Paddock, Managing Director of WAP Sustainability.  “Providing a tool that suppliers can use directly, with the information rolling up into a Product HPD, should be very effective in streamlining this work.”

“As a specifier, I look forward to the new Part Inventory Display included in HPD v2.2,” said Mike Manzi, Bora Architects.  “As we work to optimize product selection for healthier choices, we often need to make tradeoffs.  The ability to understand more about how and where a substance appears in a product will be very helpful in our evaluation process.”  

First released in 2012, the HPD Open Standard is harmonized with reporting for leading sustainability certification systems for buildings, such as LEED and WELL, and for building products, such as Cradle to Cradle Certified™, Declare, GreenScreen Certified™ and BIFMA LEVEL®[i].  When manufacturers report their information using the HPD Open Standard, costly repetitive and duplicative reporting steps can be eliminated.  By publishing an HPD report in the HPD Public Repository, manufacturers can make their detailed product information publicly available, and also electronically transmit their information to product libraries, such as mindful MATERIALS, Ecomedes and Sustainable Minds.  When fully implemented in the HPD Builder online tool, HPD v2.2-reported supply chain information will also be sharable via electronic transmission with supply chain management tools, Toxnot and Makersite.

For further information and access to Version 2.2 documents, click on this link to visit the HPD Collaborative website.

ABOUT HPDC

HPDC is a not-for-profit, member association with over 250 organizational members, representing the full spectrum of the building industry: architects, designers, building owners, manufacturers, consultants, tool developers, and others who all share a common purpose to improve the transparency of information and the material health of the built environment. The HPD Open Standard has become widely adopted as the industry standard for reporting on building product contents and associated health information, since its launch in 2012, with over 4,600 HPD reports publicly available.  HPDC members champion the continuous improvement of the building industry’s performance through transparency, openness and innovation in the practices of reporting, disclosure, specification and selection of building products.  For more information, visit hpd-collaborative.org.

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HPD Collaborative

HPD Collaborative

The Health Product Declaration® Collaborative (HPDC) is a not-for-profit, member organization committed to the continuous improvement of the building industry’s performance - through transparency, openness and innovation in the practices of reporting, disclosure, specification and selection of building products. The HPD Collaborative created, supports and evolves the Health Product Declaration (HPD) Open Standard, a format and instructions for the accurate, reliable and consistent reporting of product contents and associated health information, through a consensus-based, stakeholder process.

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