What is a Health Product Declaration (HPD)?

The Health Product Declaration (HPD) Collaborative is a customer-led, member organization committed to the continuous improvement of the building industry’s environmental and health performance through transparency and innovation. The HPD Collaborative created, supports, and advances the HPD Open Standard, a format that enables transparent disclosure of building product content and associated health information.

The HDPC was formed in 2012.  Through mid-2015 membership was about 25 founding organizations.  Membership was opened in September 2015 to any organization working in the building industry that is pursuing the goals of product content/health information reporting, disclosure and transparency.  Membership has over 220 organizations, representing over 500 individual participants.  There are now over 3,600 HPDs published in the Repository. 

The HDPC works with industry ecosystem to develop tools to create, access and use information that meet project needs at scale and helps manufacturers design and optimize their products. The HPD Open Standard harmonization in ecosystem includes Certifications (LEED, Declare, Living Building Challenge, etc.); Screening Methods (Green Screen, Portico, Pharos, etc.); and Libraries and Interpretive Tools (Designer Pages, Origin, Sustainable Minds, etc.).

HPDs are used by architects, designers and specifiers to identify and source products for new and renovation building construction. In many cases they are looking for products that meet LEED v4 (commercial buildings) or LEED MR Credit 5 (healthcare buildings) credit requirements.

The following information presents a general overview of the process of preparing a HPD for a fabric or textile product. This review is not meant to be comprehensive or detailed. More complete information about the HPD Open Standard and the HPD Collaborative is available at www.hpd-collaborative.org.

Preparing an HPD

As of this writing the current HPD standard is version 2.1. The engine that runs the HPD is the HPD Builder, an automated system designed to help manufacturers create compliant HPD reports.

CONTENT INVENTORY

HPD 2.1 has several inventory reporting formats for creating an HPD. Two common methods are:

Nested Materials Method - In this approach contents are reported first at the materials level and then substances are itemized within each material.  Nested materials inventories often are most appropriate for complex assemblies with many component parts. 

Basic Inventory Method. This approach creates a single list of all substances in the product. 

For the purposes of determining compliance with LEED v4 Material Ingredient credit requirements, both content inventory methods may be used, as long as the reporting threshold is consistent with the LEED requirements. A nice feature of the HPD Builder is that it will provide a checklist showing whether your product qualifies for LEED eligibility.

Threshold Level

The manufacturer determines the threshold at which substances are itemized. The options include:

100 parts per million (ppm): Inventory includes substances at above 100 ppm (0.01%) concentration in a material.

1,000 parts per million (ppm): Inventory includes substances at above 1000 ppm (0.1%) concentration in a material.

GHS SDS:  Inventory of substances in a material meets the level of resolution required for Safety Data Sheets as prescribed by the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling (GHS). Substance that are identified as health hazards are disclosed at 1,000 ppm (0.1%) for reproductive toxicants, carcinogens, and category 1, and at 10,000 ppm (1%) for all other hazard categories.

MATERIAL CONTENT

Materials

The Content Inventory must include every material that is part of the product as delivered. Each material must have its own line item entry, regardless of the extent of further inventory at the substance level. Materials are listed from highest to lowest percentage by weight in the product. A brief phrase that describes the purpose of function of the materials is included.  Examples include “anti-microbial,” “flame retardant,” “preservative,” etc.

Chemical Hazards

As materials are input by their Chemical Abstract Service (CAS) number in the HPD Builder, the GreenScreen List Translator™ automatically lists each hazard type, as applicable. The GreenScreen provides a “list of lists” approach to quickly identify chemicals of high concern. It does this by scoring chemicals based on information from over 40 hazard lists developed by authoritative scientific bodies convened by international, national and state governmental agencies, intergovernmental agencies and NGOs.

These GreenScreen Specified Lists include REACH categorizations and chemical hazard classifications by countries using the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS). Each of the GreenScreen Specified Lists is mapped to hazard endpoints and a hazard level or range based on the GreenScreen Hazard Criteria.

The HPD uses over fifteen hazard categories including Development, Reproductive, Respiratory, Neurotoxicity, Aquatic Toxicity, etc.

GreenScreen Scoring

GreenScreen provides scores for each material in a product. GreenScreen is a method for comparative chemical hazard assessment. It is used to access the inherent hazards of chemicals and their potential effect on human health and the environment. The scores, from highest to lowest concern, are:

BM-1; Benchmark 1 (avoid - chemical of high concern)

Lt-1: List Translator Likely Benchmark 1

LT-P1: List Translator Possible Benchmark 1

LT-UNK: List Translator Benchmark Unknown (the chemical is present on at least one hazard list but the reference is not sufficient to predict a Benchmark 1 score)

UNK: Unknown (chemical is not identified on any GreenScreen Translator Lists

BM-U: Benchmark Unspecified (insufficient data to benchmark).

BM-2: Benchmark 2 (use but search for safer substitutes)

BM-3: Benchmark 3 (use but still opportunity for improvement)

BM-4: Benchmark 4 (preferred safer chemicals)

Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) Content

VOC information is required all liquid/wet applied products. It is optional on solid products.

Certifications and Compliance

In this section you can list applicable certification and standards compliance information including health or environmental testing completed for the product.

PUBLICATION

A completed HPD can be Self Published, or third Party Verified. An HPD expires 3 years after publication unless there is a significant change in product’s content, then within one year of change.

Here are some of the questions you will face if you choose to prepare HPDs:

•             What threshold per material should we be reporting (ex., 100 ppm, 1,000 ppm, per SDS, etc.)? Most “green building” organizations require reporting at the 100 ppm level. However, depending on the material hazard 1,000 ppm may be acceptable.

•             Which materials should be masked to protect proprietary information? That will depend on the manufacturer, the threshold being reported, and the nature of the material. HPD allows the manufacturer to mask the name and CAS number of a material as long as the actual hazard score is shown.

•             How should “red list” chemicals in your products (if any) be addressed? Ideally, you would want to remove those chemicals from your product and, if possible, replace with an alternative.

Visit www.hpd-collaborative.org for complete information about HPDs.