Health Product Declaration® (HPD) Collaborative Announces Third-Party Verification Program

The Health Product Declaration® (HPD) Collaborative today announced the approval of its Third-Party Verification Program. This program provides a means for manufacturers to obtain an authoritative third-party verification of Health Product Declarations® (HPDs) that they have created for their products. The goal of the program is to provide an optional, extra level of assurance to manufacturers and users of HPDs that the information reported is accurate, reliable and consistent, across products and product categories.

The program has been developed over the past eighteen months, and recently completed a successful Pilot implementation. With official approval achieved, HPDC staff and verifiers now begin program implementation. It is expected that the initial group of approved verifiers will be announced within the next month, and that each of those verifiers will begin offering their services to manufacturers shortly thereafter.

“HPD users and manufacturers have been requesting a third-party verification program for HPDs from the outset of the Standard,” said John Geyer, HPDC Program Director. “We deliberately have waited for the Standard to mature and a critical mass of HPDs to be created (over 3,100 now published) so that we can ensure that the verification program has a strong and stable foundation of practice behind it. We have high interest from the verification companies, and expect to have five or more approved providers before the end of 2017."

Leading the development and approval process has been the Technical Committee of the Health Product Declaration Collaborative (HPDC). HPDC is a not-for-profit, member-organization, representing almost 200 building industry companies. It is responsible for the evolution of the HPD Open Standard, a building industry standard for reporting product contents and associated health information. Within the Technical Committee structure, the Third-Party Verification Technical Sub-Group, composed of a cross-section of the HPDC members and third-party verification firms, has worked with HPDC Staff to develop the program, using industry best-practices for rigor and quality.

“We participated as a manufacturer in the Pilot process. We appreciate the rigor this adds to the process, and are moving ahead with additional verifications,” commented Lisa Britton, Director of Sales & Marketing/Sustainability Champion for Industrial Louvers, and vice-chair of the HPDC Technical Committee.

Harmonization is a key element of the HPD Open Standard initiative, enabling data reported with the Standard to be directly used with other standards and certifications. HPDC and International Living Future Institute (ILFI) announced in September a collaboration to enable electronic data upload from HPDs to the ILFI Declare program. This program will now include Third-Party Verification data. “By accepting the approved verification of HPDs for Declare, we can reduce the time, effort and cost for manufacturers to verify their Declare labels,” stated James Connelly, ILFI Vice-President.

“SCS Global Services is committed to the HPD third party verification program to ensure the highest level of chemical transparency and disclosure. We are pleased to support the HPDC on their movement towards material transparency, as well as collaborate with other verifiers and consulting groups to ensure consistency of HPD preparation and verification.” Nicole Munoz, Managing Director – Environmental Certification Services, SCS Global Services.

The program provides for a rigorous application and annual review process for third party verifiers to become approved providers. The verification protocol is also specified, and will be overseen by the HPDC Technical Committee and HPDC staff to ensure its compliance with the HPD Open Standard and Program guidelines. Manufacturers will select from approved verifiers to provide the verification services that meet their needs. When an HPD has achieved “Verified” status, this information will be available to users on the Summary page of the HPD report.

“Third-Party Verification provides a level of quality assurance that is reassuring to design professionals, and particularly important when an HPD contains undisclosed materials,” said Carina Clark, an associate with design firm, HKS, and member of the Technical Sub-Group. “As a designer, I am now confident in selecting products and materials that have been thoroughly vetted by knowledgeable, unbiased verifiers.”

“Our firm has been working with the HPD Open Standard from the very early days. The Standard has progressed now to the point where we have been able to develop a verification methodology that I believe matches—or exceeds—best practices for other comparable standards,” said Ed Pavia, Chair of the Third-Party Verification Technical Sub-Group and Environmental Engineer with ToxServices LLC.

For more information on the HPD Third-Party Verification Program, visit the HPDC website, or contact John Geyer, Program Director, at [email protected].

About the Health Product Declaration® Collaborative

The Health Product Declaration Collaborative is a not-for-profit, 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 accurate, reliable and consistent reporting of building product content and associated health information, through a consensus-based, stakeholder process. The HPD Open Standard is freely available to all at www.hpd-collaborative.org.