Ken Wilson, FAIA, FIIDA, LEED fellow and design principal at Perkins+Will, Washington, suggests that while LEED v4 raises the bar across the board, “most of the attention it is getting seems to be placed on the aspects that address human health and wellbeing. I think this is largely because there are a few powerful manufacturing groups that are very uncomfortable with the new awareness of harmful chemicals that LEED V4 is creating.”
However, one of the inherent benefits of the LEED rating system as a whole is it allows voluntary adoption over time. In other words, those who are accustomed to using LEED 2009 can familiarize themselves with the new system and test the waters before diving in. “Even if you’re not always taking that opportunity to move to the next level of LEED and use LEED v4, there are all of those [new] credits to look at and to use as potential innovation credits,” Hansen explains. “You definitely have the opportunity to go through it and identify those credits that really make sense for a project and start using them.”
Human-health Impacts
As Wilson points out, human health has been cast into the spotlight with the release of LEED v4. It is clear with the introduction of the Health Product Declaration (HPD) in 2011 by the Sommerville, Mass.-based HPD Collaborative, an organization comprised of designers, specifiers and building owner/operators seeking transparency and innovation in the building-product supply chain, and the early adoption of the HPD Open Standard by 23 leading design, construction and building-management firms, human-health impacts will be the primary driver in sustainable design trends in the years ahead.
The HPD Open Standard is a voluntary standard that encourages transparent disclosure of information, regarding building-product content and associated health information. It is held in the public domain and is intended to be licensed freely, developed and maintained by widespread industry participation and adoption.
“The one area I really see trending—and I’m really excited about it because it’s an area I’ve been interested in and focused on and trying to be an advocate for—is how our designs are connected to health,” Hansen says. “There’s a lot of different things we have to pay attention to when designing an interior; I’m a really big proponent for trying to understand what goes into the products we typically specify and their health impacts.”
This evolution toward understanding and ultimately minimizing negative impacts on human health represents the next logical progression in the green-building movement; transparency in product and furniture manufacturing is essential to making that happen. As a result, 30 building product manufacturers signed on to pilot the HPD Open Standard, voluntarily disclosing product content and related health concerns that are typically not reported even when a product or a building is certified as “green.” (Learn more about the HPD Collaborative and view a list of its 30 pilot manufacturers.)
According to Hansen, many architectural and design firms across the country are following suit by drafting official letters and position statements to manufacturers requesting to see an HPD for the majority of the products they’re evaluating and specifying. “Obviously we know it’s not going to happen overnight; we know it’s going to take some time. But we’re letting them know this is our policy, this is where we want to go,” she says.
Additionally, Perkins+Will went so far as to develop its own Precautionary List, which helps building professionals identify and specify products and materials in light of their lasting impacts on end users. The list can be found at transparency.perkinswill.com.