Is Your Health Product Declaration (HPD) Compliant?

By: 
Brad Blank
Posted On: 
Dec 19, 2017
Is Your Health Product Declaration (HPD) Compliant?

The Health Product Declaration (HPD) is one of the most requested specification resources in the AEC industry. Building product manufacturers can contribute one point in LEED v4 with a LEED compliant HPD. Aside from meeting the LEED v4 requirements, there are requirements for compliance for the HPD Open Standard itself. Let’s review critical items for a compliant HPD. We’ll cut through the complexity of the new requirements and jargon to identify the essential guidelines.

HPDs Published to Repository

For HPDs published to the HPD Public Repository using the HPD Builder, the required quality control checks are performed automatically by the HPD Builder. If a manufacturer publishes HPDs using the HPD Builder, no further action is necessary. Manufacturers that manually upload HPDs to the Public Repository, requires quality control checks performed by HPDC Staff. The HPDC has released the HPDC Quality Control Protocol and Procedure for Published HPDs to help manufacturers.

Protocol for Quality Control of Published HPDs

The newly released protocol applies to all version 2.1 HPDs and HPDs published with latter versions of the HPD Open Standard. Published HPDs will be reviewed by several points, to ensure that the HPD is in compliance with the requirements of the version of the HPD Open Standard. Let’s review the key points.

• Format compliance- the physical representation of the HPD Open Standard Format must be the same as the Format included in the referenced version of the HPD Open Standard, Appendix A, plus any amendments or corrections defined in addenda or errata issued by HPDC. Bottom line: Your HPD can’t be printed on rainbow wrapping paper or etched by chisel into a stone tablet.

  • Data - data reported is consistent with the requirements as summarized in the referenced version of the HPD Open Standard Checklist for Completeness and defined more fully in the referenced version of the HPD Open Standard Instructions. Bottom line: You can’t pick and choose what data to include like an a la carte steak house menu.

  • Hazard screening method used - method that is fully compliant with the requirements of the referenced version of the HPD Open Standard and any applicable HPDC Emerging Best Practices must be indicated. If the automated tool used to create the HPD clearly specifies the Hazard screening method used and provides this information so that it can be referenced to the Screening date specified on the completed HPD, this is sufficient documentation. Otherwise, such documentation must be provided via the Repository upload process or provided to HPDC Staff. Bottom line: The screening hazard method must follow the requirements and not be based on your kid’s Mr. Wizard’s World Potion Making set.

  • LEED Pre-Check Indicator method used - method that is fully compliant with the requirements of the referenced version of the HPDC Open Standard and any applicable HPDC Emerging Best Practices must be indicated. If the automated tool used to create the HPD clearly specifies and makes available to HPDC Staff documentation of the method for the LEED pre-check indicator method used, this is sufficient documentation. Otherwise, such documentation must be provided via the Repository upload process, or provided to HPDC Staff. Bottom line: Just because your recycled Pepsi can cladding won an award doesn’t mean it will qualify for LEED v4.

  • Expiry Date- the expiry date must be calculated to be compliant with the method specified in the referenced version of the HPD Open Standard. Bottom line: Don’t claim your HPD is valid for a century.

    • Non-Compliant HPDs

    If the HPDC staff discovers an HPD that is non-compliant, the HPD will be given a “pending” status. The creator of the HPD (manufacturer, 3rd party consultant, etc.) will be notified that action is required. The HPD will not be downloadable from the Repository. Repository users will be prompted to contact the manufacturer for additional information. The manufacturer will have 30 days to correct any non-compliances found, and submit the corrected HPD for review. If the non-compliances have not been successfully corrected, the status of the HPD will be changed to Withdrawn and the manufacturer will be notified.

    Conclusion

    Building product manufacturers need to be attentive when manually creating their HPDs. The easiest and most effective method is to use the HPD Builder or hire a seasoned third party consultant. Manually creating an HPD poses many challenges and the information above should be heeded with great attention. Does your company manually create HPDs? If so, why do you use this method? What obstacles have you experienced publishing HPDs?

    For more information or to discuss the topic of this blog, please contact Brad Blank