Event Description

In this workshop, participants will learn key product sustainability metrics and how to identify products and materials that are better for the environment and building occupants. The workshop will highlight the trends and the tools available to find and select healthier products, including: Health Product Declarations (HPDs), Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), transparency, Declare labels, Cradle to Cradle certification, low-emitting materials, and low-embodied-carbon materials.

This is the first session of our multi-part Embodied Carbon & Sustainable Materials training series. Join this session for an introduction to healthy materials in the building industry, and to get a taste of the content to be covered in the remainder of the series.

Learning objectives for this session include:

1. Describe the history and impact of VOC regulations as they relate to the built environment and how emissions criteria shape product selection.
2. Identify select problematic chemical constituents, their health impacts, and where they are found in building products.
3. Use transparency documentation such as Health Product Declarations (HPDs) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) to determine key material content information…and where the information in documents can fall short.
4. Identify high-embodied carbon materials, where they are used, and possible alternatives.