This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience.
Health Product Declarations (HPDs) and Their Impact on Product Specification
Material Health Transparency in Contemporary Construction
As building performance frameworks increasingly prioritise occupant health alongside energy and carbon outcomes, material transparency has become a central concern in product specification. Health Product Declarations (HPDs) respond to this shift by providing standardised, third-party-reviewed disclosures of product ingredients and associated health hazards. For architects and specifiers, HPDs offer a structured way to evaluate material health risks and make informed decisions across interior and building systems.
Understanding Health Product Declarations
What an HPD Discloses
An HPD is a publicly available report that lists a product’s ingredients and evaluates them against recognised hazard lists. Ingredients are typically disclosed down to 100 or 1,000 parts per million, depending on the reporting threshold. This level of detail allows specifiers to identify substances of concern and assess potential impacts on indoor environmental quality².
Standardisation and Reporting Framework
HPDs are developed in accordance with the HPD Open Standard, which defines reporting requirements, hazard screening methods, and data quality criteria. The standard ensures consistency across manufacturers and product categories, enabling meaningful comparison during specification. Updates to the standard reflect evolving scientific knowledge and regulatory expectations³.
Verification and Data Reliability
While HPDs are primarily self-reported, many undergo third-party verification to confirm accuracy and completeness. Verified HPDs carry greater credibility in high-performance projects and reduce the risk of relying on incomplete or outdated ingredient data. This distinction is increasingly important as material health claims face closer scrutiny.
Role of HPDs in Specification Practice
HPDs function as decision-support tools rather than pass-fail certifications, allowing specifiers to assess material health alongside cost, technical performance, and regulatory compliance. By presenting ingredient data in a standardised format, HPDs help project teams identify potential chemical risks early in the design process. In practice, they are often used as an initial screening mechanism, narrowing product options before more detailed technical evaluation, mock-ups, and coordination with manufacturers and consultants.
Integration With Building Standards and Frameworks
Alignment With LEED and Material Credits
LEED v4.1 recognises HPDs under Materials and Resources credits that reward material ingredient reporting and optimisation. Products with compliant HPDs contribute toward disclosure thresholds, supporting transparent supply chains without mandating specific chemistries. This flexibility has accelerated HPD adoption across commercial interiors and base-build projects⁴.
Relationship to Indoor Air Quality Objectives
HPDs complement emissions-based standards by addressing chemical content rather than measured off-gassing alone. While low-VOC testing captures short-term emissions, HPDs provide insight into long-term exposure risks associated with material composition. Together, these approaches support more comprehensive indoor air quality strategies⁵.
Performance, Health, and Future Direction
From Disclosure to Optimisation
The next phase of HPD adoption focuses on moving beyond disclosure toward optimisation. Newer HPDs highlight “benchmark” and “optimised” conditions, helping specifiers identify products with comparatively lower hazard profiles. This evolution aligns material health goals more closely with performance-based sustainability frameworks.
Digital Tools and Specification Workflows
Digital material libraries and BIM-integrated platforms increasingly incorporate HPD data, streamlining comparison and documentation. These tools reduce administrative burden and support evidence-based specification, particularly on large or fast-tracked projects where manual review is impractical.
HPDs as a Foundation for Informed Specification
Health Product Declarations have fundamentally altered how materials are evaluated in the built environment. By shifting focus from opaque formulations to transparent ingredient disclosure, HPDs empower architects and specifiers to engage more critically with product health impacts. While challenges remain in data interpretation and consistency, the growing integration of HPDs into green building frameworks and digital workflows underscores their long-term relevance. As expectations for healthier interiors continue to rise, HPDs are likely to remain a cornerstone of responsible, evidence-based product specification, supporting buildings that are not only efficient and durable but also aligned with human health.
References
- Health Product Declaration Collaborative. (2023). HPD Open Standard v2.3 Standard. Health Product Declaration Collaborative.
- Health Product Declaration Collaborative. (2020). What is an HPD?. HPDC.
- U.S. Green Building Council. (2023). LEED v4.1 Materials and Resources. USGBC.
- World Health Organization. (2010). WHO guidelines for indoor air quality: Selected pollutants. WHO Regional Office for Europe.
- International Organization for Standardization. (2006). ISO 14044: Environmental management — Life cycle assessment — Requirements and guidelines. ISO.
- Steinemann, A. (2015). Volatile emissions from common consumer products. Environmental Science & Technology, 49(18), 10793–10800.
Share