Guardian Glass announced that it has attained third-party verified Health Product Declarations (HPD) for three product categories: uncoated float glass, vacuum (sputter) coated glass, and Guardian UltraMirror™. By publishing HPDs, Guardian supports architects and designers’ ability to achieve points in various environmental building certifications for their building products. The HPDs can contribute 1.5 LEED^® credits under LEED v4.1 MR Credit: Building Product Disclosure and Optimization- Material Ingredients Option 1 (Material Ingredient Reporting)– 0.5 credits more than Guardian’s previous non-third party verified HPD versions. They can also contribute to satisfying features under the WELL Building Standard v1 (e.g., Feature 97: Material Transparency). 

The Health Product Declaration (HPD) Open Standard provides a framework for product manufacturers to disclose the materials used in their products and the associated health information. Guardian Glass prepared the HPDs according to the ingredients used to manufacture the products. Each ingredient disclosed was screened against the HPD Priority Hazard Lists and the GreenScreen® for Safer Chemicals tools. These tools evaluate the ingredients as present in the manufacturing stage only; they do not assess the chemistry of the product across all stages of a product’s lifecycle. An HPD does not evaluate the exposure or health risk of using or handling the product. These documents, available for download on the Guardian Glass website, complement lifecycle-based reports such as Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs).

The Benefits of Third-Party Verified HPDs

Not all HPDs are third-party verified. Manufacturers can choose to have ‘unverified’ or ‘self-declared’ HPDs. The verification process involved an independent, third-party (in this case GreenCircle Certified* is an approved verifier by the Health Product Declaration Collaborative) evaluating supporting documentation from Guardian Glass and its suppliers, including purchase orders, safety data sheets, certificates of analysis, supplier declarations, and laboratory testing. The process verified the accuracy and completeness of the ingredient disclosures in the prepared HPDs.

Andrea Elena Santa Cruz, Environmental Stewardship Engineer, at Guardian Glass commented: “Attaining third-party verified Health Product Declarations not only demonstrates our commitment to transparency – which creates trust among new and existing customers – but also our ongoing commitment to support architects and designers who strive to achieve environmental building certifications such as LEED ®and WELL.”

*GreenCircle Certified was established in 2009 after its founders encountered many unsubstantiated claims about products in the marketplace. GreenCircle is an internationally recognized third-party certification entity whose thorough evaluation process provides independent verification that sustainability claims related to an organization’s products and operations are honest, valid and verified.