Understanding Hazardous Materials and the Path to Healthy, Sustainable Building Products and Practices
Sponsored by Armstrong Ceiling and Wall Solutions
Learning Objectives:
- Discuss ways in which collaborative efforts between green building advocacy groups, construction and design professionals, and manufacturers have resulted in the emergence of tools and programs for assessing and improving materials.
- Name four major green manufacturing organizations that have worked to simplify the process of assessing and reporting materials' effects on human and environmental health, and discuss the progress made in this aspect of sustainable building.
- Describe the basic goals of the Living Product Challenge in terms of creating healthier and more ecofriendly building products.
- Explain how USGBC calculates its rankings to assess its Top 10 states for LEED and the role LEED continues to play in the evolving green building movement.
Credits:
1 AIA LU/Elective
0.1 IACET CEU*
1 GBCI CE Hour
1 LFA CEU
This test is no longer available for credit
New disclosure tools highlight data on the sustainability of building products.
Up-to-date information on the Declare Program
Buoyed by the progress of its performance-based Living Building Challenge (LBC) green building certification program, the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) is casting a net beyond the LBC.
Architects seeking safe, sustainable materials for their buildings have often had to operate in either an information vacuum or wade through an array of rating systems that can be burdensome and baffling. Now, with support from the U.S. Green Building Council, four major green manufacturing organizations are striving to simplify the process of assessing and reporting materials' effects on human and environmental health.
The Material Health Evaluation Programs Harmonization Opportunities Report, published by the USGBC last year, set out the challenge of diving into the details of best practices in ingredient reporting and hazard assessment.
Industrial goods made with processes that are socially beneficial and environmentally sound might sound unattainable. It is the latest program developed by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI), a nonprofit best known for its role in administering the demanding green building certification system, the Living Building Challenge (LBC).
The International Living Future Institute (ILFI) announced its Living Product Challenge in 2015, and the LEED-like certification process for building materials and consumer products asked companies to go beyond merely minimizing negative environmental impacts and create products that could actually improve the world’s ecosystems.
The USGBC calculates the rankings by assessing the total square feet of LEED-certified space per resident, taking into account commercial and institutional projects that were certified during 2016.
Originally published in June 2017
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