HPD Collaborative to Host Material Health Open Innovation Symposium: The Art & Science of Material Health. Dedicated Solely to the Rapidly Growing Field of Material Health Practice.

Wakefield, MA, November 2, 2020 /3BL Media/ – HPDC will host its first Material Health Open Innovation Symposium on Tuesday, November 17, 2020 from noon to 5 pm EST. Dedicated solely to the rapidly growing field of Material Health Practice, this Virtual Zoom event is free to HPDC members and $25 for non-members. 

Symposium participants will learn about the latest innovations taking place in the field of Transparent Material Health from researchers, educators, manufacturers, architects, designers and ecosystem partners. Experts on the leading edge of innovation will share how the building industry is rapidly transforming to the use of healthier building products.

“We’ve come a long way since the initial idea for the HPD report was born and several other important initiatives launched in 2010,” said Wendy Vittori, Executive Director of HPDC. “The Material Health Open Innovation Symposium brings together leaders in Material Health and Transparency in the built environment, and will clearly demonstrate how much has already been accomplished in this rapidly emerging field of practice.  Transparent material health reports have now been produced by over 1,000 manufacturers representing over 20,000 building products.

The U.S. Green Building Council has joined HPD Collaborative as a co-sponsor and will present on LEED v4.1, the future of LEED and LEED Positive, a long-term regenerative and restorative design vision for LEED.

Wes Sullens, LEED Fellow, and Director in the LEED department of USGBC, said, “The Material Health Open Innovation Symposium marks a major milestone for human health. We’ve come so far since the early days of LEED, the leading program for green buildings and communities worldwide, to earn the Material Ingredients credit. Thanks to the collaborative work of ecosystem partners like HPDC, safe, healthy, and innovative building products and materials are quickly becoming commonplace.  The LEED Material Ingredients credit has become one of the most substituted credits in LEED v4.1, representing nearly a quarter billion square feet of project space. Truly, the USGBC community of stakeholders desire materials transparency and embrace innovative solutions for healthier materials.”

The schedule for the Material Health Open Innovation Symposium is as follows:

Session 1 – User-led, Collaborative, Open Innovation Breakthroughs in Material Health Practice
12:00 to 1:00 pm

Speakers are Prof. John Friar, Northeastern University,  Prof. Rolf Halden, Arizona State University, 

Rand Ekman, Chief Sustainability Officer, HKS.

Session 2 – Leading Edge of Practice Case Studies: Manufacturer Product Innovation
1:00 to 2:00 pm

Manufacturers and Product Development Teams will share how material health information helps them develop a more optimized-for-health products and ways they’ve innovated in use of materials to improve the material health of their products.

Session 3 – Leading Edge of Practice Case Studies: Project Design Team Innovation
2:00 to 3:00 pm

Architects, Designers and Building Design Teams will share what specific results of their innovation and how they utilize material health information in a more impactful way.

Session 4 – Making Material Health Practice the Norm by 2025: The View From Material Health Programs
3:00 to 4:30 pm followed by Roundtable Discussion 4:30 to 5:00 pm

In session four, these ecosystem partners will discuss the future of Material Health and participate in a roundtable discussion: Peter Templeton, CEO, Cradle-to-Cradle Product Innovation Institute (C2CPII), Shari Franjevic, GreenScreen Program Manager, Clean Production Action (CPA), Teresa McGrath, Chief Research Officer, Healthy Building Network (HBN), Tristan Roberts, -Technical and Education Director HPD Collaborative (HPDC), Shawn Hesse, Director of Business Development, International Living Future Institute (ILFI), Wes Sullens, Director, LEED U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

Nadav Malin, President of BuildingGreen, will emcee the Material Health Open Innovation Symposium and moderate the closing Roundtable discussion. Mr. Malin is the building industry’s go-to resource for thoughtful perspective on the materials and design solutions that define sustainable building practice. As president of BuildingGreen, he oversees the company’s industry-leading information and community-building websites BuildingGreen.com and LEEDuser.

In celebration of 10 years of Material Health advancement, HPDC is offering a 25% discount to new members through November 17, 2020. Organizations, practitioners, students and community members  are encouraged to take advantage of this membership discount, and attend the Symposium for free as an HPDC member. Click here to join, and use promo code HPDC25 at checkout for any level of HPDC membership. Then register here for the Material Health Open Innovation Symposium.

Presentations Being Accepted for Sessions 2 & 3 Through November 6, 2020.   Building Design Teams and Manufacturers are invited to share their organizations’ breakthrough Material Health innovation with colleagues during the Material Health Open Innovation Symposium during Sessions 2 and 3. Three presentations will be selected for each session, which best demonstrate performance and results at the "leading edge" of actual practice - based on actual projects and product accomplishments. Each presentation will be 15 minutes in length. All presentations submitted will have the opportunity to be included in the published Symposium proceedings, even if not selected for presentation. Individuals or project teams may submit their presentations here.

For further information about Material Health Open Innovation Symposium, click on this link to visit the HPD Collaborative website.

ABOUT HPDC

HPDC is a not-for-profit, member association with over 300 organizational members, representing the full spectrum of the building industry: architects, designers, building owners, manufacturers, consultants, tool developers, and others who all share a common purpose to improve the transparency of information and the material health of the built environment. The HPD Open Standard has become widely adopted as the industry standard for reporting on building product contents and associated health information, since its launch in 2012, with over 7,000 HPD reports publicly available.  HPDC members champion the continuous improvement of the building industry’s performance through transparency, openness and innovation in the practices of reporting, disclosure, specification and selection of building products.  For more information, visit hpd-collaborative.org.