What Are Green Building Materials? Wendy Vittori, HPD Open Standard

Jul 30, 2021

“Any product that is used to construct the building, finish the building, or furnish the building is comprehended within our standard,” Wendy Vittori on Green Connections Radio

The green building sector is booming, and expected to grow to $433 billion by 2024, in efforts to combat climate change, since buildings comprise 40% of U.S. carbon emissions.  But, as we wait for answers to what exactly caused the Champlain Towers in Surfside, Florida to collapse, we must ask: how do we know these materials are safe?

To find out, listen to Wendy Vittori, Executive Director of the Health Products Declaration Collaborative, which developed the Open Standard being used to publicly disclose what is actually in all building materials, in a consistent, reliable and transparent way.

You'll learn:

• How they developed the Open Standard, and who decides
• What exactly the Open Standard tells us, and what it does not., and why
• How widely it's used by the construction industry.
• How and how often it's updated
• Plus, powerful career advice from this former Fortune 100 c-suite tech executive.

"Be honest with yourself… All of us have our strengths and weaknesses, and those weaknesses are just opportunities to be better. That's all they are. And instead of sort of living with that, address it.”

Wendy Vittori on Green Connections Radio podcast

Read Joan's Forbes article about how their standard might keep us safe, and her ones with the powerful career advice from Wendy here and here too.

You’ll also want to listen to:

• Elizabeth Thompson, US Green Building Council, on how innovative green building products are tested.
• Maria Blasé, President of Ingersoll Rand’s Buildings and Trucks Division on reducing their climate impact
• Laura Busse Dolan, Owner of Applied Imagination, building miniature buildings from plants, botanicals.
• Jessyca Henderson, American Institute of Architects, on the International Green Building Code

And read Joan’s other Forbes articles on the safety of green buildings in the face of Surfside here and here.

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