USGBC, Chemical Industry Begin Talks

After years of wrangling between health advocates and the chemical industry on the issue of material transparency and health, a new working group of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has commenced talks aimed at working out these differences. As previously reported in EBN (Chemical Industry, USGBC Announce Ceasefire), the new Supply Chain Optimization Working group’s major task will be to help finalize the details of a highly controversial LEED version 4 credit, Building Product Disclosure & Optimization–Material Ingredients. In keeping with its name, the group’s first task will be to look at Option 3 of that credit, “Product Manufacturer Supply Chain Optimization.”

USGBC recently released the names of all 31 working group participants, who include Nadav Malin, president of BuildingGreen, as the group’s facilitator, and the group had its first meeting in December 2014. Group members include representatives of manufacturers, trade associations, certifying and testing bodies, building owners, architecture firms, environmental groups, and government agencies.