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Valley Forge, Pa. – Oct. 23, 2014 — CertainTeed has raised the bar for product transparency in the insulation marketplace, issuing the industry's first Health Product Declarations (HPDs) for fiberglass insulation. The HPDs cover the company's high-performance Sustainable Insulation batts, as well as its family of blowing wool insulation products, offering builders unprecedented insight into the chemical and material makeup of the products they choose.
The HPDs were issued in alliance with the HPD Collaborative, a customer-led organization committed to the continuous improvement of the building industry's environmental and health performance, through transparency and innovation in the building product supply chain.
HPD is an open standard that establishes a common reporting language for disclosing information about the ingredients used to manufacture a building product and their associated health information. The document helps builders and architects make more informed specification decisions when indoor comfort and occupant health are of primary importance. HPDs also contribute to important material and resource credits under the newest version of LEED, which places greater emphasis on product transparency.
"The green building industry has embraced product transparency as a valuable tool to ensure the built environment is as sustainable, efficient, comfortable, and healthy as it can be," said Drew Brandt, vice president of marketing for CertainTeed's Insulation Group. "HPDs are a natural next step in this evolution, and we’re proud that CertainTeed — long a proponent of the highest green building ideals — is helping to push the movement to the next level."
Last year, CertainTeed introduced HPDs for 24 of its ceilings product families, which represented the first such declarations in the ceilings industry. In addition to the new HPDs, the company also has Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for its blowing wool and Sustainable Insulation fiberglass batt insulation. While HPDs evaluate the chemical and material makeup of a product, EPDs provide third-party verification of environmental life cycle data, including a product’s production-process impact, use of raw materials and recycled content, packaging, health aspects, and end-of-life impact.
CertainTeed Sustainable Insulation is a fiberglass batt insulation that offers superior thermal performance and is produced with a commitment to indoor comfort and environmental stewardship. The main raw material in Sustainable Insulation is sand, an inert, abundant, and naturally renewing resource. In addition, the product includes both pre- and post-consumer recycled glass and a sustainable, plant-based binder that contains no added formaldehyde, acrylics, dyes, or unnecessary fire retardants.
The company's loose-fill products — including InsulSafe SP, InsulSafe XC, TrueComfort, UltraComfort and OPTIMA — also are made of fiberglass that contains a high percentage of recycled glass and are noncombustible, noncorrosive, and odor-free. CertainTeed fiberglass insulation products are also GREENGUARD Gold Certified for low chemical emissions.
CertainTeed is the only manufacturer with a truly comprehensive line of insulation products and equipment, including time-tested and trusted fiberglass insulation batts and rolls, fiberglass blow-in insulation, polyurethane spray foam, innovative vapor retarder technology, and highly regarded HVAC products as well as insulation blowing and foam-application equipment. All of CertainTeed’s insulation products can help building professionals qualify toward credits for both the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), through the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), and the Green Building Standard supported by the National Association of Home Builders.
