Transforming the Pressure-Treated Wood Industry

In less than one year, HBN changed the direction of the $4 billion pressure-treated wood industry. Wood treated with an arsenic based solution, chromated copper arsenate known as (CCA), had been the most common wood used in outdoor applications such as decks, picnic tables and playgrounds.  Arsenic, a known carcinogen, leaches out of this wood throughout its lifecycle, onto the hands of users and into the soil and groundwater, exposing children and others to dangerous levels of this toxic chemical.  With a diverse coalition of partners, HBN launched a campaign in 2001 that transformed the treated-wood industry.  By 2003, major manufacturers agreed to end the use of arsenic-treated wood in 80% of their product line, and the Environmental Protection Agency halted the manufacture and sale of arsenic-treated wood for most residential uses as of January 1, 2004.  Today, there is a new era of fierce competition as major manufacturers vie for market share with ever less toxic treatment formulas.

Read more about our campaign, our partners, and what you can do if you have arsenic in your home at http://www.healthybuilding.net/arsenic/index.html

Pioneering Health-based Green Building Guidelines:
The Green Guide for Health Care

HBN helped lead development of the Green Guide for Health Care (GGHC), a collaboration of leaders from the environmental health, green building and health care professions.  Today over 35 million square feet of health care facilities are being designed, built, renovated or operated using the GGHC. The GGHC is the first and only voluntary best practices and quantifiable sustainable design toolkit integrating enhanced environmental and health principles into the planning, design, construction, operations and maintenance of health care facilities.  In response to GGHC's success, manufacturers are reengineering their building products to meet the health-based criteria, and as a result, dozens of new PVC-free and mercury-free building products have been brought to market.  In December 2007 the GGHC and U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), announced an ongoing collaboration under which the GGHC will be used in conjunction with the USGBC's LEED® for Healthcare building certification program.

Read more about the Green Guide for Health Care and our other Health Care projects at http://www.healthybuilding.net/healthcare/index.html

Demonstrating Healthy, Green, Affordable Homes: The Unity Homes Prototype

When hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck in 2005, HBN knew that a large-scale rebuilding would need to take place and recognized an immediate need for healthy, high-quality affordable housing in the Gulf Coast region.  With a diverse coalition of partners including the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Hickory Consortium, and the North Gulfport Community Land Trust, HBN combined best practices in healthy materials selection and energy-efficient design with proven modular construction methods to design and build a healthy, green demonstration home.  The Unity Homes prototype was installed in North Gulfport, Mississippi in January 2007, and donated to the North Gulfport Community Land Trust.  This model will soon be factory-replicated by the company Unity Homes, Inc. and distributed through affordable housing providers in the Gulf Coast region.

Other Accomplishments

In 2007, HBN played a leadership role in persuading the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to establish the nation’s most stringent restrictions on formaldehyde emissions from particle board and other composite wood products.  We are also working with the Collaborative on High Performance Schools to develop more effective screens for unhealthy chemicals emitted from building materials used in schools, and have done research for the City of San Francisco in support of its dioxin-free procurement policy.

HBN’s staff members have received two environmental awards. HBN Founder and National Coordinator, Bill Walsh was named one of 25 Environmental Champions by Interiors and Sources magazine. Interiors and Sources is a publication of the LC Clark company, notable for its longstanding leadership in the green building field as both the convener of the EnvironDesign conference series and the publisher of Green@Work.

HBN’s Tom Lent was honored on Earth Day 2004 as an Environmental Hero by Region 9 of the US Environmental Protection Agency.

HBN completed the Green Buildings Material Resource Guide under contract to the District of Columbia Housing Authority (DCHA). The guidebook identifies healthier building materials for use in DCHA’s renovation and new construction departments.

HBN is also credited with playing a key role in shaping the US EPA’s January 2007 decision that prohibits the introduction of a new chromium-based wood treatment compound for residential use. The main ingredient of the acid copper chromate formula, know as ACC, is hexavalent chromium, the human carcinogen that made Erin Brockovich a household name.