about us | newsletter | donate | contact us | privacy | home

•  Overview  •  Health Care  •  Pharos Project  •  Healthy Homes  •  U.S. Green Building Council  •  Overview  •  PVC Plastic  •  Pressure Treated Wood  •  Plastic Lumber  •  Formaldehyde  •  Biopolymers  •  Overview  •  Environmental Justice Sign up to receive our biweekly email with insights and analysis on building materials and environmental health. Current Newsletter: HPD - The Help We Need (February 15, 2012)  •  Newsletter Archive

MEDIA ADVISORY Pharos Project v2: Powerful New Tools Extend Architects' Product Research & Collaboration Capabilities Contact: Bill Walsh, Executive Director Healthy Building Network 802-380-9519(m) bill@healthybuilding.net On October 5, 2011, the Healthy Building Network is introducing Version 2 (v2) of the Pharos Project, its cloud-hosted, building product analysis tool, during Greenbuild 2011 in Toronto. Pharos v2 adds dramatically increased research and collaboration capabilities to Pharos' unmatched comprehensive and independent evaluations of the environmental and health aspects of building products. The new Pharos team tools enable design and specification teams to eliminate wasted effort and overlapping research by providing all team members - including clients and outside collaborators - seamless access to comprehensive research on the chemical and material properties of a project's building products. Because Pharos is cloud-hosted, design and specification teams have access to the latest, most up-to-date research at all times. Bill Walsh, Executive Director of HBN, stated: "The initial version of Pharos enabled individual researchers to see through marketing claims and select safer, healthier building products and materials. With v2, we have significantly improved the user interface, and added a new suite of functions that make it possible to collaborate firm-wide and across project teams. Pharos v2 balances ease of use with unsurpassed levels of information, offering green building professionals an unrivaled resource for independent, data-driven building product information." Other highlights of Pharos v2 include: Team Tools - Pharos users can create product lists, save searches, use tags and share data and preferences - not only within their company, but also in collaboration with other subscribers on a project team. Redesigned product profile view - emphasizes the pros and cons of a product at a glance; compares it to other products in its category; reveals the health hazards of material contents. Redesigned chemical profile view - identifies environmental and health hazards and life cycle impacts - listed in order of concern - for each of 10,600 chemicals and bio-based substances. Site-wide text search - enables researchers to find products, chemicals, blogs and more by name, keyword, manufacturer, etc. Certifications library - evaluates and compares over 100 common product certifications; describes how they affect scores in Pharos. More - transparent information about the Pharos team and its research process; redesigned blog; updated and easier-to-read information about scoring protocols; user administration tools for team and firm subscriptions; other site improvements. Pharos v2 is a free, automatic upgrade for current Pharos subscribers. Free introductory trials are available at the signup page. About the Healthy Building Network The Healthy Building Network is a 501c3 not-for-profit corporation whose mission is to transform the market for building materials to advance the best environmental, health and social practices. The Pharos Project is a project of the Healthy Building Network.

© Copyright 2011, Healthy Building Network. All Rights Reserved.