"Do no harm" may be the mantra of the medical community, but increasingly, it's the charge of facility managers as well. That's especially true when it comes to choosing building products.
In many organizations, facility managers must now know and understand terms like "persistent bioaccumulative toxin" and "endocrine disruptor," and be able to apply that knowledge to the end goal of creating healthy, productive environments for their occupants.
While choosing products that do no harm to occupants seems like a no-brainer, the question — and it's a tough one — becomes: How? When choosing building products, which criteria should be considered, and how should those certain criteria be weighed against others? Does a product off-gas? Are any of its ingredients part of a "red list" of banned chemicals? Will it perform at least as well as its counterparts?
A recent article in Building Operating Management suggests that when looking at what products are and are not acceptable for use in a facility, information such as Environmental Product Declarations and Health Product Declarations may help facility managers avoid potentially harmful chemicals. They can also look to LEED and other ratings systems or "red lists" to identify green building product criteria to use.
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