Colden’s experience in health risk analysis, exposure science and safety helps building owners promote environmental health and wellness through sustainable building design, materials selection, and other solutions for built environments. Colden’s consultants function as specialized Owner’s Representatives during building design, construction, and renovation, to supplement the work of the owner’s design team.
High performance building rating systems such as LEED, Living Building Challenge, and WELL all include incentives to optimize the use of safer materials. We help clients set specific goals and priorities for purchasing decisions based on human health. Colden professionals translate complicated chemical data for building products into plain English to make product choices clearer. We engage in a comparative analysis of different building products, while recognizing that chemical ingredient information is just one aspect of an owner’s selection process.
Colden’s Sustainability Professionals:
- Identify products with measurably safer chemistry for consideration by owners and their design team and serve as a “go to” technical resource on chemistry and toxicology during product selection.
- Determine the potential for chemical emissions and fiber release from interior finishes.
- Consult with manufacturers, on behalf of the owner, to help ensure that the documentation is trustworthy and representative of the products that the owner will be selecting.
- Serve as the owner’s advocate in discussions with manufacturers on building material composition, documentation, internal testing, and options for inherently safer material choices.
- Establish emissions test protocols for competing products, including requiring manufacturers to test specific product lines on behalf of ownership.
- Integrate installation precautions into design documents, applying hazard communication information to safeguard indoor air quality.
- Develop and enforce a construction indoor air quality management plan on behalf of building owners.
- Conduct indoor air quality testing throughout construction and building use, to commission building systems and operations.
