AW-16657410596

Healthier Homes

Are the materials used in your home safe?

Research and documentation completed by Katherine Emerson

The task at hand…

In the summer of 2023, we began a deep dive into each and every product used by our firm. We chose to vet the ingredients by the rigorous Living Building Challenge materials standard—the Red List. Below, you’ll be able to interact with the initial results of our investigation so that you and your clients can build a healthier home, knowing the cleared products pose no risk to your health or to the health of the environment.

What is the red list?

The International Living Future Institute's Living Building Challenge (LBC) has developed the Red List of hazardous chemicals. The Red List catalogs well-studied chemical groups whose elimination from the market would make the most impact on health. These 11,000+ chemicals have effects that include significant endocrine disruption, causing cancer and impacting neurological development and function. These affect humans as well as wildlife downstream, bioaccumulating and persisting in the food chain. The list gets updated annually in January, reflecting the most recent health toxicity studies.

Compared to various other building or product standards, the Red List is the most comprehensive when it comes to overall health. UL GREENGUARD products are measured by the VOCs they emit., Cradle2Cradle is based on lifetime carbon emissions but includes no other aspects of product health.,  LEED projects have a requirement to use products certified by any of 9 different certification standards, 3 of which represent materials cleared by the Red List, for instance, those listed on the Declare Label Database.

How we approached the topic

  1. The investigation into product contents began with compiling the Safety Data Sheets (SDSs), attaching them to each product's row (paper clip on the left), from which we could extract the contents' CAS No.s and the contact information for the manufacturer.

  2. We created a column (CAS No. Search IN) within our spreadsheet that checks the CAS Numbers transcribed from the SDSs against the current Red List Version. The result is Free if the value was not found within the Red List. If it is detected, the name of the chemical is returned. This, and the automatic color coding, are the beginning of how the sheet was constructed, but more is required from the manufacturers before the products can be deemed free of Red List Chemicals.

  3. The LBC requires that 100% of the ingredients down to 100 ppm be checked, and the SDS contents don't convey all ingredients. The next step is contacting the manufacturers to ask them for the release of all ingredients, which they are often extremely reluctant to do, due to proprietary contents. Some companies, upon realizing the extent of what they are being asked of, fail to respond to any further contact efforts. Others are quick to confirm that the product we requested information on, or even that all of their products, are free of Red List chemicals.

    This behavior embracing interest in human and environmental health is exactly what we at Earth Bound Homes, are trying to encourage. By having access to this list yourself, you can make your own decisions on which Red List chemicals you are putting in a home.

Various confirmation methods were provided by manufacturers, which have been detailed in the Confirmation Methods column. The Red List Free rows, which are highlighted green, could be confirmed with a Declare Label: Free, a Compliance Confirmation Letter, or Disclosure of 100%. The bright yellow rows have been confirmed to have below the threshold of Red List chemicals, and have been confirmed through the Declare Label: Approved, or Disclosure of 100%. The red rows have provided a Declare Label: Declare, an SDS that listed a Red List Chemical, Stated it contains a Red List Chemical, or a letter of the Red List Chemicals that it does not contain. The dull yellow rows are those that have either refused to disclose Red List information, have not responded to contact attempts, or have yet to be contacted.

— How you can do your part —

  • Use materials you know to be healthy

  • Use the Red List Screening Tool below to check the CAS No.s from your SDS

  • Contact the manufacturers of your favorite products, ask them about their contents


— Red List Screening Tool —