Google Gives USGBC $3 Million for Healthy Building Materials Research

This indoor space at Google has sustainably forested wood floors, soy-based furniture, and ample daylighting.
Photo Credit: Christophe Wu / Google

In one of the biggest announcements to come out of Greenbuild 2012 in San Francisco thus far, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has announced a $3 million grant from Google to support work on healthier building materials. Google has already been a pioneer in keeping toxic chemicals out of building products used in its building projects (see A Peek Inside Google’s Healthy Materials Program), but this grant takes its public support for research and advocacy in this area to a new level.

The grant was announced by Scot Horst, senior vice president for LEED at USGBC, in an unscheduled insertion to the opening plenary at Greenbuild, with Horst noting that the donation had been finalized just the day before. Horst did not provide details on what the grant would support, but USGBC chairman Rick Fedrizzi's subsequent remarks during the plenary made it clear that USGBC as an organization was prepared to emphasize the following points:

• Research on healthier building materials and avoiding toxic chemicals
• Development of and support for new transparency tools, as illustrated by new directions being taken in LEED v4, and in the launch last week of Health Product Declarations
• Engagement of industry in supporting products and policies that avoid harmful chemicals.

USGBC hasn't yet announced details of the grant and what timeframe it will operate under, but we will update this blog as new information is available.