For most building product manufacturers, the hardest part of publishing a Health Product Declaration (HPD) isn’t the HPD Builder. It’s getting complete ingredient data out of suppliers who consider their formulations trade secrets. A Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), often managed through an HPDC Approved Preparer such as Elixir Environmental, is the most reliable way to break that stalemate: the supplier shares full chemistry with a trusted party, and you still publish an HPD that is screened, characterized, and ready to earn credit under LEED v5’s Building Product Selection and Procurement credit.
This guide walks through the process step by step, drawing on the HPD Collaborative’s Manufacturer Guide to the HPD Open Standard v3.0 and current HPDC best-practice guidance.
Why suppliers hold back, and why an NDA works
Suppliers rarely refuse because they have something to hide. They refuse because their formulation is their competitive advantage, and an HPD is a public document. HPDC’s guide calls supplier data collection potentially the most difficult part of creating an HPD, and notes that suppliers often cite proprietary concerns.
The gap is usually deeper than your direct suppliers, too. HPDs report homogeneous materials and substances “as delivered to the job site,” which is rarely what appears on your Bill of Materials. For complex products, the data you need may sit two or three tiers up the supply chain.
An NDA changes the question the supplier is answering. Instead of “will you publish your recipe?” it becomes “will you share your recipe privately with a bound party so that only hazard results and roles appear publicly?” Many suppliers who say no to the first will say yes to the second.
What you can keep confidential
Before approaching a supplier, know exactly what the HPD Open Standard lets you protect. The answer is: identity and exact amounts, but not hazards.
Every HPD reports three completeness descriptors for contents above the threshold:
| Descriptor | What it means | Can it be withheld? |
| Characterized | Percent weight and role/function are reported | No. Required for LEED. Amounts may be given as ranges. |
| Screened | Hazards checked against HPD Priority Lists, results reported | No. This is what protects your customers. |
| Identified | Substance name and CAS RN are reported | Yes. Mark the substance as proprietary/undisclosed. |
LEED accepts this approach: name and CAS RN can be withheld as long as role, amount, and hazards are listed. In the HPD Builder, you or your preparer enter the real name and CAS RN, then flag the substance as proprietary. The identifier stays hidden, but the hazard screening results still appear.
You can also protect formulas by reporting quantities as ranges of up to 20% instead of exact values. A wider range needs a valid explanation in the Substance or Material Notes.
Why it matters more under LEED v5
LEED v5 folds the old EPD, Material Ingredients, and Sourcing of Raw Materials credits into one multi-attribute credit: MR Credit: Building Product Selection and Procurement (BPSP). Project teams score each eligible product across five criteria areas: climate health, human health, ecosystem health, social health and equity, and circular economy.
HPDs contribute in the Human Health criteria area. Each product earns a multiplier based on its achievement level, and scores from different criteria areas add together up to a maximum of 5x per product. Only the highest score counts within any one criteria area.
| Human Health level | Multiplier | What an HPD needs |
| Level 1 | 1x | HPD “pre-checked for LEED”: complete to 1,000 ppm, full disclosure of known hazards, published in the HPD Public Repository |
| Level 2 | 2x | Third-party verified HPD to 100 ppm, pre-checked for LEED v4.1 Option 2: no GreenScreen LT-1 hazards, or no GHS Category 1 hazards, in the end use product |
| Level 3 | 3x | Not available through an HPD. Level 3 requires the highest level of hazardous chemical class avoidance; currently only Cradle to Cradle Certified at Gold or higher (or a C2C Material Health Certificate at Gold or higher) qualifies |
In practice, a verified HPD is the ceiling for an HPD alone: it reaches Level 2. Manufacturers aiming for Human Health Level 3 need Cradle to Cradle Gold-level material health, and the same complete, supplier-level ingredient data an HPD requires is the foundation for that assessment too.
Two details make supplier data under NDA especially valuable here:
- Level 1 explicitly allows disclosure “to the public or a trusted third party.” That is exactly what an NDA with an Approved Preparer provides. A supplier’s confidential ingredients can still count.
- Level 2 doubles a product’s human health value, but it requires verification of the content inventory to 100 ppm. That means you need complete, documented supplier data, not estimates. Gaps in supplier disclosure are usually what blocks a product from moving from Level 1 to Level 2.
Eligible product categories include paints and coatings, adhesives and sealants, flooring, walls, ceilings, insulation, furniture, composite wood, and plumbing fixtures. If you make one of these, your HPD level directly affects how attractive your product is to a LEED v5 project team.
The credit is still evolving, and USGBC updates its list of eligible documentation periodically. This article reflects USGBC’s BPSP Criteria Areas and Levels Resource v1.3 (February 2026). Check the current version before making claims to customers.
The step-by-step process
- Map your product and find the gaps. Break the product into its hierarchy: assembly, part, sub-component, material, substance. Build a spreadsheet inventory from what you already have, such as Supplier HPDs, SDSs, technical data sheets, certificates of analysis, and test results. Flag every material where you lack substance-level data above your chosen threshold.
- Set your disclosure goal and threshold first. Decide whether you are targeting LEED v5 Human Health Level 1 (1,000 ppm, pre-checked) or Level 2 (100 ppm, third-party verified, no GreenScreen LT-1 or GHS Category 1 hazards). For LEED v4.1 projects, the equivalent choice is Option 1 (disclosure) or Option 2 (optimization). The threshold you choose determines exactly what you must ask each supplier for. A Nested Materials inventory also lets you isolate a confidential material without exposing the rest of the product.
- Ask directly, and be specific. Before proposing an NDA, find out why the supplier is reluctant. Then send a precise request: product name and ID, every intentionally added ingredient with substance name, CAS RN, percent by weight, and role, plus residuals and impurities with their source. Explain the threshold and how the data will appear. Vague requests for “LEED data” stall.
- Offer the proprietary-substance route. Many suppliers relax once they learn the name and CAS RN can be hidden on the published HPD while only role, amount range, and hazards appear. Some will share data with you directly on that basis.
- If they won’t share with you, bring in a third party under NDA. Engage an HPDC Approved Preparer who signs the NDA with the supplier. The supplier sends full formulation data to the preparer, not to you. The preparer screens it, enters it into the HPD Builder as proprietary, and you never see the confidential chemistry. Firms like Elixir Environmental handle this supplier outreach and NDA coordination as a routine part of HPD preparation.
- Or let the supplier use the Supplier HPD. The Supplier HPD lets a supplier screen its own ingredients in the HPD Builder and pass hazard results to you without revealing chemical identities. This works well for suppliers who serve many manufacturers.
- Collect documentation that will stand up to review. HPDC requires content inventory documentation from an objective source outside your company. It must be specific to what you buy, on supplier letterhead or from a company email, and less than five years old. Keep the NDA, the supplier’s written data, and your correspondence on file. This documentation is what a verifier checks if you pursue LEED v5 Level 2.
- Enter, screen, and note it. Enter proprietary substances in the HPD Builder with real identifiers, mark them undisclosed, and explain the confidentiality and any range widths in the Substance or Material Notes.
- Run the completeness check and LEED Pre-Check, then publish. Fix flagged gaps, publish to the HPD Public Repository, and consider third-party verification.
Allow time. Multi-tier supply chains can take weeks to respond, and some suppliers will need legal review of the NDA itself.
Tools, verification, and the fallback for holdouts
Approved Preparers vs. Third-Party Verifiers. These are different roles. A preparer helps you build the HPD, including supplier outreach under NDA. A verifier audits the finished HPD against your documentation. A verifier will not help collect data, and the same organization cannot verify an HPD it prepared. Plan for both if you want a verified HPD.
Verification with undisclosed substances. If proprietary data comes in through the Supplier HPD or Toxnot, a verifier needs either the CAS RN provided directly (typically outside the tool, under NDA) or a Supplier HPD that is itself third-party verified. Verification pays off: under LEED v5, a verified 100 ppm HPD is the path to Human Health Level 2 and its 2x multiplier, and under LEED v4.1 a verified HPD counts as 1.5 products instead of 1.
When a supplier still won’t cooperate. HPDC’s Proprietary Ingredient Due Diligence exception is a temporary path for publishing anyway. Key conditions:
- It is only available with an HPD Approved Preparer or Third-Party Verifier.
- It covers no more than 1% of product weight, or up to 5% if you use a Nested inventory and the content is a single homogeneous material.
- You need the supplier’s written refusal, or evidence of at least three requests over at least 60 days.
- The rationale goes in the Substance or Material Notes.
- The affected content is marked not Identified, but it does not prevent the overall HPD from being marked Screened, which keeps LEED eligibility intact. Confirm with your preparer how exception content affects a LEED v5 Level 2 claim before relying on it.
The exception allows supplier-entered data, supplier-reported hazard scores, or your preparer’s informed determination of identity. Each carries specific notation requirements, so this is an area where an experienced preparer earns their fee.
Common pitfalls
- Relying on the SDS. SDSs only report most hazards at 1% and select hazards at 0.1%. That misses many ingredients an HPD at 100 or 1,000 ppm must report.
- Assuming the BOM is enough. For multi-tier supply chains, the Bill of Materials rarely shows substance-level content.
- Forgetting what’s inside an ingredient. A “TiO2 pigment” from a supplier may also contain fillers and modifiers. Each substance above threshold must be reported.
- Wrong CAS RN. Even under NDA, an incorrect CAS RN produces inaccurate hazard screening. Confirm the exact variant used.
- Skipping the notes. Unexplained ranges or undisclosed substances invite questions from LEED reviewers and project teams. A one-line rationale avoids them.
- Starting too late. Supplier negotiations and NDA reviews take time. Begin before a project team is waiting on a submittal.
Getting help
You don’t need a consultant to create an HPD, and the Standard was designed so manufacturers can do it in-house. But when suppliers won’t release data, a third party working under NDA is often the fastest route to a complete HPD that scores in LEED v5’s Building Product Selection and Procurement credit.
Elixir Environmental is an HPDC Approved Preparer that works with building product manufacturers on HPDs, Declare labels, LEED v5 and WELL documentation. Its team can manage supplier outreach, sign NDAs with reluctant suppliers, prepare your HPD for publication and verification, and develop LEED v5 product documentation showing which criteria areas and levels your product achieves.
Other resources:
- HPD Open Standard (free download), the authoritative source for every data field
- HPDC’s Best Practices for HPD Content Inventory Requirements (v3.0, June 2025), which covers documentation rules and the proprietary ingredient exception
- USGBC LEED v5 BPSP Criteria Areas and Levels Resource
- The HPDC Support Portal and FAQs for specific questions
Sources
- HPD Collaborative, Manufacturer Guide to the HPD Open Standard Version 3.0
- HPDC, Best Practices for HPD Content Inventory Requirements, v3.0
- USGBC, LEED v5 BPSP Criteria Areas and Levels Resource
- HPDC Learning: Third-Party Verifier roles
- Green Seal, Health Product Declaration Services
Elixir Environmental, LEED v5 Building Product Selection and Procurement Credit