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A national initiative supporting affordable housing leaders who are improving human health by using less toxic building materials.
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It’s Not Just About VOCs: Select APE-free Paint, Too
Earlier this year, the Healthy Building Network (HBN) recommended specifying NPE-free paints in addition to low- or very low VOC paints to help protect human health and the environment. HBN is expanding this recommendation to include the broader category of chemical compounds known as APEs, which...
Read MoreHome Depot Eliminates Toxic Chemicals From Paint, Flooring, and Insulation
Home Depot, the largest building product retailer in the U.S., has announced a sweeping new Chemical Strategy that considers several building product categories, including carpet, fiberglass insulation, paints, and laminate flooring. (See related ...
Read MoreNew Report on Carpet Recycling
Healthy Building Network's report on post-consumer carpet feedstocks calls for eliminating over 40 highly toxic chemicals in carpets that threaten public health and imp...
Read MoreQ&A from “When is it "green"? Preventing the Toxic Effects of Spray Foam Insulation”
Thanks to all who attended our webinar “When is it "green"? Preventing the Toxic Effects of Spray Foam Insulation”! This webinar was co-presented by Healthy Building Network researchers, Jim Vallette and Rebecca Stamm, and Greg Siwinski, a practicing field industria...
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Jess Blanch
Assoc. AIA, SEED, Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellow
Jess is a Design Associate and Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellow at Capitol Hill Housing (CHH) in Seattle, where she is focused on advancing CHH's capacity in design excellence, sustainability, and community engagement in a variety of low-income housing and community development projects. Jess brings over a decade of experience in affordable housing and community-engaged design work.
A champion for healthy materials in affordable housing, she has presented the topic at AIA Seattle’s Material Matters education series. Jess is spearheading CHH’s Healthy Homes Initiative to promote healthier work and living environments by reducing toxins in CHH’s 48 low-income housing properties, and educating over 2,300 CHH residents and staff on using healthier materials and green cleaning products.
Jess uses HomeFree on the Liberty Bank Building project, one of HomeFree’s pilot Demonstration Projects. The HomeFree principles and lessons learned from the design of the Liberty Bank Building have heavily influenced the CHH Healthy Homes Initiative, especially in creating design and operations guidelines to be used at all of CHH’s affordable housing properties.