There are few companies that have influenced office design as much as Google. Their approach to creating workplaces that foster innovation has been replicated the world over. Yet equal to Google’s pursuit of creating the world’s most creative workspaces has been that of creating the healthiest.
In this pursuit one of Google’s largest ongoing challenges has been that of sourcing healthy building materials, a problem endemic to the entire building industry. Health data on building materials is notoriously sparse, difficult to understand and often controversial.
In order to solve this, Google teamed up with HBN, an organization that has served as the cornerstone of intelligence on healthy building materials for over a decade. The result is Portico, a powerful software that allows design teams to set their material health goals and identify the appropriate materials for their projects.
Until recently, Portico has been used exclusively by Google’s Global Real Estate project teams. Following industry demand, Google and HBN recently announced that Portico will be available to other companies and partners, expanding its reach to the rest of the building industry. Through this partnership, material information will flow between Origin and Portico and will only need to be maintained from a single entry point.
To support the expansion, Portico is integrating with Origin, the world’s only hub for data exchange of verified information on building materials. The integration will enable building product manufacturers and suppliers on Origin to seamlessly share their product information with Google project teams and other Portico users. Questions and requests from project teams will also be shared across Origin and Portico to save participating manufacturers time while improving data consistency.
“With the partnership of GIGA and Portico, we are combining the power of these technology solutions to share data and empower users with product information that is fundamental to making actionable decisions around human health and environment. This collaboration also envisions to spur real change in the marketplace by breaking down barriers to information exchange and simplifying access to high quality data and better products for the entire building industry.”
Priya Premchandran, Google Real Estate Workplace Services (REWS)
“GIGA and their product Origin’s values concerning open data exchange and ease of use for both manufacturers and project teams align perfectly with Portico’s mission of making healthier built environments simpler to achieve through trusted, comprehensive data. We are excited to make Origin the data exchange partner for Portico.”
Larry Kilroy, CTO, Healthy Building Network (HBN)
Google, HBN and GIGA are bringing in an era of long awaited data exchange in the construction industry. Connecting Origin to Portico is a revolutionary step in simplifying communication between project teams and product suppliers, bringing product information management to the cloud and raising the health level of indoor spaces globally.
The Portico - Origin beta integration is targeting release in early 2017. We invite Manufacturers to help guide this effort. Space is limited, to participate, please contact Rebecca Best (r.best@giga.build).
About Origin
Origin, is an open material data-hub and content management system (CMS) software which structures supplier data and provides APIs to exchange data with other softwares. Origin is provided by GIGA is an independent third party which combines the development of building standards with cloud software. GIGA's software tools provide access to transparent, open data to support performance-driven, regenerative buildings.
About HBN
HBN, is a non-profit organization which works to reduce the use of hazardous chemicals in building products as a means of improving human health and the environment. HBN has developed a significant expertise in profiling chemicals to evaluate the health and environmental impacts of building materials. Pharos and Portico, two established HBN software products combine to score the health impacts of individual building materials. The resulting Portico Score helps design teams and specifiers identify materials that best support human health and well being