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The presence of hazardous chemicals in products makes the transformation to circularity more challenging. This report describes UNDP's interventions on Chemicals and Waste Management which aim to achieve circularity across different industries, inluding construction.

This guide defines the core information that building project teams need to know to make the consideration of human health and environmental issues a systematic part of building materials specification, purchasing, and use.

The Healthy Home Guides provide advice and guidance on hazardous chemicals to avoid in different types of building materials. The guides include key product features to look out for and recommended alternatives that are healthier and more sustainable.

This handbook is aimed at helping the American architecture and construction sectors select healthier and more sustainable  materials for their projects. The handbook outlines guidelines for evaluating and selecting materials based on factors such as lifecycle assessment, material transparency, and health and wellness impacts. It also suggests useful tools and provides examples from case studies.

Phthalates are mainly used as plasticisers in plastics and can be found in everything from wall coverings and furniture to electronic devices and toys. Phthalates make up two-thirds of the plasticisers market but are proven to be hazardous for human health. This report gives an overview of what phthalates are, their use, and current legislation. It includes a three-step guide to substituting phthalates and analyses the alternatives. 

Byggvarubedömningen, or BVB, is a building materials assessment tool for the Swedish construction market. BVB provides an evaluation standard based on seven factors: Chemical content; Input materials; the construction phase; the management phase; Demolition; Residual and waste products; Indoor environment. These are weighted to come up with a final score: either "recommended", "accepted" or "to be avoided".

This report summarises the workstream of the International Sustainable Chemistry Collaborative Centre (ISC3) into the use of plastics in the built environment and the impacts on human health.

This report from the Healthy Building Network looks at the environmental health impacts of chlorine, a key ingredient in the PVC supply chain. The report lists the 86 largest chlor-alkali plants and 56 largest PVC plants in the Western Hemisphere, Africa, and Europe. It analyzes chlorine markets with an emphasis on the PVC supply chain, chlorine production technologies, and pollution associated with the production of chlorine and chlorine-based products.

CHARM virtually plastic free homes is an affordable housing development of 12 homes, built using plastic-free materials to reduce environmental and health impacts. The homes are constructed from timber panels and make extensive use of alternative and recycled products, such as aluminium window frames and mineral insulation.

This report gives a summary of a research project which aimed to identify less hazardous alternatives to methylene chloride in formulated paint stripper products, and to align alternatives with the California Safer Consumer Products regulations.