July 2026 Update to the Living Building Challenge Red, Priority, and Watch Lists
Living Future has released the July 2026 update to the Living Building Challenge (LBC) Red, Priority, and Watch Lists. While the Red List itself remains unchanged, this update refines the Priority List and significantly expands the Watch List to better reflect current regulatory frameworks, emerging research, and areas where additional industry engagement is needed.
Whether you are a manufacturer developing healthier products, a project team specifying materials, or a Declare user screening ingredients, these updates provide important information to help guide material selection and product development.
At a Glance
Red List
No changes.
The Living Building Challenge Red List remains unchanged in this update. The next planned revision to the Red List is expected in March 2027.
Priority List
The Priority List has been refined to focus on chemicals identified by internationally recognized regulatory programs, along with chemical classes already represented on the Red List.
The updated Priority List now includes chemicals from:
- EU REACH Authorization List (Annex XIV)
- Selected entries from the EU REACH Restriction List (Annex XVII)
- TSCA Persistent, Bio-accumulative, and Toxic (PBT) chemicals
- UNEP Stockholm Convention Persistent Organic Pollutants
- UNEP Prior Informed Consent (PIC) Convention Annex III
- EPA Ozone-Depleting Substances
- Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol
It also continues to include several high-priority chemical classes, including PFAS, organotins, alkylphenols, chlorobenzenes, halogenated flame retardants, and formaldehyde.
Several chemical groups that previously appeared on the Priority List have been moved to the Watch List. These groups require additional research, stakeholder engagement, and technical evaluation before determining whether changes to future program requirements are appropriate.
Watch List
The Watch List has expanded substantially following a comprehensive gap analysis conducted by Living Future and Habitable in 2025.
The analysis identified additional chemicals commonly disclosed in building products that are associated with significant human health hazards—including carcinogenicity, mutagenicity, reproductive and developmental toxicity, endocrine disruption, neurotoxicity, respiratory effects, and systemic toxicity—as well as material families with manufacturing and process chemistry concerns.
Importantly, inclusion on the Watch List does not mean a chemical or material will be added to the Red List. The Watch List identifies chemicals and material groups that the Material Health Technical Advisory Group is actively researching, and provides transparency into areas of ongoing technical evaluation.
Why We’re Looking at Manufacturing and Process Chemistry
One notable addition to the Watch List is a group of material families identified by Habitable through its Informed product guidance. These materials—including polyurethane, polystyrene, polycarbonate, silicone, asphalt, fluorinated plastics, and others—are recognized within Informed as warranting heightened attention because of concerns associated with their manufacturing processes, precursor chemistries, or life-cycle impacts.
Living Future has included these material families on the Watch List to encourage additional research and dialogue—not because the materials themselves have been designated as Red List materials. Their inclusion signals that the Material Health Technical Advisory Group will be exploring the science, evaluating potential approaches for treatment within the Living Building Challenge, and engaging manufacturers and other stakeholders before considering any future program changes.
New additions to the Watch List include:
- Material families with manufacturing and process chemistry concerns, including asphalt, polyurethane, polystyrene, polycarbonate, butyl rubber, silicone, fluorinated plastics, and several other polymer families
- Volatile chemicals associated with CMRDE hazard endpoints
- Volatile respiratory sensitizers
- Persistent, bioaccumulative toxicants identified by selected authoritative lists
- Crystalline silica
- Additional heavy metals, including cobalt, vanadium, antimony, and nickel
- Additional volatile and non-volatile chemicals associated with high-concern human health hazards
What This Means for Manufacturers and Project Teams
For most organizations, there is no immediate change to certification requirements.
If you currently screen products against the Living Building Challenge Red List, you should continue doing so using the current Red List requirements.
However, the updated Priority List provides an opportunity to proactively evaluate chemicals that may warrant future substitution efforts, while the expanded Watch List offers visibility into areas where Living Future is focusing ongoing research.
Organizations that begin evaluating these chemicals today will be better positioned to respond to future market expectations and continue advancing healthier materials.
Recommended Actions
We encourage manufacturers, Declare users, and project teams to:
- Download the updated Red, Priority, and Watch Lists.
- Continue screening products against the current Red List requirements.
- Review the updated Priority List when evaluating new products or reformulation opportunities.
- Familiarize yourself with chemicals and material groups newly added to the Watch List and consider engaging suppliers to better understand their presence in your products.
- Stay informed as Living Future publishes additional guidance on specific chemical groups and the research informing these updates.
What’s Next
This announcement is the first in a series exploring the July 2026 updates.
Over the coming months, we’ll take a closer look at several of the chemical groups added to the Watch List, explain the science behind their inclusion, discuss questions that remain under evaluation, and highlight opportunities for manufacturers to engage with Living Future as this work continues.
One of the first topics we’ll explore is the addition of material families with manufacturing and process chemistry concerns. We’ll discuss why these materials are identified in Habitable’s Informed guidance, what those concerns are, and how Living Future is evaluating their relevance within the Living Building Challenge.
We invite manufacturers, project teams, researchers, and other stakeholders to join us in this conversation as we continue advancing healthier materials through transparency, collaboration, and science-based decision making. Contact declare.support@living-future.org to engage further with Red List development.
