Ambient scenting allowed under green cleaning?

Scenting product don't seem like cleaning products to me, but that's just my two cents. Just the opposite, they can mask lack of cleaning.

This underscores an irony in the IEQ credits. With LEED V4, we are proposing to require VOC emissions testing of every permanently installed bit of drywall, paint, carpet, resilient flooring, adhesive, ceiling tile and furniture in order to gain credit. If enough project teams and manufacturers buy in to make the system viable, a LEED V4 building would open with essentially no odor.

This means that maintenance products and anthropomorphic behavior will be the single largest source of VOCs in a building. Think of post-occupancy VOC emitting products as being the equivalent of plug load on the energy side.

If you can smell a material, it is because a molecule is interacting with a receptor in your head. Most of those molecules are VOCs; some are PAHs and synthetic semi-volatiles like synthetic musk.

Not every VOC is bad. A brewed pot of coffee smells good because of the 1,200 or so VOCs inside. However, a single blended fragrance can contain hundreds of VOCs; some natural and some synthetic. Many fragrance formulations use synthetic musk to hold other scent molecules on skin. Some synthetic musks are suspected endocrine disruptors and tend to last forever absobing and desorbing from various interior finishes. Not every natural odor creating molecule is intrinsically non-toxic. Conversely, not every synthetic molecule is toxic. The mercaptan placed in natural gas so we can detect it smells horrible, is natural and has an odor threshold far below the level where it can cause health effects. As with any chemical, natural or synthetic, the dose makes the poison.

To get an idea of the range of VOCs found in fragrance materials, go to
http://www.ifraorg.org/en-us/Ingredients_2

I'm not sure how robust the reference CCD-115 standard is and whether it can be applied to ambient scent emitters. It appears to have been nullified and rolled into CCD-107 at some point in time.

The USEPA Design for Environment program has been engaged in a multiple stakeholder standard setting process for fragrances for several years to address the added fragrance in cleaning products. DfE uses Clean Production Action's Green Screen as its reference standard using many of the same baseline assumptions that are baked into the Health Product Declaration.

In my opinion, a credit for added ambient odor would require substantive technical and policy review. GBCI may have a different opinion or might pass it to the IEQ TAG for review. Given the complexity of this issue, my guess is that the review would not happen quickly. Controlling the toxicity of the chemicals emitted is a positive. On the other hand, the V4 Draft EBOM Purchasing - facility and maintenance credit also has an option for rewarding a project team for doing nothing to an interior space.

Jared - I have to agree with Tristan here. If a building is cleaned properly, I would expect that ambient scenting fragrance products are not needed. However, if you do decide to list these products in your IEQc3.3 submission -ensure that you include ALL ambient scenting fragrance products, not just the ones that meet the Environmental Choice standard.

Let us know what the reviewers say!

Was there ever a resolution about the fragrance question? We have recently been asked to provide a LEED certificate for a air freshener we sell for the Industrial & Institutional market and I am wondering how to get started or if we can obtain one.