Kitchen

Great question, Sophie! And one I look forward to seeing the other responses to as well. :) Here in the mid-Atlantic USA, we frequently end up going with custom built cabinets to achieve this credit, since there are not a lot of companies that offer the right kind of wood / adhesive to meet the requirements. There are a few manufacturers in the pacific northwest (Washington State, Oregon, etc.) and there are some manufacturers of lab casework that meet the requirements, but most of the manufacturers, even if they are solid wood cabinets, still use some sort of plywood or particleboard at the very least on the back of the cabinets that's not compliant.

Sophie—As I understand it, the commonly used European E1 and E0 standards promise very low emissions, but they do not guarantee that the labeled product contains no added urea-formaldehyde (NAUF) as required for IEQc4.4. You must explicitly specify “no added urea-formaldehyde.” Many E1 and E0 products may actually be NAUF, but to know for sure, you would need confirmation from the manufacturer of the actual plywood, particleboard, MDF, or other composite panels used to fabricate the cabinets. To your question about cabinet finishes, shop-applied finishes have no impact on IEQ credits in NC-2009, and finishes applied on-site only affect IEQc4.2, not IEQc4.4.