Low emitting material - General Emission Evaluation

Hi, yes your interpretation is right. But the Eco-institut-label can do as well under the condition that the supplier provides you a test report showing respect of the low formaldehyde requirement (max 10 µg/m³ after 28 days).

Ciao, Reinhard

Is the Third Party Certifications & Labels still applicable for LEED v4.1 for projects outside the USA?

Hi Raymond,

Based on following forum (https://leeduser.buildinggreen.com/forum/leed-v41-third-party-certifications), the LEED 3^rd party certification can be used for LEED v4.1. However, so far can be accepted in LEED v4.1 BETA period.

Hopefully this answer can help you. Regards.

Hi, do you think, is it mandatory to provide the general emmision evaluation data, so far I did not find the document of coating material that my project used, but i found the VOC data

Melvina, yes it is mandatory for wet-applied finishes to comply with both VOC content and  VOC emissions evaluation (CDPH Standard Method v1.2-2017).  At least 75% of all paints and coatings, by volume or surface area, must meet the VOC emissions evaluation AND 100% must meet the VOC content evaluation. To meet the 100% requirement for VOC content evaluation, a VOC budget may be used. So if it is just one or two paint/coatings, it is possible to calculate the volume or surface area and still meet the 75% threshold for emissions evaluation,

The paints and coatings product category includes all interior paints and coatings wet-applied on site, specialized finished (dyes, sealers, hardeners and toppings for concrete floors), and plasters.

Exclude foamed-in place and sprayed insulation, but include these in Insulation category.

When I cannot find the information on manufacturer's website or on UL Spot or SCS, Floorscore, CRI, Berkeley Analytical, etc, sometimes I simply google the manufacturer, product with emissions testing and it will pop up.  Or contact the manufacturer and tell them that you are needing this documentation for  a LEED Project. Cite testing following:

"Product has been tested according to California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Standard Method v1.2–2017 and complies with the VOC limits in Table 4-1 of the method. Additionally, the range of total VOCs after 14 days (336 hours) was measured as specified in the CDPH Standard Method v1.2 and is reported (TVOC ranges: 0.5 mg/m3 or less, between 0.5 and 5 mg/m3, or 5 mg/m3 or more).

Laboratories that conduct the tests must be accredited under ISO/IEC 17025 for the test methods they use. Products used in any setting other than schools and classrooms must be modeled to private office scenario. For schools projects, modeling to office and/or schools scenario is permitted.

The statement of product compliance must include the exposure scenario(s) used, the range of total VOCs, and must follow the product declaration guidelines in CDPH Standard Method v1.2-2017, Section 8. Manufacturer statements must also include a summary report from the laboratory that is less than three years old and the amount of wet-applied product applied in mass per surface area (if applicable). Organizations that certify manufacturers’ claims must be accredited under ISO/IEC 17065."

If the manufacturer still cannot provide this information, your only out is that 75% of all the paints and coatings must comply with the emissions evaluation, and hopefully this product was less than 25% of this category in volume or surface area.

I hope this is helpful for you.  Good luck!

Melvina, a list of certifications that use CDPH Standard Method v1.2 can be found at here https://www.usgbc.org/resources/cdph-list-certifications-use-cdph-standa...

Third-party certifications and programs that test to CDPH Standard Method v1.2-2017 are listed on the CDPH.CA.GOV website and available at the link above. These programs meet the VOC emissions evaluation requirements for the LEEDv4.1 EQ credit: Low-emitting materials.

Hi Stephanie, 

Thank you so much for your answer, it is realy well explained.

Sorry forget to mention, the project is in Germny. I was googling the product declaration but only get VOC information. I did not found a product declaration based on AgBB and DIBt tested for the painting products. So far, the VOC calculation has been 100% VOC content evaluation. I did multiply the volume of material with VOC content. still no idea, to get the TVOC data for product in Germany.

Melvina, Did you go to the CDPH website to see if they had another list for European testing labs that meet the criteria?  Sometimes I find that Berkeley Analytical or Intertek are used by some European manufacturers, if you haven't already tried them.  VOC Green Program by Benchmark International excludes paints and coatings. In the v4.1 Guide, see pages 240-241 for international projects.

You may just want to consider this as a non-compliant product for the emissions evaluation portion.  For emissions you are only looking at surface area or volume for complaince, so the surface area or volume of all non-compliant paint/coating just needs to be no more than 25% of the total surface area of all compliant + non-compliant paint/coating products. You will need to choose either surface area or volume for all paint/coating products.

Hi Stephanie, thank you for the information. I just take a look the CDPH website, I found the labs listing in Germany. do you think, I need to do manufacture check to get Emission evaluation data of the produck that I used for my project? I could not imagine the cost and efort to check by our own support.  Yes, absulutely, I just calculate the based on volume for all painting& couting. 

I know that some major painting and coating manufacturers had some of their products AgBB tested. Just ask their Technical Support Teams.

Did you mention if this was and exterior or interior paint?  If this is an NC project, just interior applied coatings need to comply...

Quick note for the above comment ^ , for NC that is true unless you have a Healthcare or Schools project.