To achieve the Low Emitting Material credit, we submitted thresholds for furniture, ceiling, flooring, paints & coatings, and adhesives & sealants. We submitted a threshold of 92 and 91.4 for paints & coatings and adhesives & sealants. In the adhesive & sealant category, we submitted 8 types of products, of which 2 products (X and Y) did not meet the threshold, so we labeled these products as 'does not meet criteria.' For these products, we did not submit any documentation.
We received the following comments from the reviewer: 'For products X and Y, VOC content documentation has not been provided.
Is it necessary to submit VOC content documentation for products that do not meet the credit requirements?
Muhammad Mahasneh
ASAP8 thumbs up
September 5, 2023 - 3:29 am
For Paints and Coatings and Adhesives and Sealants the VOC content evaluation is required for 100% of relevant materials; from the credit's language:
"At least 75% of all paints and coatings, by volume or surface area, meet the VOC emissions evaluation AND 100% meet the VOC content evaluation. To meet the 100% requirement for VOC content evaluation, a VOC budget may be used."
"At least 75% of all adhesives and sealants, by volume or surface area, meet the VOC emissions evaluation AND 100% meet the VOC content evaluation. To meet the 100% requirement for VOC content evaluation, a VOC budget may be used."
Renee Shirey
Stantec421 thumbs up
September 5, 2023 - 8:01 am
As Muhammed said, VOC Content requires 100% compliance. Since you do not meet that threshold by each product being compliant, the only way to show compliance is to do a budget calculation - this requires the volume of each item used and the VOC levels of each. Once you plug it into the calculator it will show if, with a weighted calculation, you meet that 100% threshold. If the project used a larger amount of low/no-VOC compliant products and minimal use of the non-compliant high-VOC products compliance is still possible.