VOC limits declaration for European Materials

LEED Italy requires VOC emissions to be in compliance with EMICODE EC1, no VOC content limit apply there. Any other LEED system requires VOC content limits that were taken from greater Los Angeles Basin regulation "SCAQMD". Up to now, low VOC emissions do not help there. But any product that is not only tested, but also licensed by GEV as being EMICODE EC1 will contain maximum 0,5% solvents. Even though test and calculation procedures differ from SCAQMD, in most cases this will translate into compliance with LEED and SCAQMD limit values for adhesives and sealants. Hoping this helps, else read more here: www.eurofins.com/leed-adhesives-sealants.

Hi Alessio. So far I didn't get far enough. I'm still looking for positive information regarding this issue. According to my opinion, if your project is going to be certified in LEED Italy certification system, then it requires compliance with EMICODE EC1, and not SCQAMD. So you should be fine with Mapei. I'm still wondering about the possibility of accepting EMICODE in other countries as well...

Ciao Alessio. I will reply you in English, also if we are italians. This is a big issue and in these years we have discussed a lot with the manufacturers...LEED US asks for SCAQMD and not for the European standards as LEED Italia does, so for our projects registered under LEED US we should follow SCAQMD to be absolute certain of the compliance with the credit. Moreover, there are some EU manufacturers that declare this compliance.

You describe the situation as also I understand it. But I want to add that SCAQMD is using very bad test method (not suitable for many modern water-borne or 2-component products - you may even receive VOC content less than 0 mg/m³ with these test methods!), and it uses a strange calculation formula, looking only at the non-water portion of a product. Last draft of LEED 2012 (as of early this year) therefore will accept EU Decopaint Directive test results and limit values as equivalent. Let us see how the final version of LEED 2012 will look like. But this may not help you right today, I am afraid.