Greenguard Certificatio vs Scientific Certification Systems

You do not need to provide any proof of equivalency. Scientific Certification Systems SCS Indoor Advantage(TM) or Indoor Advantage Gold certificates are acceptable documentation to show compliance with EQc4.5 and have been used successfully on hundreds of projects to achieve this credit.

The USGBC EQ TAG ruled in 2006 that, for the purposes of the EQc4.5 credit, the ANSI/BIFMA method was equivalent to Greenguard. Thus a 2006 CIR ruling defined the BIFMA option under EQc4.5, which became the ANSI/BIFMA option in LEED 2009. SCS certification demonstrates compliance to the ANSI/BIFMA option. Other third-party certifications also demonstrate compliance to the ANSI/BIFMA option, like BIFMA level(TM) if the product earns the low-emitting furniture point (BIFMA e3 Section 7.6.1). See www.levelcertified.org.

SCS and Greenguard each have strengths and weaknesses. For example, SCS requires independent testing of furniture in accordance with the ANSI/BIFMA standards and does not make any money from the recurring laboratory testing. Greenguard requires testing following their proprietary test methods and requires all North American manufacturers to use their for-profit partner laboratory, Air Quality Sciences.

Greenguard (founded in 2001) was written into the original EQc4.5 credit and is now widely known for certifying low-emitting products and materials. Scientific Certification Systems (founded in 1984) is well known for independent verification of a wide variety of environmental claims, including FSC wood, recycled & material content, VOC emissions, Floorscore, carbon offset, food & agriculture, life cycle impact assessment, and more.

There are many other differences between these two competing organizations and both offer multiple benefits to users.

The BIFMA option is available as an alternative compliance path under LEED v2. Third-party certificates demonstrating compliance to the ANSI/BIFMA M7.1 and X7.1 standards (like SCS Indoor Advantage or Indoor Advantage Gold) are still acceptable documentation. You can also attach a copy of the CIR, available on the USGBC website or at this link: http://www.bifma.org/news/newsrelease.pdfs/USGBC%20Ruling%2019Dec06.pdf.

Be sure to verify the certification dates include the manufacturing dates of the furniture for the project. You do not have to provide the VOC levels along with the SCS certificates under LEED v2 or v3.

Certificates vary. In this case, the important details are the products covered by the claim of compliance, the dates covered by the claim, and the details of the claim. Details include what standards the products complied with, and any applicable restrictions or exclusions to the claim. The standards include the VOC levels and many other details.

SCS certificates do not list the specific VOC criteria, but they do state what exposure scenario was used, e.g., open plan, private office, classroom, etc. Greenguard certificates list the VOC criteria but do not state which exposure scenario was used. Products that are compliant in one scenario may not be compliant in another, even when the VOC levels are the same, because the ventilation rates are different.

Just wanted to add some clarity to some things that Mr. Carter stated above. For full disclosure, I am the Technical Information & Public Affairs Manager for GREENGUARD Environmental Institute. There are some significant differences between some of the GREENGUARD and other organizations' emission programs.

1) GREENGUARD Certification Programs require ongoing quarterly and annual testing of products. This ensures that any changes to a product are not significantly effecting the chemicals off-gassing from the product. You would be amazed at the significant differences in chemical emissions that some small component or ingredient changes can make. Others only require these tests on a annual basis. We have been told by some manufacturers that they can resource components or ingredients multiple times within a 12 month time frame, so we don't feel every twelve months is protective enough.

2) GREENGUARD Certification Programs require the testing of a final full product. This is because this is what is going to be put in to the built environment. Other emission certification programs test pieces of a product and then add together what they are off-gassing. Yet there are reports that show that this can result in full product estimates that are 290% off from what the final product actually does off gas. We want to ensure that our label is on products that are truly low-emitting and for us to have complete faith in that, we need to test the full representative product.

3) GREENGUARD Certification Program and GREENGUARD Children & Schools have limits on around 360 individual chemicals and a protective measure on the other potential chemicals off-gassing from the product through a total volatile organic chemical (TVOC) limit. In addition to the individual chemicals the GREENGUARD certification program that is within EQc4.5 has a TVOC limit of 500, the GREENGUARD Children & Schools program that is within LEED for Schools has a TVOC limit of 220. Other low-emitting product standards or programs usually do one or the other. Mr. Carter mentioned the BIFMA X7.1-2007 which is in LEED EQc4.5 - this has a TVOC limit of 500, but only limits formaldehyde and a chemical called 4 PCH on an individual basis. Mr. Carter also talks about BIFMA e3 (furniture sustainability standard) and its emission criteria. Within that it has a TVOC limit of 500 and individual limits on 32 chemicals. The CA 01350 method that is called out in LEED for Schools as well, only has individual limits of 35 chemicals.

We didn't feel that looking at 35 individual chemicals or looking at chemicals in a lump sum manner alone was being protective enough, especially with more than 10,000 individual chemicals having the potential to emit from man-made products. So that is why we wanted to make sure that our certification protected people from the known (the 360 individual chemicals where we have data that can negatively effect humans through emissions) and then from the unknown (the TVOC limit on other chemicals that just haven't had the research dollars committed to them yet to find out what they do to us).

Hopefully this is a little clearer picture to the differences. So while GREENGUARD certification and other low-emitting programs are accepted for LEED Credit, the programs are not equivalent in the amount that they protect the indoor occupants from chemical exposure.