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BREEAM extends coverage of recognised VOC schemes

Note: This press release is over six months old and the details may have been superseded. Please contact the Press Office for the latest information.

This press release is over six months old and the details may have been superseded. Please contact the Press Office for the latest information.

BREEAM has extended its recognition of third party certification schemes for the purpose of demonstrating compliance with the BREEAM criteria for ‘volatile organic compound (VOC) emission levels (products)’ with the approval of a number of European-based schemes, including the Eurofins Indoor Air Comfort and Indoor Air Comfort GOLD scheme. This follows the recent approval of North American-based schemes from SCS Global Services Ltd and UL LLC.

“This is a further move to recognising additional certification schemes which address the important issue of VOCs in construction and fit-out products. We are pleased to recognise these European schemes that increases BREEAM’s international coverage and applicability in this area” says Alan Yates, Technical Director for BREEAM.

“The inclusion of the Indoor Air Comfort certification in the list of third party certification schemes that are accepted by BREEAM to show compliance with the BREEAM criteria on VOC levels demonstrates the ambition of BREEAM to make use of existing state-of-art programmes, and to ease life for building planners to identify compliant products. We also welcome the acceptance of other European schemes such as the EMICODE, M1 and AgBB” says Soren Junker Nielsen, General Manager of Eurofins Product Testing A/S.

This additional means of compliance is applicable to the following current BREEAM schemes and can also be retrospectively applied to superseded versions of these schemes that include similar VOC criteria:

  • BREEAM International: New Construction 2013 (Hea 02) & Non-Domestic Refurbishment and Fit-out 2015 (Hea 02)
  • BREEAM UK:  New Construction 2014 (Hea 02), Domestic Refurbishment 2014 (Hea 03) & Non-Domestic Refurbishment and Fit-out 2014 (Hea 02)

A full listing of the third party schemes currently recognised by BREEAM’ can be found in the recently published BREEAM Guidance Note “GN 22: BREEAM Recognised Schemes for VOC Emissions from Building Products”. This document can be downloaded from the Resources section of the BREEAM website. Please note you need to sign-in with an e-mail address to access documents from this section of the site.

ENDS

Press enquiries – BRE: Linda McKeown, +44 (0)1923 664569, [email protected] – Eurofins: Soren Junker Nielsen, +45 7022 4276, [email protected].

Notes for Editors

1. BREEAM is the internationally recognised measure of sustainability for buildings and communities. More than 425,000 certificates have been issued under BREEAM on more than 24,000 projects around the world, and 1.9 million buildings and communities are registered for certification. BREEAM is used in more than 70 countries. More information at www.breeam.com

2. Eurofins Product Testing A/S is one of the most experienced VOC testing laboratories world-wide. Eurofins operates Indoor Air Comfort and Indoor Air Comfort GOLD, two product certification schemes with very stringent requirements on low emissions of formaldehyde and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). For more information, visit www.indoor-air-comfort.com and www.eurofins.com/galten.

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