How to recognize trustworthy eco-labels

Giv­en today’s mul­ti­tude of eco-labels and qual­ity seals, how can we ensure genu­ine trans­par­ency for plan­ners, build­ing con­tract­ors and con­sumers? Our expert explains what you need to bear in mind when sep­ar­at­ing the wheat from the chaff of avail­able cer­ti­fic­a­tions.

In Novem­ber last year, the GEV, which is the Ger­man Asso­ci­ation for the Con­trol of Emis­sions in Products for Floor­ing Install­a­tion, Adhes­ives and Build­ing Mater­i­als, suc­cess­fully presen­ted itself at the “Hein­ze Klimafest­iv­al für die Bauwende” in Ber­lin (cli­mate fest­iv­al con­cern­ing the turn­around in the build­ing sec­tor). The event focused on the ques­tion of how archi­tects can reli­ably fil­ter out trust­worthy eco-labels from the mul­ti­tude of avail­able labels and seals. Sev­er­al key points emerged dur­ing the dis­cus­sion.

Tip 1: Beware of greenwashing!

These days, many eco-labels and seals claim to stand for qual­ity, envir­on­ment­al com­pat­ib­il­ity and safety for human health. But upon closer inspec­tion, some of them lack the neces­sary sci­entif­ic rig­or when it comes to product test­ing. Some labels or seals are exclus­ively based on vol­un­tary self-reg­u­la­­tion, and their eval­u­ation cri­ter­ia are some­times too ambigu­ous or even out­dated. Moreover, man­u­fac­tur­ers often use eco-labels as a mar­ket­ing tool without imple­ment­ing genu­ine eco­lo­gic­al innov­a­tions. Through “gre­en­wash­ing” their products, they try to gain a com­pet­it­ive advant­age in the mar­ket.

Tip 2: Pay attention to scientific rigor in product testing

Since its incep­tion, the GEV has placed great emphas­is on utmost reli­ab­il­ity and trust-wor­thi­­ness in product test­ing. Inde­pend­ent labor­at­or­ies sub­ject the build­ing chem­ic­al products to a rig­or­ous test regime to determ­ine their emis­sion beha­vi­or. But that’s not all: Even after a product has been licensed with the EMICODE^® label, the GEV com­mis­sions test insti­tutes to carry out unan­nounced spot checks. In this way, the EMICODE^® provides all parties involved in the con­struc­tion pro­cess with reli­able guid­ance con­cern­ing the emis­sion beha­vi­or and thus also facil­it­ates the choice of suit­able products.

Tip 3: How strong is the network of the organization that awards the label?

A label can be cre­ated and affixed in no time. But which organ­iz­a­tion, which test­ing pro­ced­ures, and which net­works form the basis for a label? Mean­while, the GEV counts about 270 com­pan­ies from 24 coun­tries among its mem­bers. They all meet the strict require­ments of the EMICODE^® label. Cur­rently, a total of 17,339 products across nine product cat­egor­ies – ran­ging from floor­ing install­a­tion to wall build­ing mater­i­als – has been EMICODE^®-cer­ti­fied