250 companies from 23 countries are part of the EMICODE® family

The GEV, short for “Asso­ci­ation for the Con­trol of Emis­sions in Products for Floor­ing Install­a­tion, Adhes­ives and Build­ing Mater­i­als”, has reached a new record. As of Janu­ary 2025, the Asso­ci­ation boasts a total of 250 mem­bers. This shows that an ever-increas­ing num­ber of com­pan­ies are keen on obtain­ing the EMICODE® seal for low-emis­­sion products awar­ded by the GEV. Apart from 108 mem­bers in Ger­many, also com­pan­ies from Italy, France, Greece, the Neth­er­lands and China are striv­ing to launch products that meet the strict EMICODE®emis­sion require­ments. The list of coun­tries in which mem­bers are based includes a total of 23 nations.

The Asso­ci­ation also reports anoth­er record for 2024. With over 2,000 new applic­a­tions for the EMICODE® qual­ity seal, more products have been tested and cer­ti­fied than ever before. For the cur­rent year 2025, a fur­ther 168 new applic­a­tions have already been received by the end of Janu­ary. Nev­er­the­less, the Asso­ci­ation is con­tinu­ing to cam­paign for an expan­sion of vol­un­tary cer­ti­fic­a­tion under the EMICODE® eco-label.

Stefan Neuber­ger, Chair­man of the GEV Board, explains: “The GEV focuses on build­ing mater­i­al man­u­fac­tur­ers as our dir­ect part­ners: they are poten­tial mem­bers and licensees for the EMICODE®. In Feb­ru­ary 2025, it will be 28 years since the qual­ity seal was first awar­ded by the GEV. From the out­set, the cred­ib­il­ity of the label was based on a clear stance against gre­en­wash­ing. This has been laid down in our Art­icles of Asso­ci­ation and is fur­ther strengthened and ensured by inde­pend­ent test­ing and unan­nounced spot checks. The emis­sion lim­its, which all GEV mem­bers have agreed to com­ply with, meet the highest stand­ard world­wide for low-emis­­sion indoor air.”

Neuber­ger­’s deputy, Dr. Uwe Gruber, adds: “A key factor in sus­tain­able con­struc­tion is the low-emis­­sion qual­ity of the build­ing products used, which is con­firmed by the EMICODE® seal. The GEV not only sup­ports its mem­bers in their intern­al and extern­al com­mu­nic­a­tion, but also car­ries out its own press and pub­lic rela­tions work for the EMICODE®.” Experts from the mem­ber com­pan­ies are act­ively involved in the work of the GEV com­mit­tees. Through their con­tri­bu­tions, they ensure a sci­entif­ic and there­fore reli­able basis for the pub­lished con­tent. “The EMICODE® is of high rel­ev­ance for the three aspects that have been defined for sus­tain­ab­il­ity: eco­logy, eco­nomy and soci­ety,” Dr. Gruber con­cludes.

World­wide, sus­tain­ab­il­ity is a com­mon goal, and also the GEV con­trib­utes to this goal with­in its sphere of influ­ence. The GEV’s attract­ive­ness for com­pan­ies is meas­ured by wheth­er its offer­ings are geared towards the needs of the mar­ket. The aim is not to make everything as new and com­plic­ated as pos­sible, but to col­lab­or­ate effect­ively with green build­ing organ­iz­a­tions such as DGNB, LEED and BREEAM. Since the sus­tain­ab­il­ity of a build­ing must be assessed on a sys­tem-based approach, single products have a mere ser­vice func­tion. One of the GEV’s main object­ives is to work this out spe­cific­ally for the indi­vidu­al product cat­egor­ies in the con­struc­tion industry as already reflec­ted in a num­ber of GEV bro­chures. The issues of emis­sions and pol­lut­ants remain highly top­ic­al but require ongo­ing, tech­nic­ally sound assess­ment, based on the latest sci­entif­ic and leg­al devel­op­ments. Only in this way can the Asso­ci­ation remain close to the interests of its mem­bers and ensure com­pli­ance with the reg­u­la­tions.

More and more com­pan­ies are acknow­ledging the ser­vices and bene­fits provided by the GEV and its EMICODE®sys­tem and are show­ing interest in becom­ing mem­bers. As a res­ult, the Asso­ci­ation can be sure to expect fur­ther organ­ic growth in the future.

Photo: © GEV/Iris Pohl

Stefan Neuber­ger, Chair­man of the GEV Board (left) and Dr Uwe Gruber, Deputy Chair­man of the GEV Board.

 

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25 Feb­ru­ary 2025