A brief overview of eco-labels

The major­ity of Ger­mans want to live in a healthy liv­ing envir­on­ment. For 73 per­cent, con­sid­er­a­tion of their own liv­ing health and that of their chil­dren plays a major role. This is the res­ult of a YouGov sur­vey con­duc­ted for the whole­saler MEGA eG. But only one in three people were aware that there exist health and envir­on­ment­al labels for build­ing mater­i­als. As a mat­ter of fact, there are not only qual­ity labels for food or tech­nic­al products, but also for build­ing and accom­mod­a­tion products. With the help of labels like EMICODE^®, con­sumers can dir­ectly identi­fy products that are envir­on­ment­ally friendly and safe for their health. Here a brief over­view to find your way in the jungle of labels.

If you want to buy organ­ic food, you will def­in­itely look out for organ­ic labels from the EU or Ger­many. When look­ing for wood from sus­tain­able forestry, the FSC cer­ti­fic­ate gran­ted by the Forest Stew­ard­ship Coun­cil is a help­ful indic­at­or. But there are also vari­ous qual­ity seals for floor cov­er­ings and the required install­a­tion mater­i­als which can serve as a guide to pol­lu­­tion-free liv­ing.

The Blue Angel is one of the old­est. It has been in exist­ence since 1978, but has been used for floor cov­er­ings and asso­ci­ated build­ing mater­i­als only since 2003. For more than 20 years, GEV EMICODE^® has been test­ing and cer­ti­fy­ing sus­tain­able, health and envir­on­ment­ally com­pat­ible build­ing and install­a­tion products like floor cov­er­ings, adhes­ives, seal­ants, primers, fillers and oth­ers. It thus cov­ers a wider range of products. The EMICODE^® EC1 seal can be found on over 6,000 products. Before being gran­ted the qual­ity seal, the products are tested by inde­pend­ent labor­at­or­ies. Reg­u­lar unan­nounced spot checks ensure their long-term com­pli­ance with the qual­ity stand­ard. Con­sumers can there­fore be sure that products with the EC1 seal meet the highest indoor air require­ments.

For more than 20 years, the Insti­tute for Bio­lo­gic­ally Sound Con­struc­tion Rosen­heim has been award­ing an IBR seal of approv­al to floor cov­er­ings that pro­mote a healthy liv­ing envir­on­ment. More than 300 inter­na­tion­al products and pro­duc­tion pro­cesses have already been tested and been gran­ted the IBR seal. The EU Flower, estab­lished in 1992 by the European Com­mis­sion, is a European eco-label for con­sumer goods of high envir­on­ment­al com­pat­ib­il­ity and low health impact. It is also found on floor cov­er­ings, espe­cially tiles, and oth­er build­ing mater­i­als.