EMICODE^® – a German ecolabel with international reach

Nev­er change a win­ning team: True to this motto, the GEV (Asso­ci­ation for the Con­trol of Emis­sions in Products for Floor­ing Install­a­tion, Adhes­ives and Build­ing Mater­i­als) con­firmed its Board mem­bers at the Gen­er­al Meet­ing on 5 Feb­ru­ary 2026 in König­swinter. Stefan Neuber­ger, Man­aging Dir­ect­or of Pall­mann GmbH, remains Chair­man of the Board. The meet­ing also focused on tech­nic­al issues such as the amended EU Con­struc­tion Products Reg­u­la­tion (CPR) and the EMICODE^® clas­si­fic­a­tion of new low-emis­­sion product groups.

The old and new Chair­man Stefan Neuber­ger and his fel­low board mem­bers thanked the par­ti­cipants for their trust. Dr. Uwe Gruber, Mapei GmbH, was re-elec­ted as Vice Chair­man. Oth­er mem­bers of the Board are Bernd Lesker, Mapei GmbH, Dr. Frank Gahl­mann, Stauf GmbH, Markus Stolp­er, Ardex GmbH, and Hol­ger Som­mer, Sto­Cre­tec GmbH. To strengthen the board team, Dr. Norbert Arnold, Chair­man of the Tech­nic­al Com­mit­tee for Con­struc­tion Adhes­ives (TKB), and Hans­peter Bressa, Head of the GEV’s Pub­lic Rela­tions Com­mit­tee (both from Uzin SE) were co-opted as mem­bers of the Board. Klaus Winkels, GEV Man­aging Dir­ect­or, is also mem­ber of the board. In addi­tion, the attendees elec­ted the mem­bers of the Tech­nic­al Coun­cil, whose task it is to define and adapt the tech­nic­al require­ments that EMICODE^®-cer­ti­fied products need to ful­fill. Board mem­ber Bernd Lesker was con­firmed as Chair­man of the Tech­nic­al Coun­cil.

For nearly 30 years now, the EMICODE^® qual­ity seal has been provid­ing reli­able guid­ance con­cern­ing the emis­sion beha­vi­or of build­ing products. Wheth­er plasters, mor­tars, adhes­ives, par­quet var­nishes, oils, waxes or seal­ants – the GEV eco-label is only awar­ded to products that were tested by qual­i­fied labor­at­or­ies based on rig­or­ous test cri­ter­ia and found to be safe for health thanks to the low­est pos­sible emis­sions. Products car­ry­ing the EMICODE^® label do not con­tain any solvents or phthal­ate-based plas­ti­cizers. In addi­tion, their con­tent of volat­ile organ­ic com­pounds (VOCs) is strictly lim­ited. Man­u­fac­tur­ers are obliged to sub­ject their products to reg­u­lar and unan­nounced spot checks. If they advert­ise their products with an EMICODE^® EC1 label, this must be renewed after five years at the latest. In recent years, the suc­cess of the EMICODE^® labeling sys­tem has gained momentum. Since 2024, 57 addi­tion­al com­pan­ies have joined the GEV to have their low-emis­­sion products cer­ti­fied accord­ing to the strict EMICODE^® require­ments. Mean­while, a total of 268 com­pan­ies from 24 coun­tries are mem­bers of the asso­ci­ation. Cur­rently, 17339 products from 9 product groups are cer­ti­fied to com­ply with the EMICODE^®.

At the Gen­er­al Meet­ing, par­ti­cipants also dis­cussed the revised EU Con­struc­tion Products Reg­u­la­tion (CPR). Although its key pro­vi­sions have been in force since Janu­ary 2025, the old Reg­u­la­tion will not expire until 15 years later. In the mean­time, the exist­ing har­mon­ized product reg­u­la­tions are being revised in the so-called CPR Acquis Pro­cess. As a res­ult, either the old or the new CPR will apply to a product – depend­ing on the status of revi­sion. These par­al­lel reg­u­la­tions can be a major chal­lenge, espe­cially for small and medi­um-sized enter­prises (SMEs). “Reg­u­lated” con­struc­tion products are expec­ted to also ful­fill cer­tain emis­sion require­ments and to bear the CE mark. How­ever, stricter require­ments under the EMICODE^® label are still per­mit­ted as long as the same assess­ment meth­od is used. Unlike oth­er product labels, the EMICODE^® provides inform­a­tion about the emis­sion beha­vi­or of build­ing products. In the con­text of “sus­tain­able build­ing”, the integ­ra­tion of the label into the cur­rently used sys­tems for assess­ing the sus­tain­ab­il­ity of build­ings is becom­ing increas­ingly import­ant. A par­tic­u­lar focus is there­fore on the GEV’s cooper­a­tion with the Ger­man Sus­tain­able Build­ing Coun­cil (DGNB), which refers to the EMICODE^® in its product cri­ter­ia.