BREEAM extends coverage of VOC schemes to a number of European-based schemes

BREEAM is an internationally-recognised measure of sustainability for buildings and communities.

In September 2015, BRE announced that it had extended recognition of third party certification schemes for demonstrating compliance with the BREEAM criteria for volatile organic compound (VOC) emission levels with approval of a number of European-based schemes, including the Eurofins Indoor Air Comfort and Indoor Air Comfort GOLD scheme. This followed the earlier approval of North American-based schemes from SCS Global Services Ltd and UL LLC.

This additional means of compliance is applicable to the following current BREEAM schemes:

• 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)

It can also be applied retrospectively to superseded versions of these schemes that include similar VOC criteria.

Alan Yates, Technical Director for BREEAM said, “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”

Soren Junker Nielsen, General Manager of Eurofins Product Testing A/S said “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"

A full listing of the third party schemes currently recognised by BREEAM can be found in Guidance Note GN 22: BREEAM Recognised Schemes for VOC Emissions from Building Products available from the Resources section of the BREEAM website.

--BRE_Group