End of March 2016 the British Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) published new criteria for the international sustainability evaluation of buildings (BREEAM International New Construction 2016 – NC 2016). These replace the former evaluation scheme that has been on the market since 2013.
In the evaluation category “Health and Wellbeing, Hea02 Indoor Air Quality” the evaluation scheme stipulates, amongst other details, requirements for the emissions behaviour of those construction products being applied in BREEAM projects.
In this category it is new that for all construction products to be evaluated requirements on emissions from TVOC, formaldehyde and carcinogens apply. The limit values are set after 28 days and defined as follows: TVOC 1,0 mg/m³, substances of classification K 1A and K1B 0,001 mg/m³ and formaldehyde 0,06mg/m³. Basis of testing is prEN 16516 (ISO 16000) and also CDPH Standard Method v1.1 which also known as California Section 01350.
The respective proofs have to be issued by accredited testing labs like eco-INSTITUT. The eco-INSTITUT-Label is officially approved as BREEAM listed quality label for direct conformity proof.
A further change is that building planners may gain additional credits by the new “Exemplary Level Criteria” when they apply in their projects products emitting even less emissions. Those limit values amount to 0,3 mg/m³ for TVOC, 0,1 mg/m³ for TSVOC, 0,001mg/m³ for K1A and K1B and 0,01mg/m³ for formaldehyde. This formaldehyde value is equivalent to the French regulation’s formaldehyde limit value for classification level A+.
For paints in this criteria context additionally the requirement of providing a proof of their VOC contents apply, either by calculation on the basis of the receipe or by measurements in accordance with ISO 11890-2 or ISO 17895.
For further infos or product testing and certification please contact Daniel Tigges at Daniel.Tigges@eco-institut.de, +49-221-931245-30.
About BREEAM
BREEAM International New Construction is the BREEAM standard for evaluation of the sustainability of new construction projects in countries worldwide apart from the UK and countries in which a national BREEAM scheme is effective. The standard considers conditions, circumstances and legal issues and standards of that country or region where the new building project is realised. Only since September 2015 BREEAM has extended its programme in so far as it now also accepts European standards and labels as third party compliance programmes.