CRI's Green Label Plus Standard for Indoor Air Quality Facts

Clearing the Air – CRI’s Jeff Carrier on the Facts about the Carpet and Rug Institute’s Green Label Plus Standard for Indoor Air Quality

I am constantly amazed by how willing some folks are to neglect fact and science in order to promote their own agendas. Here’s an example: I read a blog post recently where the author outlined all the attributes required of someone before that person would be justified calling him or herself an “expert” in the area of sustainable flooring. The implication, of course, is that, since the author knows all about what it takes to be an expert, he must himself be one. If he wants to make that point, that’s fine – maybe he is and maybe he isn’t.

What I take exception to in the article is the author’s offhand (and, in my opinion, gratuitous) remark that, “CRI qualifies just about any manufacturer making carpet” for certification under its Green Label Plus standard for indoor air quality – implying, of course, that CRI hangs a green label on anything. To me, and for scores of dedicated professionals in the carpet industry, those are fighting words.

To begin, Green Label Plus is a standard developed by CRI and the carpet industry that sets limits on the amount of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) that can be emitted from carpet. Contrary to what seems to be widespread popular belief, carpet’s emissions are very low and short-lived compared with many other interior finishes like paint and particle board. To continue:

Here are the facts about the Green Label Plus program and some of the reasons why it is nearly universally accepted by state, local, and federal purchasers, as well as the Green Globes and LEED green building programs.

Sure, a customer will see the Green Label Plus logo on most carpets in the retail store, and there’s a great reason for that – GLP is widely respected by both purchasers and those who set public policy. It’s hard for a manufacturer to sell a carpet today that doesn’t meet GLP criteria because nobody wants it. Additionally, this program has been around since 1992. Manufacturers have 18 years of experience with formulations and techniques - they know what works and what doesn’t.

Here are several other important facts to note about CRI’s Green Label Plus standard:

1. CRI does not set the criteria. The criteria for each compound is set by the State of California following an exhaustive review of the existing scientific data. One of the numbers established in that process is the CREL- Chronic Reference Exposure Level. For the chemicals relevant to carpet, the limit is set at one-half of the California CREL. (emphasis added –ed.)

2. CRI does not test the carpet. The actual testing is performed by Air Quality Science in Marietta, GA. They report the results to us and the appropriate certification is either issued or denied based on what AQS reports to us. They are independent and unaware of who has submitted a product for testing.

3. The emission levels for these chemicals are already incredibly low. Since 1992, the program has been updated four times. Carpet itself produces no VOCs. Those remaining from the production process are drastically reduced after 24 hours and typically exhausted within about 96 hours. It’s important to understand the nature of VOCs. VOCs have a straight-line decay curve. In other words, the levels start at a certain point and then move directly to zero at a given rate (assuming the environmental conditions remain the same). Then they’re gone forever. Every category of flooring experiences this same effect. An AQS project showed that carpet certified to GLP has the lowest emissions of any building product they tested (Air Quality Sciences. 2003. Chemical Emissions Common Building Factors).

4. The State of California 01350 requirement only specifies that a product (far more categories than just carpet) be tested and comply once. There is no requirement for a product to continue compliance or to monitor performance. But the Green Label Plus program takes that requirement a few steps further, and tests each product annually. Continued certification for a product depends upon its successfully meeting program criteria each year. Other building products are not always held to that same standard. To help manufacturers track quality throughout the year, we conduct a mandatory quarterly sampling of every product so that changes or variations can be spotted quickly and corrected appropriately. It is a lot of work to keep up with so many categories and to administer so much reporting, but it is well worth it to ensure the thoroughness of the program.

I could go on about the stringent chain of custody for samples, the requirements of the annual ANSI accreditation process, and other justifications for why this is the preeminent VOC standard in existence, but that would take a lot more space than I have available here. I’ll save those topics for another day. In the meantime, the next time you read someone’s rant about something, look a little deeper and do some research of your own. You will likely find that many self-proclaimed experts don’t know as much as they think (or say) they do.

The CRI website has more detail about the program at http://www.carpet-rug.org/.

Have a great week,

Jeff