Eco-friendly, low VOC paint continues to sprout from the shelves, creating a jungle of products in which you can easily get lost when deciding on a product for your home or business. As an environmentally friendly painting company, we’re delighted with the growth of globally responsible options in redecorating and renovation, but with varying determinations of what constitutes an eco-friendly paint, it can be difficult to accurately select a paint that meets your “Green” standards.
Independent VOC Paint Certifications
Whether you’ve got an interior commercial painting project that requires low odor, or you’re painting your baby’s nursery and you’re concerned about fumes; if your shopping for a low or zero-VOC paint, your likely to encounter one or all of the certifications awarded by the following governing bodies of the eco-friendly painting industry:
- Greenseal®
- Green Guard®
- Master Painters Institute®
Which Seal Meets Your Standards?
To help you determine which certification your paint should adhere to, we’ve broken down the basic requirements for a coating to earn certification from Green Seal, Greenguard, or the MPI.
Green Seal allocates certification of eco-friendly paint based upon performance and health standards, including the limiting of hazardous substances and VOCs to specific levels before and after tinting. In plain Enghlish, Green Seal is heavily concerned with what goes into a paint. Their standards are as follows:
VOC Paint Requirements before Tinting:
- Flat Paint = 50 g/L
- Non-Flat Paint = 100 g/L
- Floor Paint = 100 g/L
- Reflective Wall Paint = 50 g/L
- Reflective Roof Paint = 100 g/L
- Anti-Corrosive Paint = 250 g/L
VOC Paint Requirements after Tinting:
- Flat Paint = 100 g/L
- Non-Flat Paint = 150 g/L
- Floor Paint = 150 g/L
- Reflective Wall Paint = 100 g/L
- Reflective Roof Paint =150 g/L
- Anti-Corrosive Paint = 300 g/L
Learn more about Green Seal certification standards for stains, sealers and other paint related products.
Greenguard® Certification
Whereas Green Seal measures what goes into the paint, Greenguard’s main concern is improving indoor air quality by measuring what is emitted from the paint. Greenguard tests emissions of the following substances within a measured area:
- Total VOCs = Less than or equal to 0.5mg per cubic meter
- Formaldehyde = Less than or equal to 0.05 parts per meter
- Total Aldehydes = Less than or equal to 0.1 parts per meter
- Individual VOCs = Less than or equal to 0.1 threshold limit value
- Phenylcyclohexene = Less than or equal to 0.0065 mg per cubic meter
- Respirable Particles = Less than or equal to 0.05 mg per cubic meter
View the following document to review all of their standards and testing procedures:
Greenguard Indoor Air Quality Standards PDF
The Master Painters Institute Certification®
The MPI’s Green Performance Standard is the only green paint/coatings certification required by the U.S. and Canadian governments. The MPI takes into account: indoor air quality, environmental safety, and durability. In other words they investigate, what goes in, what comes out, and how long the paint lasts.
The institute has the following three certifications of varying stringencies that can be claimed by a zero or low-VOC paint manufacturer:
- Interior Flat Paint = 50 g/l
- Interior Non-Flat Paint = 150 g/l
- Exterior Flat Paint = 100 g/l
- Exterior Non-Flat Paint = 150 g/l
- Interior Flat Paint = 50 g/l
- Interior Non-Flat Paint = 50 g/l
- Exterior Flat Paint = 50 g/l
- Exterior Non-Flat Paint = 50 g/l
- VOCs = less than 50 g/l for all paints
- Reduced or zero quantities of undesirable chemical components
- Certification of emission compliance to CHPS (Collaborative for High Performance Schools)
Review the following document to learn more about additional standards for low-VOC paint and related products set forth by the MPI:
Private Eco-Friendly Paint Designations
In addition to the nationally recognized independent boards, many paint manufacturers have initiated their own standards for their coatings to be labeled as environmentally friendly paints. While these certifications are self-awarded, further investigation into product composition shows that the paints also adhere to the requirements laid out by Green Seal, Greenguard, and the MPI.
Sherwin Williams GreenSure Designation®
Benjamin Moore Green Promise ®
Dunn Edwards Greener by Design®
If you’ve had experience with any of these or other low and zero-VOC paints that you’d like to share, we’d be delighted to hear about them.
