Public consultation on Chemical building products

Nordic Ecolabelling gives you the opportunity to comment on the proposal for new criteria for Nordic Swan Ecolabelling for Chemical building products. Your comments are important and will be considered by the national Ecolabelling boards and the Nordic Ecolabelling Board.

We look forward to your comments, which should be sent to the Nordic Ecolabelling no later than June 4, 2024, to be taken into consideration.

A Nordic Swan Ecolabel chemical building product has reduced environmental impact throughout its lifecycle. By meeting strict requirements for chemicals, quality and raw materials, the product group is a better choice for the environment, the climate, and the users.

Nordic Swan Ecolabel chemical building products:

• Meet strict quality requirements to promote long-lasting, durable, and efficient chemical building products which leads to less use of resources in a lifecycle perspective.
• Meet strict requirements regarding environmentally hazardous chemicals.
• Meet strict health requirements for chemicals. It means that the chemical building product does not contain substances that are classified to cause cancer, damage genes or reproductive capacity.
• Is free from phthalates, organic fluorinated substances and identified and potential endocrine disruptors on current lists from EU and national authorities.
• Meet strict requirements for emissions from harmful substances. This is positive for the indoor environment.
• Meet requirements for the manufacturing of raw materials with high climate impact such as titanium dioxide and cement/hydraulic binders.
• Has packaging that includes recycled material – which contributes to a circular economy.
• Ensures use of renewable raw materials that originate from more sustainably produced and controlled sources.

Please find the proposed criteria for download further down on this page.

What has been changed?

The focus of this revision has been to reassess chemical building products from a lifecycle perspective to better identify the impacts of chemical building during its entire lifecycle. The requirements focus either directly or indirectly on reduced energy consumption including reduced emissions of greenhouse gases, restriction of hazardous substances, good indoor air quality, circular economy, and promote the use of sustainable renewable raw materials.

• In the area of energy and climate, new requirements have been added for the raw material manufacturer of cement/hydraulic binders and titanium dioxide.
• In the area of indoor climate, new requirements have been added and previous requirements have been adjusted with the introduction of emission testing of the final product. The criteria for emissions is in compliance with the EU-Taxonomy and BREAAM v6.0.
• In the area of ingoing substances, requirements have been revised based on licensing data. Furthermore, new criteria for restriction of endocrine disruptors have been added and new substance-specific prohibitions have been added.
• In the area of circular economy, previous requirements for packaging have been replaced with new requirements concerning recycled material in plastic containers.
• In the area of sustainable raw materials, new requirements have been introduced to different binders to promote the use of more sustainable produced renewable raw materials.
• In the area of product definition, mortars and plasters have been included in the scope of the criteria. Paints and varnishes for outdoor use and industrial paints and varnishes have been moved from the criteria for Chemical building products to the criteria for Paints and varnishes. This means that licences within these areas must be renewed via product group 096 Paints and varnishes.

We wish to highlight the following points in the consultation draft

• O3 Classification of ingoing substances (input on new CLP-classifications).
• O4 Environmentally harmful substances (new limit values).
• O6 Formaldehyde (indoor emission requirement).
• O9 Titanium dioxide (energy related requirements).
• O12 Prohibited substances (Endocrine disruptor lists I, II and III http://edlists.org and bisphenol restriction, boric acid, borates, and perborates, EDTA and its salts and DTPA and its salts).
• O13 Acrylic and alkyd resin binders.
• O14 Cement/Hydraulic binder (input on the proposed requirement is most welcome).
• O17 Emissions of Volatile and Semi-Volatile Organic Compounds in indoor adhesives.
• O18 Quality requirements for adhesives (seeking input regarding relevance of standards and comparative test).
• O21 Emissions of Volatile and Semi-Volatile Organic Compounds in indoor sealants.
• O25 Emissions of Volatile and Semi-Volatile Organic Compounds in fillers.
• O29 Emissions of Volatile and Semi-Volatile Organic Compounds in indoor impregnating agents.
• O33 Emissions of Volatile and Semi-Volatile Organic Compounds in indoor mortars and plasters.
• O34 Quality requirements for mortars and plasters.
• O35 Packaging.

In addition to the above mentioned we would also like your comments on the following matters

• Product group definition.
• O3 Classification of constituent substances (removal of derogation for preservatives, H370 and H372).
• O5 Preservatives (analytical approach of reporting total preservatives as an option and lowered limit values).
• O5 Isothiazolinone (limit for impregnating agents harmonized with adhesives and sealants).
• O7 Residual monomers in polymers (vinyl acetate exemption adjusted).
• O8 Heavy metals (derogation for lead in raw materials in mortars and plasters).
• O11 Nanomaterials/- particles (new definition according to the EU Commission Recommendation on the Definition of Nanomaterial from 2022. Information if exemption for chemically modified colloidal silica is still needed).
• O18, O22, O26, O30 Quality requirements per product type.
• O31 Volatile aromatic compounds (mortars and plaster).
• O32 Volatile organic compounds (mortars and plaster).
• O34 Consumer information (updated information regarding proper waste disposal of unused product and tools).

Documents for download

• Criteria proposal (English)

Who can provide input?

All people, companies and institutions who are interested in taking part in the development work of Nordic Ecolabelling criteria for Chemical building products can provide us with their opinions and comments. We would appreciate if you kindly distribute information about this review to whom it may concern.

How can comments be sent in?

Your input is most valuable to our criteria development. We prefer to receive your answers via the form below, via mail or by e-mail to remiss@svanen.se

For further questions, please contact our Product Specialist
Hamid Ahmadi, +46(0) 8-55 55 24 28

What happens next?

When the public hearing period is complete, the answers will be compiled and evaluated. For this reason, a new revised proposal for criteria will be submitted to the Swedish Ecolabelling Board and the other national committees. On this basis, the Nordic Ecolabelling Board will then decide on new criteria.

Part of the decision document is the summary of all public hearing responses together with answers from Nordic Ecolabelling. The summary will be public and available on the Ecolabelling Sweden’s web page in connection with the publication of the new criteria.

We look forward to receiving your comments no later than June 4, 2024.