• GREENGUARD Green Certified Products for Children and Schools

  • GREENGUARD Children & Schools Certification Program

  • For products intended for use in schools, daycares or other environments where children spend significant periods of time, the GREENGUARD Children & Schools Certification ProgramSM offers stricter certification criteria. It is referenced by both The Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) and the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Building Rating System. Products certified to this standard are also suitable for use in environments where children and others work, play or reside.

    Program Mark

    Products certified under this program bear the GREENGUARD Children & Schools CertifiedSM mark

    Body Burden Correction Factor

    Children are more sensitive to environmental exposures than adults. Their bodies are still developing including their brains. They breathe faster than adults and in return receive a higher dose of indoor pollution per body weight. To account for inhalation exposure to young children, a body burden correction factor has been applied to the current GREENGUARD Indoor Air Quality Certified® allowable levels. To achieve GREENGUARD Children & Schools Certification, these lower allowable emissions criteria must be met along with additional chemical criteria as discussed below.

    Chronic Reference Exposure Levels (CRELs)

    The exposure to individual volatile organic compounds (VOCs), as detected in the C6 - C16 mass spectrometric analysis screen, has been adjusted to allow no greater than 1/100 of the currently published ACGIH® Threshold Limit Values (TLVs) and no greater than one-half of the California's Chronic Reference Exposure Levels (CRELs). In many cases, the 1/100 safety factor reduction of TLVs results in the most stringent requirements for an extensive range of VOCs. A total VOC or TVOC maximum allowable limit takes into account the complex mixture of all VOCs found to be emitting from a product, including those with and without TLVs or CRELs.

    Limits on Phthalates

    Limits on emissions of total phthalates, consisting of dibutyl (DBP), diethylhexyl (DEHP), diethyl (DEP), dimethyl (DMP), butylbenzyl (BBP) and dioctyl (DOP) phthalates, have been added to the list of requirements for GREENGUARD Children & Schools Certification. Results from recent research indicate that inhalation is an important route of exposure to phthalates and that these chemicals have been associated with endocrine disorders, reproductive and developmental disorders, asthma and allergies.

    Emission Controls for Educational and Healthcare Environments

    This standard is designed to define low-emitting materials suitable for environments where people, particularly children and sensitive adults, spend extended periods of time, in particular schools and healthcare facilities.

    • The GREENGUARD Children & Schools Certification Program's requirements comply with the State of California’s Department of Public Health Services Standard Practice for Specification Section 01350 (California Section 01350) for testing chemical emissions from building products used in schools and other environments. As such, GREENGUARD Children & Schools Certified products can be used to earn valuable credits in the CHPS Best Practices Manual for K-12 schools, the US Green Building Council's LEED ® Green Building Rating Systems, the Green Guide for Healthcare, the NAHB Green Building Guidelines, Green Globes, Regreen and many other building codes, standards and specifications.

    GREENGUARD Emission Criteria For Children & Schools

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