If you manufacture or specify building products, you will run into a confusing alphabet of labels: C2C, BVB, M1, EMICODE, EU Ecolabel, FSC and more. They measure different things, matter in different markets, and are frequently mixed up with EPDs. This page gives a short, practical overview of the schemes you are most likely to encounter, grouped by what they actually assess.
These assess a product across several environmental criteria at once and award a pass or a level. They are "Type I" style ecolabels — third-party verified against published criteria.
Run by the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute. Assesses products across five categories: material health, product circularity, clean air and climate protection, water and soil stewardship, and social fairness. Certification is awarded at Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum level — the overall level equals the lowest category score, which makes higher levels genuinely hard. Strong recognition in international green building projects and one of the few schemes that deeply examines chemical ingredients. Certification and recertification require real resource commitment, so it tends to suit flagship products rather than full catalogues.
The EU's official voluntary ecolabel (the flower logo), established by regulation and administered through national competent bodies. Criteria exist only for specific product groups — in construction this covers a limited set such as paints and varnishes and certain floor coverings, not every building product. Where a product group exists, it signals compliance with life-cycle environmental criteria verified by an independent body. If your product category has no EU Ecolabel criteria, you simply cannot get one — a common source of confusion.
The official ecolabel of the Nordic countries, widely recognised by Scandinavian consumers and public procurement. Covers several construction-relevant groups including chemical building products, indoor paints and flooring, and even small houses as a building-level scheme. Criteria address chemicals, emissions, resource use and quality. If you sell into Sweden, Norway, Denmark or Finland, the Swan carries real commercial weight.
The German government-backed ecolabel and the world's oldest, running since 1978. Strong in the German market, with criteria for products like flooring, wall paints, sealants and insulation, typically emphasising low emissions and restricted substances. Frequently referenced in German public procurement and by health-conscious specifiers.
These are less "labels" than assessment databases used by property owners and contractors to screen what goes into their buildings. Dominant in the Nordics.
A Swedish assessment system owned by major property owners. Products are assessed on chemical content and life-cycle criteria and rated Recommended, Accepted or To be avoided. Many large Swedish clients require BVB assessment as a condition of specification — without a rating, your product may simply not be selectable on their projects. Assessment is based on documentation you submit, including a detailed declaration of chemical content.
The other major Swedish material screening system, grading products from A (best) through B, C+, C- to D based on chemical content and health/environmental properties. Many Swedish projects use either BVB or SundaHus, and suppliers to that market often end up maintaining entries in both. The practical burden is similar: full ingredient transparency and updated safety documentation.
A transparency label from the International Living Future Institute, styled as a "nutrition label" for building products. Lists ingredients and flags whether the product is free of the ILFI Red List — a set of chemicals of concern. Common on projects pursuing the Living Building Challenge, and increasingly requested in North American specification. Declare is primarily disclosure; the Red List Free status is the differentiator.
These certify one thing: how much the product off-gasses into indoor air (VOCs and related emissions). They matter most for interior products — flooring, panels, adhesives, sealants, paints, furniture and doors.
The Finnish classification run by the Building Information Foundation RTS. Products are laboratory-tested for emissions and classed M1 (lowest emissions), M2 or M3. M1 is the de facto entry ticket for interior products in Finland and is respected across the Nordics. Testing covers TVOC, formaldehyde, ammonia, carcinogens and odour.
Run by the German GEV association, originally for flooring installation materials (adhesives, levelling compounds) and now broader. Classes are EC2, EC1 and EC1 Plus, with EC1 Plus the strictest very-low-emission class. Widely specified in German-speaking markets for anything that goes under or on floors.
Unlike everything else here, this one is mandatory: construction and decoration products sold in France must carry a VOC emission class label from A+ (very low emissions) to C. It is self-declared based on testing rather than third-party certified, but absence or misclassification carries legal consequences in the French market.
Founded in 1993 and governed by a three-chamber structure balancing environmental, social and economic interests, which gives it strong NGO backing. Two certificate types work together: forest management certification for the forest itself, and chain of custody certification for every company handling the wood on its way to the final product. Product labels distinguish FSC 100%, FSC Mix and FSC Recycled. Some clients and schemes specifically request FSC rather than accepting any forest certification, so check the specification wording before assuming equivalence.
Founded in 1999, PEFC works differently: it is an umbrella that endorses national forest certification systems against its international benchmarks rather than certifying forests directly. That structure made it particularly accessible to Europe's many small and family forest owners, and in several European countries PEFC-certified forest area exceeds FSC. Chain of custody works on the same principle as FSC's. In practice most specifications accept either scheme — and for any timber-based product, including doors, windows and engineered wood, holding one of the two is close to a baseline market expectation. Building schemes award credits for certified timber under both.
An EPD is not a certification — this is the most common confusion in the industry. An Environmental Product Declaration is a verified declaration of a product's environmental performance (embodied carbon and other impacts) based on a life cycle assessment under EN 15804. It has no pass mark and no levels: a product with terrible numbers can have a perfectly valid EPD. What the EPD gives you is verified data — which increasingly matters for CBAM, green claims substantiation under EmpCo, Scope 3 reporting, and building-level carbon limits. Certifications tell the market "this product meets criteria X"; an EPD tells the market "here are this product's measured numbers".
| Scheme | What it assesses | Type | Key market |
|---|---|---|---|
| C2C Certified | Material health, circularity, climate, water, social | Certification (Bronze–Platinum) | International |
| EU Ecolabel | Life-cycle criteria per product group | Certification (pass) | EU |
| Nordic Swan | Chemicals, emissions, resources | Certification (pass) | Nordics |
| Blue Angel | Emissions, restricted substances | Certification (pass) | Germany |
| BVB | Chemical content, life cycle | Assessment rating | Sweden |
| SundaHus | Chemical content, health | Assessment rating (A–D) | Sweden |
| Declare | Ingredient transparency, Red List | Disclosure label | North America |
| M1 | Indoor emissions | Classification (M1–M3) | Finland / Nordics |
| EMICODE | Indoor emissions | Classification (EC2–EC1 Plus) | DACH |
| French VOC label | Indoor emissions | Mandatory self-declaration (A+–C) | France |
| FSC / PEFC | Forest management, chain of custody | Certification (pass) | Global |
| EPD | Measured life-cycle impacts | Verified declaration — no pass mark | Global |
These certify whole buildings, not products. They matter to manufacturers for one reason: their credits are why specifiers ask you for EPDs, emission classes and chain-of-custody certificates. All the major systems now embed life-cycle assessment and embodied carbon.
| Scheme | Origin / reach | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| BREEAM | UK (BRE) · international | The world's first building rating system (1990). Ratings from Pass to Outstanding. Materials credits reward EPD-backed life-cycle data and responsible sourcing. BREEAM also runs through national scheme operators with locally adapted criteria — BREEAM-NOR in Norway, BREEAM-SE in Sweden, BREEAM-NL in the Netherlands — while other countries use BREEAM International. As with DGNB, the national variants share the framework but differ in detail, so a product data request from a BREEAM-NOR project may not match what a UK BREEAM project asks for. |
| LEED | US (USGBC) · the most global brand | Certified to Platinum. LEED v5 (2025) significantly strengthens embodied and whole-life carbon requirements, pushing more EPD demand into supply chains. |
| DGNB (Germany) | Germany · growing internationally | Performance-based, with LCA as a core criterion from the start. Criteria versions iterate — 2020 International, 2023 domestic German, with 2025/26 updates including a new international version aligned with EN 15978:2025, EU Taxonomy and Level(s), plus a minimum quality level (QL0) for materials and products. Adapted versions also operate in Austria and Switzerland. |
| DGNB Denmark | Denmark · national scheme | Denmark adopted DGNB as its national certification, run by Green Building Council Denmark with Danish-adapted criteria — and it dominates the Danish market. Related to but not identical with the German system: a data request from a Danish DGNB project will not necessarily match a German one. Denmark's building regulations also mandate whole-life carbon LCA with limit values for new buildings, which makes Danish EPD demand among the strongest in Europe regardless of certification. |
| QNG | Germany · federal quality seal | Rising fast because money is attached: QNG (PLUS / PREMIUM) is the gateway to federal funding for climate-friendly construction, and it sets binding life-cycle carbon limit values. Conformity is typically demonstrated through recognised systems such as DGNB. If you supply the German market, QNG-driven data requests are already reaching manufacturers. |
| WELL | US (IWBI) · international | Focused on occupant health and wellbeing rather than environmental impact. Low-emission interior products (see M1, EMICODE and ecolabels above) support its air quality features. |
| Passivhaus | Germany (PHI) · international | Strictly an energy performance standard, not a broad sustainability certification — but one of the most recognised names in low-energy construction. |
| National systems | Various | HQE (France), Miljöbyggnad (Sweden), BNB (German public buildings), Green Star (Australia), CASBEE (Japan). If you export, expect product data requests shaped by whichever system dominates the destination market. |
A simplification, but a useful one. "Expected" means specification without it is difficult; "differentiators" reward products that go further.
| Market | Effectively expected | Common differentiators |
|---|---|---|
| Germany | EMICODE for flooring-adjacent products; EPDs for DGNB/QNG projects; FSC or PEFC for timber | Blue Angel, natureplus, C2C |
| France | VOC label (A+–C, mandatory); FSC/PEFC | HQE project alignment, EU Ecolabel where available |
| Sweden | BVB or SundaHus entry; FSC/PEFC | Nordic Swan, Miljöbyggnad project fit |
| Finland | M1 for interior products | Nordic Swan, RTS environmental tools |
| Denmark | EPDs (regulatory LCA demand); DGNB Denmark project data | Nordic Swan, low-carbon documentation |
| Norway | EPDs (strong EPD culture); BREEAM-NOR project data | Swan, low-emission documentation |
| UK | BREEAM project data; responsible sourcing for materials; FSC/PEFC | C2C, verified EPDs |
| US / international | LEED project data; FSC frequently named specifically | Declare, C2C, low-emission certificates |
If your company touches products outside building materials — or your customers' questionnaires do — these are the general product labels you will actually encounter. Mainstream only:
| Label | What it covers | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| OEKO-TEX Standard 100 | Textiles tested for harmful substances | The default consumer trust mark for textiles; product-level testing, not sustainability of production |
| GOTS | Organic textiles, fibre to finished product | Stricter than OEKO-TEX: organic fibre content plus environmental and social criteria along the chain |
| EU Energy Label | Energy-using products (A–G scale) | Mandatory, not voluntary — the most seen product label in Europe |
| Energy Star | Energy-efficient appliances and electronics | US-government-backed; global brand recognition |
| EPEAT | Electronics (IT hardware) sustainability rating | Bronze/Silver/Gold; standard requirement in large IT procurement |
| TCO Certified | IT products, sustainability and social criteria | Strong in European public procurement |
| Fairtrade | Social and economic criteria for commodities | The most recognised social certification with consumers |
| B Corp | Whole-company social and environmental performance | Rising fast — but certifies the company, not any product; using it as a product claim is exactly what EmpCo scrutinises |
| Product carbon footprint labels | Declared CO₂e per product | Growing category; note that offset-based "carbon neutral" labels are banned in EU consumer marketing from September 2026 |
Supplier questionnaires ask for these constantly, so it is worth understanding what they actually are — because the two groups in the table below work completely differently.
A management system is a documented way of running part of your company: written policies, defined responsibilities, measurable objectives, standard processes, internal audits and regular management reviews, organised in a plan-do-check-act cycle. Certification means an accredited certification body has audited your organisation and confirmed the system conforms to the standard — typically on a three-year certificate cycle with annual surveillance audits.
Two things follow from that. First, the certificate belongs to the organisation and scope on the certificate, not to products. Second, conformity is not performance: ISO 14001, for example, requires you to identify environmental impacts, commit to legal compliance and continual improvement, and manage the process — it sets no emission limits and guarantees no environmental outcome. A company with mediocre environmental performance and a well-run system can hold ISO 14001 legitimately.
The second group are not certifications at all — they are rulebooks. ISO 14040/14044 define how to conduct an LCA, ISO 14067 how to quantify a product carbon footprint, ISO 14025 the rules for EPDs, ISO 14064 how to build and verify an organisational GHG inventory. You follow them and your work can be verified against them, but there is no such thing as an "ISO 14040 certified company" — a claim you nonetheless see with some regularity.
| Standard | What it certifies | Type |
|---|---|---|
| ISO 9001 | Quality management system | Management system |
| ISO 14001 | Environmental management system | Management system |
| ISO 45001 | Occupational health and safety management | Management system |
| ISO 50001 | Energy management system | Management system |
| ISO 14040 / 14044 | How to conduct a life cycle assessment | Methodology — not certifiable as a badge |
| ISO 14025 | Rules for Type III environmental declarations — the basis of EPDs | Methodology |
| ISO 14067 | Product carbon footprint quantification | Methodology |
| ISO 14064 | Organisational GHG inventories and verification | Methodology / verification |
Almost every screening system and declaration request on this page traces back to a small set of EU chemical rules. If you understand these four, the questionnaires stop being mysterious.
The EU's core chemicals regulation: Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of CHemicals. Three parts matter most to product manufacturers. The Candidate List of SVHCs (substances of very high concern) is updated roughly twice a year — and under Article 33, if an article contains more than 0.1% by weight of a candidate-list substance, you have a legal duty to inform your customers. Annex XVII contains outright restrictions on specific substances in specific uses. When BVB or SundaHus asks for your full chemical content declaration, REACH data is the backbone of what they are assessing.
CMR stands for carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic for reproduction. Under the EU CLP classification, substances are grouped as category 1A (known human effects), 1B (presumed, based on animal data) or 2 (suspected). "Free from CMR 1A/1B substances" is one of the most common lines in supplier questionnaires, because those two categories trigger obligations across multiple frameworks — including the EU Taxonomy criteria below. Knowing the CMR classification of everything in your recipe is baseline homework.
The Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive applies to electrical and electronic equipment, restricting ten substances including lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, and certain flame retardants and phthalates. It reaches construction the moment a product contains electronics — motorised doors, access control, sensors, smart building components. For in-scope equipment, RoHS conformity is part of CE marking, and "RoHS compliant" claims should be limited to products the directive actually covers.
The EU Taxonomy's generic "do no significant harm" criteria for pollution prevention and control are set out in Appendix C of the Climate Delegated Act. They reference several EU chemicals and product-safety regimes and include conditions, thresholds and exceptions. Which evidence is relevant depends on the economic activity, product and wording of the customer's request.
Developers and investors may therefore ask suppliers for an Appendix C declaration. Treat it as a compliance document, not marketing copy: confirm the exact criteria requested, check the product's bill of materials, safety data and supplier declarations, and obtain specialist advice where the product or evidence is unclear.
Embodied carbon is becoming the number specifiers compare. Get a free, transparent estimate for your product with FastLCA — a useful first step before commissioning a verified EPD.
Open LCA calculator → EPD guide →