natureplus
natureplus is the name of an environmental seal of approval issued by the non-profit association of the same name. The organization sees itself as a non-governmental organization NGO and is a civil society interest group .
Emergence
In the 1990s, an abundance of environmental quality labels confused not only consumers, but also building material retailers , among other things, when it came to advice on environmentally friendly, health-friendly (and sustainable ) building materials.
Efforts by individual companies to bring more scientific knowledge into the assessment of natural building materials in particular (especially with the requirements for transparent, published criteria, standards with regard to environmental compatibility , health compatibility , usability ), for example, prompted the building materials group Raab Karcher together with the recognized Cologne-based ECO environmental institute in 1998 introduce new valuation for a trading house; other trading houses ( Hagebau together with TÜV Munich) followed this idea.
In 1999, on the initiative of the specialist trade, a number of label agencies came together - at that time the ECO Environment Institute in Cologne, TÜV Environment Munich, IUG Fulda, IBO Vienna and the Bremen Environment Institute - to make this type of product selection standardized, comprehensible and transparent, above all but also to raise a controlled level.
In 2002 the first natural building materials were awarded the international “natureplus” quality mark .
The auditor and the awarding authority are separate institutions; the latter are supported and controlled by environmental and consumer associations. In 2007 the BUND was chairman.
Since then, numerous wooden house manufacturers and building tradesmen have committed themselves to increasingly using natureplus-certified products. The two federal associations of the building materials trade (BDB) and the building and home improvement stores (BHB) as well as the trade association for natural building materials Ökoplus support this quality mark.
Award guidelines and award criteria
The prerequisite for a “building material” to be awarded the natureplus quality mark is compliance with the basic guidelines from 2011, which apply to all products. The manufacturer must precisely declare all input materials, provide a full declaration of the input materials according to the EU Cosmetics Regulation according to decreasing mass fraction, provide a certificate of origin and the proportion of renewable and / or environmentally friendly mineral raw materials (including water) should be maximized in the products. The use of petrochemical substances must be minimized to what is technically necessary and they may only be used as additives .
As a rule, the proportion of renewable and mineral raw materials should be at least 85% of the product. In the case of renewable raw materials, sustainable raw material extraction means
- Avoid the use of pesticides, chemicals and artificial fertilizers as much as possible
- Avoidance of raw materials from unsustainable plantation management
- no use of raw materials from overexploitation (e.g. non-certified tropical timber).
- As broad as possible support on recognized quality systems of organic agriculture and sustainable forestry
The laboratory tests contain the limit values set by the association for emissions of the ingredients used ( pesticides , VOC- volatile organic compounds , formaldehyde, etc.) and are divided into individual product groups in which the criteria and requirements for awarding the quality label are regulated.
- RL0100 Insulation materials made from renewable raw materials
- RL0200 wood and wood-based materials
- RL0300 thermal insulation composite system
- RL0400 Insulation materials made from expanded, expanded or foamed mineral raw materials
- RL0500 roof tiles and roof tiles
- RL0600 wall paints
- RL0700 surface coatings made from renewable raw materials (lacquers, glazes, oils, waxes)
- RL0800 Plasters, mortars and mineral adhesives
- RL0900 adhesives made from renewable raw materials
- RL1000 drywall
- RL1100 masonry and mantle stones
- RL1200 Resilient floor coverings
- RL1300 Mineral wall and floor coverings
- RL1400 textile floor coverings
- RL1500 wooden window
- RL1600 doors
- RL1700 seals made from renewable raw materials
- RL1800 wallpaper
- RL5000 basic guidelines (chemicals, wood origin, nature conservation in raw material extraction)
Members
The main members of natureplus are - in addition to numerous manufacturers and dealers of construction products - in particular:
- Testing institutes: Bremer Umweltinstitut GmbH, eco-Institut GmbH, IBO Austrian Institute for Building Biology and Ecology GmbH, Indicator GmbH, IUG Institute for Environment and Health, NIBE Nederlands Instituut voor Bouwbiologie en Ecologie bv, TÜV Süd Industrie Service GmbH
- Environmental associations: Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation Germany , Fondation Ökofonds (Oeko-Zenter Lëtzebuerg asbl), WWF Switzerland
- Building biologists
- the union IG Bauen-Agrar-Umwelt
See also
Web links
- Official website
- The APUG study, among other things, offers a meaningful overview of the ecological quality marks for building materials and their informative value for consumers. (PDF; 1.32 MB)
- Information from the Agency for Renewable Raw Materials e. V. on natural insulation materials
- Award guidelines and criteria for the natureplus seal
Individual evidence
- ↑ Basic guidelines (PDF; 224 kB).
- ↑ Criteria and requirements for the award of the natureplus eco-label .
- ↑ Member list of natureplus (accessed on January 4, 2016) ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
