BREEAM Cites FloorScore®

BREEAM, one of the world’s foremost environmental assessment programs for buildings, has cited FloorScore® certified flooring products as eligible for credits under BREEAM’s indoor air quality requirements. FloorScore, a voluntary, independent certification program, tests vinyl (including LVT and VCT), linoleum, laminate, wood, ceramic and rubber flooring and certifies that they meet the emissions requirements of California Section 01350.

The FloorScore program is administered by the Resilient Floor Covering Institute, a nonprofit industry organization representing more than 95% of resilient flooring marketed in North America.  The certification standard for FloorScore was developed by SCS Global Services – a leader in third-party sustainability certification, auditing, testing and standards development – in consultation with RFCI and with multi-stakeholder input. Major resilient flooring manufacturers around the world certify their products under the FloorScore program, which involves product testing by independent laboratories and third-party certification by SCS. A list of FloorScore-certified products is available at www.rfci.com/floorscore and in the certified green products guide at scsglobalservices.com.

BREEAM, which stands for Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method, has certified 425,000 buildings around the world since its launch in 1990.  BREEAM addresses wide-ranging environmental and sustainability issues and enables developers, designers and building managers to document the environmental credentials of their buildings.  The world renowned system uses a straightforward scoring method that is transparent, flexible, easy to understand and supported by evidence-based science and research. 

In addition to BREEAM, several U.S. Green Building Council LEED systems cite FloorScore as an indicator of indoor air quality, including New Construction (NC), Commercial Interiors (CI), Core and Shell (CS), Healthcare (HC), and LEED for Homes.  FloorScore also is included in important environmental rating systems such as the Green Building Initiative’s Green Globes, Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS), Green Guide for Health Care and EPA’s Tools for Schools.

“We are pleased that BREEAM, an environmental rating system recognized globally, has named FloorScore as an accepted certification program,” said Dean Thompson, RFCI president.  “The resilient flooring industry is continually working to reduce the environmental impact of its products, and RFCI is pleased to be involved with a world renowned, third-party certification program that provides accountability and transparency.”   

For information on FloorScore, visit www.rfci.com. 

More on FloorScore, SCS and RFCI

FloorScore is a voluntary, independent certification program that tests and certifies hard surface flooring and associated products for compliance with the indoor air emissions criteria of California Section 01350 (www.dhs.ca.gov/iaq). First adopted in California, these stringent indoor air quality criteria have become recognized internationally.  The FloorScore program is administered by the Resilient Floor Covering Institute (www.rfci.com). RFCI is a nonprofit industry trade association that represents manufacturers of more than 95% of all resilient flooring marketed throughout North America.  RFCI has helped the resilient flooring industry stay at the forefront of sustainability, leading the development of FloorScore as well as the third-party multi-attribute ANSI/NSF 332 Sustainability Assessment for Resilient Floor Coverings, industry-average Environmental Product Declarations, and Product Transparency Declarations.

The FloorScore standard was developed by SCS Global Services (scsglobalservices.com) in collaboration with RFCI following several years of extensive testing. SCS is an internationally recognized third-party certifier that follows established and recognized guidelines to ensure objectivity. SCS has developed global standards and certification programs for over three decades designed to encourage the highest levels of environmental improvement, social accountability and product performance.

More on BREEAM

More than 425,000 buildings have been certified to BREEAM and some two million have been registered for assessment since BREEAM was first launched in 1990. BREEAM sets the standard for best practices in sustainable building design, construction and operation and has become one of the most comprehensive and widely recognized measures of a building's environmental performance. It encourages designers, clients and others to think about low carbon and low impact design, minimizing the energy demands created by a building before considering energy efficiency and low carbon technologies.

A BREEAM assessment uses recognized measures of performance, which are set against established benchmarks, to evaluate a building’s specification, design, construction and use. The measures used represent a broad range of categories and criteria from energy to ecology. They include aspects related to energy and water use, the internal environment (health and well-being), pollution, transport, materials, waste, ecology and management processes.