Understanding VOC Emissions in BIFMA E3-2024: New Compounds and Compliance Updates
BIFMA (the Building and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association) has released an update to the ANSI/BIFMA e3-2019 Furniture Sustainability Standard. The updated standard “seeks to promote increasingly more sustainable products by promoting the selection of responsible materials and considering manufacturing and human resource processes.” The standard contains three primary sections that assist in meeting this end: Environmental Impacts, Material Health Impacts, and Social Impacts. With these three sections BIFMA refines its level™ multi-attribute certification program with new tiering requirements in e3-2024.
MAS Certified Green ® clients will not see a noticeable change in efforts to demonstrate and certify that their furniture and furnishings products are low VOC-emitting materials. The Low Emitting Furniture criteria in Section 7.6 has changed only in the addition of four new target compounds — MTBE, carbon tetrachloride, 1,1-dichloroethylene, and isophorone, and BIFMA made minor changes to the maximum concentrations and emissions factors of several other compounds. The target chemicals in ANSI/BIFMA e3-2024 now match the target chemicals in the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Standard Method v1.2 CREL list. Both the BIFMA and CDPH criteria are used by the MAS Certified Green ® Program as the base criteria for certifying furniture and building products.
MAS can test your furniture and furnishing products for BIFMA VOC emissions compliance and can also provide assistance with the Section 7.4 Chemical Assessment requirements via our Chemistry Group. Contact us for more information.
