People are spending more and more time indoors. For this reason, the quality of indoor air and the level of emissions given off by materials installed on walls and floors are
becoming increasingly important.
It is true that facades today are increasingly well insulated and window joints hermetically sealed. But the ventilation habits of the buildings’ residents have not been adapted
to the technical progress and the increasingly tight building shell.
Emissions, particularly those from freshly applied paints and coatings, adhesives, sealants and other building materials, can cause the concentration of harmful volatile organic
compounds (VOCs) in the air to rise alarmingly even days after the materials were installed.
For this reason, renowned German flooring adhesives manufacturers decided to develop installation adhesives low in emissions and to aggressively promote them in the market.
They set up GEV, the “Association for Emission-controlled Installation Materials e.V.” to establish a binding groundwork for this endeavour.
Recognizing the needs to provide reliable guidance to consumers, professional craftsmen, planners, architects and retailers regarding the low-emission systems and technologies
available on the market, EMICODE® was established, a registered, impartial classification system for flooring installation materials, and set up GEV as the licensing and supervisory
body for this labelling scheme.
In order to meet the market’s demand for testing additional product types, GEV was renamed in 2007 and is now called “Gemeinschaft Emissionskontrollierte Verlegewerkstoffe,
Klebstoffe und Bauprodukte e.V.” (Association for the Control of Emissions in Products for Flooring Installation, Adhesives and Building Materials).
Today, GEV has evolved into an internationally recognized institution which, thanks to its market-monitoring function, makes a key contribution to consumer and environmental
protection as well as occupational health and safety.
Emission classes
Products that are low in emissions are awarded the EMICODE® EC2 label. This class fulfils the basic requirements for being granted the EMICODE® label.
The highest class EMICODE® EC1 has proven itself over many years as a standard for products that are very low in emissions. The materials awarded this label comply with very
stringent health and environmental requirements.
The premium class EMICODE® EC1PLUS defines the limit of what is technically feasible today. Introduced in 2010, it sets even higher and stricter limit values than category EC1.
