Making Sense Of Green Certifications - GreenGuard, Floorscore And More - My Chemical-Free House

Here are the most common certifications for assessing a product’s effect on indoor air quality and what these labels really tell us about the off-gassing and toxicity of the products.

Table of contents

1. GreenGuard and GreenGuard Gold Certifications
   1. What Does GreenGuard Gold Certified Indicate for Formaldehyde Levels?
   2. What Does GreenGuard Mean for Assessing Safety?
   3. Downsides of GreenGuard Certification for Products
2. Floorscore Certification
   1. What Floorscore Doesn’t Include
   2. How Does Floorscore Compare to GreenGuard
3. Green Label Plus
   1. Is Green Label Plus a Useful Certification?
4. Green Seal
5. OSHA
6. CARB
7. CertiPUR
   1. What Else is Regulated by CertiPUR?
      1. Flame Retardants
      2. Formaldehyde
      3. Other VOCs
      4. Phthalates
8. GOTS Certified
9. OEKO-TEX Standard 100 Certified
10. GOLS Certified
11. Why No Certification is Useful for Vinyl Flooring
12. What Should the Chemically Sensitive Look For?
    1. Zero-VOC
    2. No Flame Retardants
    3. No Toxic Metals
    4. Regulations on Chemicals That Are Semi-VOCs
13. Products I Recommend

GreenGuard and GreenGuard Gold Certifications

GreenGuard has two levels of certification that measure VOC levels in products.

GreenGuard allows – 500 μg/m3 total VOCs.

GreenGuard Gold allows – 220 μg/m3 total VOCs.

(GreenGuard Children and Schools which also measured for phthalates as well as VOCs, no longer exists). 

For reference, the average house has a total VOC count of mean = 150 μg/m3 and median = 91 μg/m3, and the outdoor or “background rate” is around 2-5 times lower than indoor levels.

GreenGuard Gold certification is the most useful of all the healthy product certifications out there for VOCs.

What Does GreenGuard Gold Certified Indicate for Formaldehyde Levels?

If you look through the individual levels of VOCs and their limits, you can dig in even deeper.

The formaldehyde level allowed in GreenGuard Gold certified products is extremely low – just 9 μg/m3 or 7.3 ppb (parts per billion).

I have a post that contains a reference level table for formaldehyde. Outdoor urban air contains 1.5- 47 ppb. GreenGuard Gold formaldehyde levels are lower than the outdoor air in many places.

If you are looking at something like laminate or engineered flooring or cabinets and they meet Gold levels, that is a great indicator for low formaldehyde.

Formaldehyde levels allowed with standard GreenGuard are significantly higher at 50 ppb (parts per billion) or 61.3 μg/m3 (Compared to GreenGuard Gold 0.0073 ppm).

What Does GreenGuard Mean for Assessing Safety?

GreenGuard levels keep overall VOCs below limits that would adversely affect the health (of non-compromised individuals) based on the current state of knowledge.

However, for extremely sensitive people who are already compromised by toxin exposure, the level of VOCs in an average house may not be unacceptable, so even GreenGuard Gold levels may not be tolerable, especially when at the upper limits. Laminate flooring for example is not suitable for many people with chemical sensitivities, but engineered wood is.

My posts provide guides on the most important areas to focus on in a healthy house: Flooring, Cabinets, Insulation, Glues & Caulks, Paint, and Sealers.

Products, of course, are cumulative in a space. So it is important, especially when building new, to keep each material as low in off-gassing as possible.

The GreenGuard tests attempt to show “real life” levels of VOCs, that might be expected in a regular-sized room after 7 days. (Source)

Downsides of GreenGuard Certification for Products

One tricky aspect of GreenGuard is that because it states that the levels are below the given threshold, you don’t know if the product is 220 or 0 μg/m3.

You still have to contact the companies to find out what the VOC level is – the problem is once they have this certification they don’t disclose the exact levels.

Many products like quartz countertops which claimed zero VOC before they were certified (and are probably very close to zero), now have GreenGuard Gold certification, and therefore we can’t know their exact off-gassing levels.

Although this is the best certification right now for VOCs, it’s made things a little more difficult for very sensitive folks. We need to advocate for companies to release the actual results of the testing.

The certification does not limit sem-VOCs, like phthalates, biocides, and flame retardants. Nor heavy metals.

Note: GreenGuard measures the emissions and not the content in the material so these numbers cannot be converted to g/l (grams per liter).

Floorscore Certification

Floorscore – Floorscore has three tiers that you will see on the certificates: 0.5 mg/m3 or less, between 0.5 and 5 mg/m3, or 5 mg/m3 or more. (I’ve never actually seen the 5 mg or more category).

Floorscore certificates will indicate which range the product falls under.

There is no upper limit for total VOCs, they go by upper limits on each of the 35 Volatile Organic Compounds specified by the California Standard Method for VOC Emissions Testing and Evaluation (Standard Method V1.2), otherwise known as CA Section 01350.

The allowable limits of each VOC can be seen in the table on page 37 here.

What Floorscore Doesn’t Include

Chemical substances (on the CREL or other lists) that are not VOCs (e.g., metals, acids, semi-VOC plasticizers (eg, phthalates), semi-VOC pesticides/biocides) are not required to be analyzed under this Standard Method.

Only 35 VOCs are tested for.

How Does Floorscore Compare to GreenGuard

When a Floorscore certificate indicates total VOCs (TVOC) of 0.5 mg/m3, this is the same level as standard GreenGuard (not Gold).

Therefore, if a product has GreenGuard Gold instead of Floorscore 0.5 mg/m3, the certification could indicate it off-gasses a significantly lower level of VOCs.

If a company uses Floorscore, they will use this across the board. It doesn’t help to differentiate which products are lower in off-gassing.

You can see this dilemma in action when Mohawk bought Pergo floors and the laminates went from GreenGuard Gold to Floorscore certified.

Mohawk makes many other flooring lines that may not meet GreenGuard Gold; that could be why they use Floorscore across the board.

A flooring should certainly be able to achieve the lowest tier of less than 0.5 mg/m3, in my opinion, which is quite a high level of VOCs. And almost all floors do.

It’s rare to see a flooring in the category above that, though I have seen rubber gym floors in their above 0.5 mg – 5 mg category in the past.

Green Label Plus

Green Label Plus – Certifies “very low” emissions on carpets, according to what they think is very low.

They test for 35 compounds listed under the California Department of Public Health’s Section 1350.

Each product category also includes additional compounds for certification, six for carpet, two for carpet pads, and seven for adhesives.

They meet or exceed California’s indoor quality standards for low-emitting products used in commercial settings such as schools and office buildings. 

Is Green Label Plus a Useful Certification?

Here is the list of their levels of VOCs. I would find these upper limit levels to be too high for people with chemical sensitivities.

And, you would be hard-pressed to find a carpet in North America that can’t meet these limits.

This certification is made by the industry and is not helpful to me personally.

Here is my list of carpets that can do better than this.

Green Seal

Green Seal – Follows CARB (legal limits in California) levels of VOCs. More on CARB below.

For example, for paint, a flat paint needs to be 50 g/l VOC or less.

This is not necessarily a low enough level for most people with chemical sensitivities.

As of March 2025, Green Seal prohibits PFAS in paint. But products already certified to the previous standard have until March 11, 2027, to comply.

They also prohibit APEs.

OSHA

OSHA is a Government Guideline – CA OSHA has the strictest government guidelines for VOCs in buildings. Here are their limits on VOCs.

While CARB and OSHA are definitely steps in the right direction, they promote levels of VOCs that will not cause adverse effects in healthy people.

These levels may not be acceptable for the extremely sensitive.

CARB

CARB – The California Air Resource Board establishes legally allowable levels of VOCs for California (which usually get adopted in any nationally distributed product).

They establish a maximum VOC content for consumer products sold in California. These are not necessarily “low VOC” in my definition.

For example, low-VOC paint means less than 50 g/l, while CARB legal allowable levels for paint are 100-300 g/l. (Note: zero-VOC means less than 5g/l).

CARB II formaldehyde levels are as follows:

Products measured include those containing hardwood plywood, medium-density fiberboard (MDF), and particleboard (like furniture and cabinets) – these are pressed wood products sold for indoor use. It does not include exterior sheathing products like exterior plywood and OSB.

CARB II Formaldehyde Limits are:

• Hardwood Plywood – 0.05 ppm (parts per million)
• Medium-Density Fiberboard (MDF) 0.11 ppm
• Thin MDF 0.13 ppm
• Particleboard 0.09 ppm

My post on pressed wood goes more into levels of formaldehyde and has a table that provides reference levels.

When a product says they meet CARB II all they are saying is they are complying with the law in California.

CARB limits have been extremely useful in mostly eliminating the use of the more toxic urea-formaldehyde in household wood products. A major shift to phenol-formaldehyde which off-gasses faster and at lower levels was a huge accomplishment.

TSCA Title VI formaldehyde levels are the same as CARB levels.

CertiPUR

CertiPUR – This certification was created by the polyurethane industry to certify polyurethane foam.

All polyurethane foam should be able to meet this level of 0.5 ppm (or 500 μg/m3 total VOCs).

This level may be too high for most chemically sensitive people.

They would not give out info on how long polyurethane foam takes to completely off-gas.

Most people are OK with a regular foam camping mat (my top picks reviewed here), mattress, or couch after some off-gassing time. How long it takes to off-gas really depends on your sensitivities here, some people say it needs a few days and other need years.

Memory foam is higher in VOCs than basic polyurethane foam. My post on Mattresses goes into more detail.

While this certification provides a maximum level of VOCs (500 μg/m3), some polyurethane foam products can be as low as 72 μg/m3, which would be an acceptable level for many people.

I actually prefer polyurethane over natural latex which I explain in my posts on beds.

What Else is Regulated by CertiPUR?

Flame Retardants

This originally certified that foam is made without PBDE flame retardants (even when those were already banned).

Later they added that they are also made without TDCPP, TDBPP, TEPA or TCEP (Tris) when those started being removed from most foam. These flame retardants are banned in some states which has caused the whole US industry to shift.

They also ban antimony.

The full list of banned flame retardants is here.

They really should lead the way to eliminate all toxic flame retardants (which I discuss in my post on Flame Retardants). However, most furniture foam sold in the US these days does not contain flame retardants.

Formaldehyde

They say they are “made without formaldehyde,” but the allowable limit for formaldehyde in the final foam product is actually 100 μg/m3 (compared to the GreenGuard Gold limit of 9 μg/m3).

Yet polyurethane is not made with formaldehyde. It’s possible they are allowing for formaldehyde donors, and that in some cases, such as when biocides are added, the final product could still contain formaldehyde up to 100 μg/m3!

Other VOCs

Other VOCs that are measured in the testing (and therefore are likely to be in at least some foam used in mattresses and furniture) include benzene, toluene, styrene, and aromatic hydrocarbons.

Phthalates

They used to say made without prohibited phthalates but now they say phthalates are banned if over 0.01%.

Mercury, Lead, and Other Heavy Metals

While lead is not commonly found in polyurethane foam, it can be.

At the time of updating this article in 2024, Certipur states that the foam is “made without lead”.

However, they do allow up to 90 ppm lead, which is below the level allowed in children’s toys as well as 75 ppm Cadmium, 60 ppm Chromium, and 60 ppm Mercury. (source)

Unfortunately, Certipur-certified foam did recently test higher than that for lead (source), so it’s not clear how diligently they are testing the foam.

GOTS Certified

GOTS Certified Organic is a great certification to identify fabrics that are not only organic but safe from chemical processing.

Whenever possible, I go for GOTS Certified products. This certification was definitely a step in the right direction. GOTS Certified means (quoted from their website):

“A textile product carrying the GOTS label grade ‘organic’ must contain a minimum of 95% certified organic fibers, whereas a product with the label grade ‘made with organic’ must contain a minimum of 70% certified organic fibers.

At all processing stages, organic fiber products must be separated from conventional fiber products and must be clearly identified.

All chemical inputs (e.g., dyes, auxiliaries, and process chemicals) must be evaluated and meet basic requirements on toxicity and biodegradability.

Ban on toxic heavy metals, formaldehyde, aromatic solvents, functional nano particles, genetically modified organisms (GMO), and their enzymes.

The use of synthetic sizing agents is restricted; knitting and weaving oils must not contain heavy metals.

Bleaches must be based on oxygen (no chlorine bleaching).

Azo dyes that release carcinogenic amine compounds are prohibited.

Discharge printing methods using aromatic solvents and plastisol printing methods using phthalates and PVC are prohibited.

Restrictions for accessories (e.g., no PVC, nickel, or chrome permitted, all polyester must be post-consumer recycled from 2014 onwards).

Packaging material must not contain PVC. From 1 January 2014 onwards, any paper or cardboard used in packaging material, hang tags, swing tags, etc. must be post-consumer recycled or certified in accordance with FSC or PEFC.”

All PFCs are prohibited.

OEKO-TEX Standard 100 Certified

Oeko-Tex is the next best certification for textiles after GOTS.

The levels of chemicals allowed in Oeko-Tex certified products depends on what type of product it is.

There are different limits for household products versus clothes. The strictest standard is for baby clothes.

• Formaldehyde must be undetectable in clothes made for babies (but is allowed to some level in other textiles).
• Heavy metals, pesticide residue, chlorinated phenols, phthalates, organic tin, other harmful chemical residues, harmful dyes, PAHs, solvent residues, are all limited.
• PFAS are not allowed in baby clothes, and by January 1, 2024, will essentially be banned in all product categories including sofas.
• Certain flame retardant chemicals are not allowed – from Tris to Boric Acid (Annex 5, page 32).

GOLS Certified

GOLS certification means a product must contain more than 95% certified organic raw natural latex.

The GOLS standard features permissible limits for harmful substances, emission test requirements, and polymer and filler percentages.

It prohibits polyurethane foam and some flame retardants, colorants, and allergenic dyes. It requires low emission of VOCs including formaldehyde.

I’m not a big fan of natural latex in general, which I explain in this post.

Why No Certification is Useful for Vinyl Flooring

Vinyl plank flooring can off-gas some aldehydes and a few other VOCs, all in extremely low amounts, if it does off-gas at all.

However, the main concern in vinyl flooring is the plasticizers. None of the above certifications are measuring or limiting plasticizers by volume, by type/toxicity, or by how stable they are in their chemical bond in the material.

Recycled vinyl can also contain toxic metals and toxic flame retardants – also not accounted for in any flooring certification. Virgin vinyl limits this problem.

My post on vinyl flooring goes into more detail.

What Should the Chemically Sensitive Look For?

Zero-VOC

I like to see products close to 0-VOC for most applications – there are exceptions because there are exempt VOCs (though not that many), and some VOCs flash off so fast that we don’t need to worry about them.

No Flame Retardants

I would like to see a ban on ALL toxic flame retardants – I discuss flame retardants and which products you still find them in in this post. Flame retardants are not classified as VOCs.

No Toxic Metals

I would like to see toxic metals declared and reduced to the most minimal trace level (that is inevitable in natural products and minerals). Many products are actually moving towards toxic metals used as “safer” flame retardants like aluminum-based chemicals or antimicrobials (silver or copper), which is a problem in my opinion.

Regulations on Chemicals That Are Semi-VOCs

Phthalates should be eliminated from household products. Replacement plasticizers need to be disclosed, and we need to know more about their toxicity and leaching from the products.

Most biocides should be disclosed and avoided.

PFAS/PFCs should be avoided, in my opinion.

Products I Recommend

I always choose zero-VOC materials when available. You can find zero-VOC options for wallboards, insulation, siding, sheathing, flooring, paints, caulking, grout, thin set, tiles, beds, furniture, and windows.

Corinne Segura is an InterNACHI-certified Healthy Homes Inspector with certifications in Building Biology, Healthier Materials and Sustainable Buildings, and more. She has 10 years of experience helping others create healthy homes. You can book a consult here.

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