If you're renting out office, retail, or hotel space, building occupants concerned over air quality will no longer settle for the same-old standards. They want cleaner air, sanitized surfaces, and new paint. Occupants used to be satisfied with a fresh coat of paint. Todays's green building occupants also want to know the building materials are environmentally sustainable. Now more than ever, environmental standards can improve your building's marketability.
These are the nationally recognized certifications to strive for when having commercial painting work performed to stand out as a green building.
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
For green building standards, LEED is like the Oscar of the construction industry. The U.S. Green Building Council bestows LEED certification on companies that meet its environmentally sustainable construction standards. Higher levels of LEED certification are awarded for meeting LEED's standards across different categories (i.e., certified, silver, gold, platinum).
For painting, you can gain LEED's credits for ensuring the paints used by your commercial painting contractors meet the standards for:
- low emitting materials (volatile organic compounds (VOC) limits)
- lifecycle information disclosure
- material ingredients disclosure.
Master Painters Institute (MPI) Certification
When it comes to choosing the commercial paint products to use, MPI is the sustainable paint product bible. Products are rigorously tested over 300 standards. Your commercial painting contractors should use paints that are certified X-Green by MPI. The manufacturers ensure their paints meet:
- maximum 50 g/l VOC limit.
- CHPS emission requirements.
You can verify your paints are MPI safe by checking the approved products and manufacturers lists. For paints to be considered environmentally friendly by MPI, they must also meet the LEED's standards.
Green Globes Certification
Still confused over which paints to use for your commercial painting job? Ensuring your building keeps up with national, state, and third-party environmental standards can seem like an overwhelming task. The Green Globes verification process is designed to provide you with guidance and support on improvements to bring your building into compliance.
Administered by the Green Building Initiative (GBI), the Green Globes certification is earned by commercial buildings that meet certain environmental standards.
Your building will be assessed for:
- energy conservation.
- lower water consumption.
- responsible use of materials.
You will receive a rating of one-to-four globes after third-party verification.
By ensuring your commercial painting work meets these third-party verification standards, you can display your new certifications proudly. With these three certifications backing your environmental standards claims, your building occupants can be assured of an environmentally safe and comfortable environment.
To learn more about commercial painting, contact a local painter near you.
