Eco-labels and Cooperations

The Blue Angel (Der Blaue Engel)

The Blue Angel (Der Blaue Engel), the world’s oldest eco-label, is a voluntary German certification for products and services that are environmentally friendly. The label requires products fulfill particularly stringent environmental, health, and performance requirements, including low levels of emissions of organic substances and formaldehyde and the absence of phthalates and carcinogens.

The Blue Angel has been awarded to: 

• norament 926 standard: norament 926, norament 926 arago, norament 926 castello, norament 926 grano, norament 926 kivo, norament 926 pado, norament 926 satura
• norament 928 ed: norament 928 grano ed
• norament 975 LL: norament 975 LL

Cradle to Cradle

Cradle to Cradle is a quality standard that examines the biological and technical regenerative cycle of a product's materials. Against this background, the aim is to develop respectively promote a potentially infinite recycling economy. The rating levels range from Basic to Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum.

Cradle to Cradle Silver has been awarded to:

• norament 926 standard: norament 926, norament 926 arago, norament 926 castello, norament 926 grano, norament 926 kivo, norament 926 pado, norament 926 satura

• norament 926 stairtreads: norament 926 stairtreads, norament 926 arago stairtreads, norament 926 grano stairtreads, norament 926 satura stairtreads

Cradle to Cradle Certified^® is a registered trademark of the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute.

Rating "basis"

• norament 926 standard: norament 926, norament 926 arago, norament 926 castello, norament 926 grano, norament 926 kivo, norament 926 pado, norament 926 satura 
• norament 926 stairtreads: norament 926 stairtreads (pastille), norament 926 arago stairtreads, norament 926 grano stairtreads, norament 926 satura stairtreads
• norament 928 ed: noraplan 928 grano ed  

EPD

nora was the first resilient flooring manufacturer to produce 3rd party verified ISO 14025 and EN 15804 compliant Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs).  Today the company has product specific, type III, EPDs certified by both UL Environment and IBU in accordance with both N. American and European PCRs.  The EPDs include every phase of the product life cycle from the production through to installation, usage and maintenance, right up to the end of the product’s life cycle in the building. 

The noraplan standard and norament standard EPDs apply to a broad range of nora floor coverings, specifically:

• norament 926 standard: norament 926, norament 926 arago, norament 926 castello, norament 926 grano, norament 926 kivo, norament 926 pado, norament 926 satura
• norament 926 stairtreads: norament 926 stairtreads, norament 926 arago stairtreads, norament 926 grano stairtreads, norament 926 satura stairtreads
• norament 928 ed: norament 928 grano ed

GREENGUARD Gold

GREENGUARD Gold is an emissions certification that includes health based criteria for chemicals to ensure that products are acceptable for use in environments such as schools and healthcare facilities.  GREENGUARD Gold is in compliance with the California Department of Health (CDPH) Standard Specification 01350 (CA 01350).  In addition to testing for emissions limits on the 35 VOCs required by CA 01350, the GREENGUARD Gold certification limits an additional 330 VOCs and total VOC (TVOC) emissions.  GREENGUARD Gold is broadly recognized and accepted by sustainable building programs and building codes around the world, including the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Building Rating System. 

Most nora floor coverings have Greenguard Gold Certification

• norament 926: norament 926, norament 926 arago, norament 926 castello, norament 926 grano, norament 926 kivo, norament 926 pado, norament 926 satura
• norament 926 nTx: norament 926 arago nTx, norament 926 castello nTx, norament 926 grano nTx, norament 926 satura nTx
• norament 928: norament 928 grano ed
• norament 992: norament 992, norament 992 grano
  
  

Global Green Tag

Global Green Tag is a third party, green product rating and certification system, underpinned by scientific and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) processes. The program assesses products against worst case business as usual products in the same functional category and with the same functional purpose.

The following nora floor coverings have achieved the top rating, GreenRate Level A:

• norament 926 standard: norament 926, norament 926 arago, norament 926 castello, norament 926 grano, norament 926 kivo, norament 926 pado, norament 926 satura

HPD

nora is a member of the Health Product Declaration^® Collaborative (HPDC), a not-for-profit, customer-led, member organization committed to the continuous improvement of the building industry’s environmental and health performance through transparency and innovation. The HPDC created, supports and advances the HPD Open Standard, a format that enables accurate, reliable and consistent reporting of building product content and associated health information, through a consensus-based, stakeholder process. 

HPDs provide full disclosure of the potential chemicals of concern in products by comparing product ingredients to a set of priority “hazard” lists based on the GreenScreen for Safer Chemicals and additional lists from other government agencies.  Since they are hazard based, they only present the hazards of individual raw ingredients and not the potential risk of exposure to or impact from the individual raw ingredients or the finished product.  Published HPDs are available to the public at no charge in the HPD Public Repository. 

HPDs qualify for numerous green building rating systems, including LEED v4, WELL, and Google Portico.

nora has published HPDs for the below norament standard and noraplan standard floor coverings.  The nora LEED v4 contribution chart and applicable product specific letters have been updated accordingly:

• norament 926 standard: norament 926, norament 926 arago, norament 926 castello, norament 926 grano, norament 926 kivo, norament 926 pado, norament 926 satura
• norament 926 stairtreads: norament 926 stairtreads, norament 926 arago stairtreads, norament 926 grano stairtreads, norament 926 satura stairtreads
  

Indoor Air Comfort Gold

The Indoor Air Comfort GOLD certification combines the most relevant emission specifications and requirements in Europe in one certification.  It includes the VOC requirements of the most important European quality seals, including AgBB (Germany), Blue Angel (Germany), A Class (France), M1 (Finland), and the eco-label (Austria). Indoor Air Comfort GOLD certification is widely recognized and accepted by numerous building certification systems around the world, including DGNB, LEED v4, and BREEAM.

nora has achieved Indoor Air Comfort GOLD for its flooring systems (primer, adhesive, flooring) for standard range of:

• norament 926 standard: norament 926, norament 926 arago, norament 926 castello, norament 926 grano, norament 926 kivo, norament 926 pado, norament 926 satura
• norament 926 nTx: norament 926 arago nTx, norament 926 castello nTx, norament 926 grano nTx, norament 926 satura nTx
• norament 928: norament 928 grano ed
  

Transportation solutions:

• noraplan 931: noraplan^® stone plus mobil (931), noraplan^® plus mobil (931), noraplan^® effect spezial mobil (931), noraplan^® eco mobil (931), noraplan^® stone mobil (931), noraplan^® effect mobil (931), noraplan^® ultra grip mobil (931), noraplan^® grip plus mobil (931), noraplan^® grip mobil (931), noraplan^® voya mobil (931)
• norament^® 920: norament^® 920

The Austrian Eco-label is awarded by the Austrian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Waste Management.  It guarantees environmentally friendly products and services.  Certified floor coverings exert as small an impact as possible on the environment and human health over their whole life cycle.

The Austrian Eco-label has been awarded to:

 

• norament 926 standard: norament 926, norament 926 arago, norament 926 castello, norament 926 grano, norament 926 kivo, norament 926 pado, norament 926 satura
• norament 928 ed: norament 928 grano ed

The Finnish mark M1

The Finnish test mark M1 is regarded as the highest certification for building products in the Scandinavian region.  Besides stringent emission thresholds for total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs), the label also includes a sensory odor test.  

The following nora floor-coverings have achieved the M1:

• norament 926 standard:  norament 926, norament 926 arago, norament 926 castello, norament 926 grano, norament 926 kivo, norament 926 pado, norament 926 satura
• norament 926 nTx: norament 926 arago nTx, norament 926 castello nTx, norament 926 grano nTx, norament 926 satura nTx
• norament 928 ed: norament 928 grano ed
• norament 975 LL: norament 975 LL
  
  

In France, building products are required to be labelled with a VOC emissions classification. The French VOC label Emissions dans l’air intérieur (Décret n° 2011-321) indicates the emissions class a product has been assigned based on emissions testing that includes individual substances and TVOCs.  A+ rated products have the lowest (best) emissions and C rated products the highest (worst) emissions.  

nora floor coverings and accessories have been awarded the top A+ rating:

• norament 926 standard: norament 926, norament 926 arago, norament 926 castello, norament 926 grano, norament 926 kivo, norament 926 pado, norament 926 satura
• norament 926 nTx: norament 926 arago nTx, norament 926 castello nTx, norament 926 grano nTx, norament 926 satura nTx
• norament 825: norament 825
• norament 927: norament 927 grano ec
• norament 928: norament 928 grano ed
• norament 975 LL: norament 975 LL grano design, norament 975 serra design
• norament 992: norament 992, norament 992 grano
• norament 926 stairtreads: norament 926 stairtreads, norament 926 arago stairtreads, norament 926 grano stairtreads, norament 926 satura stairtreads
   
• nora accessories: nora skirtings, nora stair nosings

The PEFC program gives a framework for a sustainable forest management to ensure that ecologically, economically and socially sustainable practices are followed. This independently verified assurance ensures that natural rubber originates from sustainably managed forests. PEFC is the largest forest management program with currently over 300 million hectares of forests and more than 20,000 companies globally upholding the certification.
 

The following products are PEFC-certified:

• norament 992: norament 992, norament 992 grano

nora systems has achieved the SGBP certification "Excellent" (3 check marks) for:

• norament 926 standard : norament 926, norament 926 arago, norament 926 castello, norament 926 grano, norament 926 kivo, norament 926 pado, norament 926 satura
• norament 926 nTx : norament 926 arago nTx, norament 926 castello nTx, norament 926 grano nTx, norament 926 satura nTx
• norament 926 stairtreads: norament 926 stairtreads, norament 926 arago stairtreads, norament 926 grano stairtreads, norament 926 satura stairtreads

The DGNB System is based on three fundamental factors. These set the approach apart from other certification systems in the market:

• Life cycle assessment
• Holistic approach
• Emphasis on performance

As a result, certification always considers the entire life cycle of a project – not only with regard to impacts on the environment and resource consumption, but also regarding the cost of managing or operating a building, as well as maintenance outlays. Assessments revolve around three core sustainability factors, each with an equal weighting: ecological, economical and sociocultural factors. The DGNB System also assesses the overall performance of a development and not just individual measures.

LEED

LEED or Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design is a green building rating system developed and administered by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) for the construction, design and operation of sustainable buildings. It includes rating programs for different building types that encourage improved practices in the following categories: Location & Transportation, Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy & Atmosphere, Materials & Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality, Innovation, and Regional Priority.

nora flooring coverings can contribute to LEED through the use of environmental product declarations (EPDs), recycled content, rapidly renewable content, take-back programs, regional materials, and low-emitting flooring and adhesives. View the applicable nora LEED contribution chart for more details: 

• nora LEED v4 Contribution Chart

DGNB

nora is a co-initiator and founding member of the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB), which was established in 2007 by architects, planners, building product manufacturers, investors and scientists dedicated to sustainable building.  The goals of the DGNB are to bundle, demonstrate and promote solutions and methods for sustainable construction - from the planning, implementation and utilization through to recycling and disposal. The DNGB’s voluntary sustainable building rating system covers key aspects of sustainable building: environmental, economic, sociocultural and functional aspects, technology, processes and site. It is the only building rating system that gives as much importance to the economic aspect of sustainable building as it does to the ecological criteria. 

U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC)

As part of our ongoing commitment to protecting the environment and its natural resources, nora joined the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) in 2002. The USGBC is the United States' foremost coalition of leaders from across the building industry working to promote buildings that are environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy places to live and work. Together, they have developed the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System—a voluntary, consensus-based national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings.

ISO 14001

nora was one of the first companies in the resilient flooring industry to receive ISO 14001 certification for our environmental management systems. Minimizing environmental impact, complying with applicable laws, regulations and other environmentally-oriented requirements, and continually improving are the requirements of the standard.

ISO 9001, ISO 50001

nora has also earned ISO 50001 certification for our energy management system and  ISO 9001 certification for our quality management system, which certifies that consistent processes are being applied.

• Further information on nora’s quality policy as part of the nora business policy (ISO 9001)

Sentinel Holding Institute (SHI) is a German organization that certifies buildings and building products based on low VOC emissions in order ensure healthy indoor air. The standard requires buildings and building products meet strict VOC emissions, based on the requirements of many institutions, including Germany’s Federal Environmental Agency (UBA), the World Health Organization (WHO), and from the Association of Ecological Research Institutes (AGOF).

SHI has approved nora floor coverings due to their low VOC emissions.