Al Hodgson, ClearChem Program Manager, 510-236-2325,  email

As a company that manufactures building products, you likely receive numerous customer requests for documentation that your products conform to various environmental standards and criteria. Responding to requests related to “green” procurement can be tedious and time consuming.

To address this situation, many manufacturers participate in third-party, eco-labeling programs. Eco-labeling programs can be a convenient way to communicate environmental product attributes to the purchasing community. However, eco-labeling programs can be expensive and may have other drawbacks including lack of full disclosure, which is contrary to increasing consumer demand for transparency with respect to the environmental performance of products. 

The ClearChem™ program offers companies a practical alternative. ClearChem is a fully transparent program in which companies self-declare compliance of their products against criteria that are defined in well-recognized standards. ClearChem supports product claims for VOC emissions tested by CDPH Standard Method V1.2. The ClearChem Self Declaration is designed to provide all of the information needed for USGBC LEED v4 EQ Credit: Low Emitting Materials, other voluntary standards, and green building codes. Thus, a company’s certificate of conformity created using the ClearChem format provides architects and purchasing organizations with complete information in a standardized, easy to interpret format. 

Participation in ClearChem is available to companies that test their products with Berkeley Analytical. Before use of the ClearChem Self Declaration, a company enters into an implementation agreement with Berkeley Analytical in which they agree to follow the procedures and requirements in ClearChem Standard BkA-CC-01. Each participating company receives their own web page highlighting their environmental stewardship program and providing downloadable certificates of conformity for their individual products. These declarations are created by the company using a convenient on-line form. Declarations are posted in the ClearChem directory for a period of two years from the date of the underlying laboratory test. Additionally, ClearChem is a recognized reporting source for Origin.build and communicates the declarations to Origin where you can link them to your products.

See the About page for more detailed information regarding the ClearChem program, Self Declarations, and the product directory. Download ClearChem Standard BkA-CC-01 for a full description.