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CRI Green Label Plus explained: what the label tests and what it does not
Green Label Plus shows up on carpet submittals, school specs and green building checklists. Here is what CRI’s chamber test measures, how to check a product and where the Seal of Approval fits.
A label for the product on the floor
Green Label Plus is the Carpet and Rug Institute’s testing program for low-emitting carpet, carpet cushion and carpet adhesive. CRI launched the original Green Label in 1992, and Green Label Plus followed in the 2000s. The label sits on a product line, so it belongs to the roll, the tile, the pad or the glue that went into your building, never to the people who install or clean it.
Facility teams usually meet the label at two moments: when an architect or designer writes it into a flooring specification, and years later when someone asks whether the carpet in a classroom wing or a clinic hallway was a certified product. Knowing what the test covers keeps the label from being read as more, or less, than it is.
Inside the 14-day chamber test
The testing is done by UL Solutions in environmental chambers that follow ASTM D5116. A product earns its first certification by passing a 14-day test under California’s Section 01350 method, which screens for about 40 chemical compounds, formaldehyde and toluene among them. Each product type adds compounds of its own, and for carpet the extra list includes 4-PCH and caprolactam. The certificate also reports total volatile organic compounds (TVOC).
In plain terms, the chamber measures which chemicals a sample of the product gives off, and how much, under controlled conditions. It is an emissions test. It does not rate wear, soil resistance, colorfastness or how easily the carpet comes clean, and it says nothing about how the floor will look after a year of traffic. Those questions belong to the warranty, the construction and the care program.
- Who tests: UL Solutions, in ASTM D5116 environmental chambers
- Method: 14 days under California Section 01350
- What is screened: about 40 listed compounds plus product-specific ones
- Carpet-specific compounds: 4-PCH and caprolactam
- Reported on the certificate: TVOC
Staying certified and checking a product
One passing test is not the end of it. CRI keeps products in the program through interim, annual and biennial retests, so a certified line is checked again over time. For anyone verifying a floor, CRI publishes three lists from its Green Label Plus page: Certified Carpets, Certified Cushions and Certified Adhesives.
To check your own building, pull the product name and style number from the flooring submittals or the closeout binder, then look it up on the matching list. Check the cushion and the adhesive as well as the carpet, because each carries its own certification. If the paperwork is gone, the installer or flooring company that supplied the carpet is the next call, since its original order names the product.
Because the label follows the product, replacement orders deserve the same check. When damaged tiles are swapped or a corridor is recarpeted, ask the installer or flooring company for the new style number and look it up before the closeout binder is updated. A wing that opened with certified carpet throughout can drift away from that record if replacement stock comes from a different line, and nobody notices until a later renovation or audit asks the question.
Green Label Plus and green building rating systems
CRI points to LEED, Green Globes and the Green Guide for Health Care as rating systems in which Green Label Plus products have a route to credit. Read that wording closely. The label is evidence a project team submits, and the rating system sets the terms and decides whether the credit counts. A certified carpet does not hand a building a credit by itself.
Hard floors have a comparable program of their own. FloorScore, administered by the Resilient Floor Covering Institute, certifies hard-surface flooring and related adhesives for emissions. A building that mixes carpet and vinyl can carry both labels in its submittals, one for each kind of floor.
For school campuses and medical and dental offices built or renovated to one of these rating systems, the closeout documents are the place to confirm which carpets, cushions and adhesives were certified. Keep that record with the carpet warranty, since both come up when the floor is cleaned, repaired or replaced.
The Seal of Approval: CRI’s program for cleaning
Green Label Plus covers the carpet. The Seal of Approval (SOA) covers the cleaning side. It is CRI’s voluntary testing program for vacuums, deep cleaning systems, deep cleaning extractors, cleaning solutions and interim maintenance systems. CRI started it after tests in the early 2000s showed that many products cleaned no better than water.
CRI also runs an SOA Service Provider program for cleaning companies that use SOA solutions with SOA equipment, which involves registering that equipment, paying an annual fee and signing an agreement. CRI 204 states that many carpet manufacturers now require SOA-certified products and CRI-certified cleaning methods to maintain their warranties.
Each manufacturer sets its own warranty demands, product by product, and some go further than products. Interface’s published maintenance guide, for instance, reserves restorative cleaning for hot-water extraction and puts bonnet and rotary cleaning among the things that may void its warranties. Look up the maintenance section in your own warranty; the walkthrough is the moment to hand it over, so the method plan for each area fits what it says.
Questions to settle before the next cleaning
- Which carpet, cushion and adhesive products are installed, and are they on CRI’s certified lists?
- What does the maintenance section of our carpet warranty require of cleaning products and methods?
- Which cleaning solutions and equipment will the crew use, by name, so we can look them up?
- Which areas get hot-water extraction, which get low-moisture encapsulation, and why?
Our free walkthrough is the time to put those questions on the table. We look at the carpet in each area, read the warranty and submittals you share and return a written quote that names the method and products for every room. Every client receives a certificate of insurance, and Corridor is bonded and covered by workers’ compensation, with background-checked crews and supervisors who run quality inspections. Request a walkthrough when you are ready.
A few useful answers
Common questions.
What does the Green Label Plus logo actually tell us?
That the carpet, cushion or adhesive passed CRI’s 14-day chamber emissions test under California Section 01350 and stays in the program through scheduled retests. It describes the chemicals the product gives off in a test chamber. It is not a rating of wear, stain resistance or appearance.
Is Green Label Plus the same as the CRI Seal of Approval?
No. Green Label Plus tests emissions from carpet, cushion and adhesive products. The Seal of Approval tests cleaning products and equipment, such as vacuums, extractors, solutions and interim systems, and it is the program CRI 204 links to manufacturers’ warranty requirements.
Does Green Label Plus carpet earn LEED credit automatically?
No. CRI describes LEED, Green Globes and the Green Guide for Health Care as rating systems where its labeled products have a route to credit, but each rating system sets its own requirements and makes the call. The label is one piece of evidence in the project’s submission.
How do we find out whether our carpet is Green Label Plus certified?
Find the product name and style number in your flooring submittals or closeout binder and look it up on CRI’s Certified Carpets list. Check the cushion and adhesive on their own lists too, since each product line is tested on its own.
Does cleaning change a carpet's Green Label Plus status?
No. The certification belongs to the manufacturer’s product line and its retest schedule. What cleaning touches is the warranty, and CRI 204 notes that many manufacturers now require SOA-certified products, so the warranty’s maintenance section is the document to bring to a cleaning walkthrough.