Hospitality interiors are a shining example of the intersection of form and function. Hotel suites encourage rest; restaurants and storefronts entice indulgence; meeting and event rooms inspire interaction. But these high-traffic commercial spaces are more than “pretty spaces”—they must be as durable as they are eye-catching. Interior finishes, such as wallcoverings, serve both purposes, and continue to evolve to meet aesthetic, performance and sustainability needs.
If color and design trends didn’t shift regularly, commercial wallcoverings could be installed for decades in such spaces. But color and design, as it turns out, aren’t the only shifting trends in wallcoverings. For good reason, the interior design industry—and particularly the hospitality sector—puts much more emphasis on health and environment. This focus on sustainability isn’t new to wallcoverings, which has experienced some mighty shifts over the last several decades. Immediately following its first introduction to the marketplace in the 1970s, engineers of Type II vinyl wallcovering began seeking ways to improve upon the product’s success.
The initial approach was to remove heavy metals from the vinyl film, which nearly all U.S. manufacturers did without delay. This was followed by a 1990s demand for water-based inks, and then a call for better indoor air quality and recycled content in the 2000s. The next decade greeted specifiers with the added need to evaluate both material health and human safety.
That most recent shift reflects the increasingly close examination of the health and human safety of all commercial interior products. Specifiers try to get a handle on this by relying on assessment tools that ask manufacturers to identify all of the ingredients that go into the product and the relative safety of each.
Produce Declarations Defined
A Health Product Declaration (HPD) allows manufacturers to self-disclose their ingredients through their open product declarations. You’ll often hear of product declarations in the same breath as an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD); however, they are vastly different documents. The EPD starts with a Life Cycle Assessment that goes in depth to evaluate production processes, energy usage and end-of-life options. Plus, it includes material content, much the way an HPD does. Additionally, the materials can then be compared to substantially similar products by comparing with Product Category Rules that behave much like a measuring stick. These rules allow products to be compared “apples-to-apples” and enable greater product transparency.
The wallcovering industry is presently working to complete Product Category Rules for commercial wallcoverings. This detailed work has been underway for more than a year to complete this monumental, but necessary, task. Product Category Rules will allow the wallcoverings industry to create measurable EPDs.
Having all of these very distinct methods of evaluating product can become cumbersome for decision-makers. To minimize the confusion, third-party multi-attribute evaluations can provide clarity.
Currently, the primary third-party multi-attribute standard is NSF/ANSI 342. NSF International, an auditor for the food, water, health science, sustainability and consumer product sectors, audits both wallcovering manufacturers and distributors in order to verify the accuracy of the claims made of the products and companies. NSF also audits other multi-attribute standards for a number of key building product industries. The multi-attribute aspect removes the burden from the users as they seek the most sustainable product and attempt to compare, say, recycled content, to indoor air quality, to chemical transparency. In this standard, the product is evaluated for all of the applicable physical characteristics, manufacturing practices, end-of-life options, social and economic considerations and more, in order to award the product with one overall score. The higher the certification level awarded, the more individual aspects of sustainability are being practiced. We find that manufacturers who simultaneously focus on all components have a greater impact overall, than those who might focus on only one of the distinct sustainable attributes.
No Product Can be Perfect
Creating a commercially viable product with no environmental footprint would be a nearly impossible proposition. (What would that even be? Wild grasses harvested by hand, manually woven into a lovely grass cloth, installed on-site with wheat paste?) Scant few commercial products can claim perfect sustainability; the better landmark may lie in the continual effort to improve products and manufacturing processes.
The wallcoverings industry has channeled energy toward consistent improvements on many topics ranging from the aforementioned changes to the elimination of both volatile organic compounds and heavy metals and the introduction of recycled content when practical by establishment of a recycling infrastructure. These improvements will ensure that most of the commercial wallcovering manufactured today has end-of-life options that reduce dependency on landfill. We’re encouraged by these important strides.
The NSF/ANSI 342 standard has pushed manufacturers and distributors to be better in every area of evaluation and even rewards them for innovations. Now, whenever specifiers require this comprehensive wallcovering certification for the wallcoverings that will be used on their project, they can trust not only in the sustainability of the goods, but also, that the goals of the projects are now aligned with the goals of the wallcovering manufacturers and distributors of those products. This adds up to real progress and should provide users with additional confidence in their choice to install a product that will remain on the wall, doing its intended job for years to come.
Giselle Walsh is Director of Environmental Affairs for MDC, a wallcoverings, coatings, and design solutions company based in suburban Chicago.
