Issuance Guidelines - Further Information
The natureplus-issuance guidelines are hierarchically organised. This can be observed in the numbering scheme. There are a number of basic requirements which are valid for all products. These can be found in the Basic Criteria (RL0000). These criteria include the rules for the definition and production of guidelines, the determinants for the implementation and execution of tests and also the Corporate Design. The issuance guidelines for a product group are included in the next hierarchy level. A product group covers a number of products within a comparable area of usage (i.e. bricks and blocks, paints or insulation materials), which are also often labelled according to similarities in their raw material basis (renewable or mineral).
The numbering scheme for the issuance guidelines for a product group is based upon a number which is divisible by 100. The product issuance guidelines contain the most concrete definitions of the product requirements. A product represents an unrestricted number of goods that not only have a similar area of usage but are also comparable in their raw material base and their production processes. They must however be building and accommodation products which are also available to the consumer and professional user in this form. Ineligible products include raw-goods and pre- or semi-finished products which are only used in Industry. The numbering scheme for the issuance guidelines for products does not follow any pre-defined pattern.
Through the application of the guideline hierarchy model, it can be shown that the majority of the requirements which lead to an exclusion of products, are defined in the product-GL. As a rule, the product group-GL cover the requirements for obtaining or extracting the raw materials as well as the definition of the ecological reference numbers - as long as the LCA-characteristics in the individually assigned product-GL do not display to much of a variation. The Basic Criteria contain primarily ‘soft’ requirements except for the exclusion of clearly defined ingredients and the fundamental requirements of the product composition. The issuance guideline hierarchy model also requires that every product that is tested according to the product- GL must also fulfill the Basic Criteria requirements (RL0000) as well as those of the applicable product group-GL. In order to avoid double entries, these requirements are, as a rule, not included in the product-GL a second time.
The structure of the issuance guidelines is organised according to the following system:
1. Usage Area
2. General Requirements
2.1 Suitability of Use
2.2 Composition, Forbidden/Excluded Materials and Restrictions
2.3 Declaration
2.4 Raw Material Extraction and Sourcing, Preparation of Pre-Products und Production
2.5 Product Packaging
2.6 Processing / Installation
2.7 Usage
2.8 Recycling / Disposal
3. Laboratory Testing
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