ANAB di Qualità Bioecologica dell’Edilizia
(ANAB mark for the bio-ecological quality of building materials)

www.anab.it/certificazione/index.php

Relevance

National voluntary label

Target

• environmental target: bio-ecological quality
  
• product group: building materials

Product/service group

Building materials such as: marble, granite, stone, slate and travertine technical ceramics.

Awarding Institution & criteria

The label is awarded to products certified according to the methods defined by ANAB (Associazione Nazionale per l'Architettura Bioecologica – National Association of Bioecological Architecture). Tasks of ANAB are the definition, maintenance and upgrading of the awarding criteria and measurement standards and their diffusion. The control activity is entrusted to ICEA (Istituto per la Certificazione Etica e Ambientale – Institute for the Ethical and Environmental Certification).
At present ANAB and ICEA are revising the awarding criteria, the certification and testing procedure, the costs and the criteria for the label use. Previous requirements were:

• building material production using natural and renewable raw materials;
  
• the materials must be fit for use and must not contain or release substances that are harmful for people and the environment;
  
• energy saving, from production to final use, in building and recycling;
  
• installation and maintenance characteristics aiming to reducing environmental impact in the construction phases;
  
• total limitation of radioactive emissions, performing regular inspections and measurements, that are not used in traditional building.

The LCA of the material is analysed in detail.

Control mechanisms

Through an agreement with ANAB, ICEA is the independent third party body in charge of the control of the correct application of the quality standards by the building product manufacturers. ICEA is also the awarding institution for the certification.
The validity of the label is two years from the certification date.

Charges

Provision fee, monthly and/or yearly costs are under revision.

Relevance on the market

The activity of ANAB for the certification of bio-ecological and sustainability of building products started in 1999 with the creation of the quality mark ANAB-IBO-IBN through the co-operation of ANAB with two European eco-institute: IBO (Austria) and IBN (Germany). Nowadays, the label is only showing the ANAB logo, meaning that awarding criteria are nationally based. In Italy there are currently 10 companies certified as producers of materials for Sustainable Architecture.