Declare Label Program Compliance

Customer & Industry Requirements

ILFI Declare Label — Ingredient Transparency & Red List Screening for Building Products

The Red List Now Covers 12,000+ CASRNs. Can You Prove Every Ingredient in Your Products Is Disclosed?

Declare Label compliance demands full ingredient disclosure down to 100 ppm across your entire product portfolio—with annual renewal cycles that reassess every formulation against an evolving Red List. The 2025 Priority List update added over 2,000 toxic heavy metal CASRNs slated for Red List advancement in 2026. Labels expire every 12 months. Supplier ingredient data must be current, complete, and traceable. Certivo automates ingredient collection from supplier declarations to Red List screening and label-ready documentation.

Key Data

• 12,000+ CASRNs on the LBC Red List (2024 CASRN Guide)
• 100 ppm Disclosure threshold for all intentionally added ingredients
• 12 months Label validity period before mandatory renewal

Regulation Overview

• Jurisdiction: Global (developed by ILFI; adopted across LEED, WELL, LBC, and Core certifications worldwide)
• Regulatory Body: International Living Future Institute (ILFI)
• Regulation Number: Declare 2.0 (released 2020; Manufacturer's Guide updated July 2025); applies to all building products across all CSI Divisions
• Effective Date: Declare 2.0 released 2020; current Manufacturer's Guide July 2025
• Official Source: living-future.org/declare
• Key Threshold: 100 ppm (0.01%) disclosure for all intentionally added ingredients

What Is the Declare Label Program?

The Declare Label Program is the building industry's most rigorous ingredient transparency standard—functioning as a "nutrition label" for building products. Administered by the International Living Future Institute, Declare requires manufacturers to disclose every intentionally added ingredient down to 100 ppm by weight, report each substance with its chemical name, CAS number, and concentration percentage, and screen the full formulation against the LBC Red List of hazardous chemicals.

The Red List CASRN Guide contains over 12,000 entries across chemical classes including PFAS, chlorinated polymers, orthophthalates, organotin compounds, and toxic heavy metals. ILFI updates the Red List annually with input from its Material Health Technical Advisory Group. Declare labels feed directly into compliance pathways for LEED v4/v4.1 material ingredient credits, the WELL Building Standard, and the Living Building Challenge. For manufacturers placing products into specification-driven commercial construction markets, Declare Label compliance is increasingly a market access requirement—not a voluntary exercise.

Achieving and maintaining Declare status requires substance-level data from every supplier in your bill of materials, continuous monitoring against Red List changes, and annual renewal documentation that proves formulation integrity.

Key Components / Sub-Frameworks

• Obligation: Products screened against Red List to determine Declaration Status
• LBC Red List: Inventory of 12,000+ hazardous CASRNs across 18+ chemical classes
• Obligation: Flagged on labels in orange; manufacturers given 12-month R&D window
• LBC Priority List: ~6,600 CASRNs under evaluation for future Red List inclusion
• Obligation: No label impact; signals future reformulation risk
• LBC Watch List: Chemicals being monitored for potential Priority or Red List advancement
• Obligation: Determines LEED/WELL/LBC credit eligibility
• Declaration Status: Three tiers: Red List Free, LBC Red List Approved, Declared
• Obligation: Required for Living Product Challenge; counts as 1.5 products in LEED v4.1
• Third-Party Verification: Optional independent assessment of ingredient and supply chain claims
• Obligation: Reported on label; mandatory for LBC Imperative 10
• VOC Emissions Compliance: Interior products must meet CDPH v1.2 or equivalent emissions standard

Key Compliance Requirements

Who Must Comply

• Building product manufacturers seeking specification in LEED, WELL, or LBC-certified projects
• Suppliers providing components or raw materials to Declare-labeled finished products
• Distributors and representatives placing building products into transparency-driven commercial markets
• Manufacturers pursuing Living Building Challenge Materials Petal or Living Product Challenge certification
• Companies responding to architect and specifier RFQs that require ingredient disclosure documentation
• International manufacturers seeking Declare labels through ILFI International Partner programs

Key Thresholds

• 100 ppm (0.01%): Disclosure threshold for all intentionally added ingredients and residuals
• 99% by weight: Minimum total product disclosure requirement
• 1% by weight: Maximum allowable proprietary ingredient withholding
• 12 months: Label license validity period before mandatory renewal

Core Obligations

1. Full Ingredient Disclosure: Report every ingredient with chemical name, CAS number, and weight percentage down to 100 ppm
   • DEADLINE: At time of label submission
2. Red List Screening: Screen all disclosed ingredients against the current LBC Red List CASRN Guide
   • DEADLINE: At submission and at each annual renewal
3. VOC Emissions Testing: Interior products with emission potential must meet CDPH v1.2 or equivalent standard
   • DEADLINE: At submission; test results must be current
4. Annual Renewal: Resubmit or confirm formulation data; label reassessed against current Red List
   • DEADLINE: Within 30 days of label expiration
5. Supply Chain Documentation: Maintain traceable ingredient data from raw material suppliers through final assembly
   • DEADLINE: Ongoing; required for third-party verification

Certivo In Action

Certivo Workflow

Get Evidence In: Collect Ingredient Declarations from Every Supplier

• Launch campaigns to collect substance-level ingredient disclosures from your entire supply chain, follows up automatically, and accepts responses in any format.

Make Sense of It: Know Instantly When Product Ingredients Hit the Red List

• Extract every substance to CAS number level, validates against the current Red List CASRN Guide, and flags restricted or priority-listed chemicals automatically.

Prove Compliance Out: Generate Label-Ready Documentation in Hours

• Produce complete Declare submission packages and renewal documentation instantly from validated supplier data.

Key Statistics

• 12,000+ Red List CASRNs screened with automatic ILFI sync
• 99.2% Substance extraction accuracy from supplier declarations
• 95% Supplier response rate with CORA-powered campaigns

Frequently Asked Questions

What products and companies need Declare labels?
Any building product manufacturer seeking specification in LEED, WELL, or Living Building Challenge-certified projects benefits from Declare labels. The program is open to all products across all CSI Divisions—from flooring and coatings to lighting and mechanical systems.

What are the costs associated with obtaining and maintaining Declare labels?
ILFI charges $1,100 per new label for the first nine products, with tiered pricing at $900 per label for ten or more. Annual renewals are discounted at $750 per label when formulations remain unchanged.

How does the Red List affect a product's Declaration Status?
A product's Declaration Status—Red List Free, LBC Red List Approved, or Declared—is determined by screening all disclosed ingredients against the current LBC Red List CASRN Guide.

How does Declare align with LEED, WELL, and other certification programs?
Declare labels with Red List Free or Declared status fulfill the LEED v4 and v4.1 Building Product Disclosure and Optimization Credit, Option 1.

What declaration formats does Certivo accept from suppliers for Declare compliance?
Certivo accepts any format: safety data sheets, PDF declarations, Excel ingredient lists, IPC-1752 submissions, XML files, and freeform responses in any language.