The new Construction Products Regulation puts VOC emission testing in focus
Regulation (EU) 2024/3110 replaces the old CPR and applies from 8 January 2026, bringing environmental and indoor-air emissions firmly into scope. Here is the VOC testing it points to.
What the new CPR changes
Regulation (EU) 2024/3110 was published on 18 December 2024, entered into force on 7 January 2025 and applies from 8 January 2026, repealing the old CPR (EU) 305/2011 over a long transition. Beyond the Declaration of Performance, it brings environmental sustainability — including emissions to indoor air — more firmly into how construction products are assessed.
Where VOC testing fits
For emissions to indoor air, EN 16516 is the harmonised reference: a controlled emission-chamber test measuring VOC and SVOC release over 28 days. One 28-day chamber run typically satisfies several schemes at once — the French A+ label, the German AgBB scheme, M1 and Nordic Swan, and BREEAM/LEED credits.
- +EN 16516 — 28-day emission-chamber VOC/SVOC test
- +ISO 16000-6/-9/-11 — sampling and analysis
- +AgBB / French A+ / M1 — schemes one chamber run can cover
- +Per variant — each colour or formulation needs its own 28-day run
What it costs
An EN 16516 chamber run is indicatively from €1,500 net; because chamber occupancy rather than analysis is the bottleneck, cost scales almost linearly with the number of product variants. As the new CPR's environmental requirements phase in, chamber demand rises — plan your variants together.
Related test package