Recently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced enhancements to its Indoor AirPlus home labeling program. These improvements are designed to advance indoor air quality protection and expand market accessibility.

Indoor AirPlus is a voluntary partnership and labeling program designed to improve indoor air quality in homes. Builders that participate in the program use construction practices designed to minimize exposure to airborne pollutants and contaminants in the home. Indoor AirPlus homes are healthier by design. Strategies include mold and moisture control; radon resistance; pest management; improved heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems; combustion venting; healthier building materials; and homeowner education. Labeled homes can help reduce the likelihood of common and serious health problems like infectious disease, heart disease, cancer, asthma, allergies, respiratory issues, headaches and more.

“Indoor AirPlus is the premier high-performance home certification program focusing on indoor air quality,” said Dave Rowson, Director of the Indoor Environments Division. “The program updates in Indoor AirPlus Version 2, including new recognition opportunities with a tiered certification structure, will help even more Americans protect their families with improved indoor air quality.”

EPA considered a wide range of stakeholder feedback when developing the updates. This new version encourages broad industry participation, substantially advances indoor air quality protections, and strengthens third party verification and quality assurance.

Under this program update, builders may choose to build Indoor AirPlus Certified homes, or Indoor AirPlus Gold Certified homes. With no other certification pre-requisites, the Indoor AirPlus Certified home is built with key strategies targeting improved indoor air quality. The Indoor AirPlus Gold Certified home is designed to include more advanced protections for improved indoor air quality in conjunction with the energy efficiency benefits of ENERGY STAR certification.

During the implementation phase currently underway, partners may continue to use Indoor AirPLUS Construction Specifications Version 1, Rev.4 or begin to use one of the new two-tier specifications.

The Indoor AirPLUS Construction Specifications Version 1, Rev. 4 are planned to be sunset by January 2026.