Paint Part II and Air Quality Part I

The paint doesn't smell. There's just no "new paint smell" in the building. And apparently, that's a good thing.

The smell of new paint is actually the paint giving off (or "off-gassing") substances known as Volatile Organic Chemicals or "VOCs". While that smell might be nice, it's sure not good for you. VOCs are known cancer-causing agents. To improve the air quality of the building, we specified no-VOC paints (or in some cases very low VOC paints).

These no VOC paints are on their way to becoming the standard in construction. They're also part of why green buildings used to have a construction cost premium, but don't anymore. Because of their health and environmental benefits, they're becoming widely adopted and the price of no VOC paints has fallen to essentially be equivalent to the old, standard paint.

Going into this project, I couldn't imagine writing two blog posts on "paint", but it....like everything else in the building.....has been carefully considered for economic, environmental and energy impact.