When the National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) collaborated with the Wallcoverings Association to create NSF/ANSI 342—the first comprehensive sustainability standard for wallcovering products in North America—they did far more than publish a simple checklist. They built an ambitious, forward-looking framework that evaluates not just how tough a wallcovering is, but how responsibly it is conceived, produced, distributed, used, and eventually retired.At the heart of the standard is a rigorous point-based scoring system. To earn certification, a wallcovering collection must accumulate enough credits across six carefully defined pillars of performance:
A product cannot cherry-pick categories; it must meet mandatory prerequisites in every pillar and then earn additional points to reach Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum certification levels. Because the standard only became effective in the last decade, many longtime industry veterans initially viewed it as an expensive, time-consuming hurdle—especially for manufacturers who had to re-engineer decades-old formulas, overhaul supply chains, and document processes they once handled intuitively.
Yet the marketplace has spoken clearly and decisively. Architects, interior designers, facility managers, and procurement officers at major corporations, healthcare systems, universities, and government agencies increasingly write NSF/ANSI 342 compliance into their specifications. When a 500,000-square-foot hospital renovation or a global headquarters fit-out is on the table, decision-makers want the peace of mind that every roll of wallcovering—no matter which pattern or which manufacturer they ultimately select—has already been vetted against the same objective, science-based criteria for durability, health, and environmental responsibility. It removes guesswork, reduces risk, and dramatically simplifies the selection process.
Certification is not limited to the factory floor. The standard is cradle-to-cradle in the truest sense: every link in the chain must be audited. Distributors and converters who warehouse, cut, and ship the material are held to the same high bar. They, too, must demonstrate responsible corporate governance, efficient low-waste distribution methods, and active support for recycling infrastructure when the wallcovering finally reaches the end of its (often 10- to 15-year) service life.
The result is powerful consistency. A design firm in California and a contractor in New York can open the same binder of NSF 342-certified patterns and know—without endless submittal reviews—that every option meets minimum thresholds for scrub cycles, stain resistance, colorfastness, fire safety, and low chemical emissions. They can also rest assured that the product was made with a lighter planetary footprint and that, decades from now when it’s time for the next renovation, the material can be diverted from landfill through established reclamation channels.
In an industry that once measured success solely by yards sold and patterns shipped, NSF/ANSI 342 has quietly ushered in a new era. It has transformed “contract wallcovering” from a phrase that merely meant “tough enough to survive a hotel corridor” into a broader promise: tough enough for people, tough enough for business, and now—finally—tough enough for the planet.