Graphenstone Paint: Lime-Based Lines, Data Sheets and Certificates

This article reads what its data sheets, its environmental declaration and the certificates it cites say, and where the record stops. Manufacturer statements are worded as claims. For another mineral interior finish, see our clay plaster profile.

What is Graphenstone?

The footer of the Graphenstone website carries a copyright line for Industria Española para el Desarrollo e Investigación 2100, S.A. and says Graphenstone is a registered trademark.^[1] The data sheets and the EPD give the address as Carpinteros 25, El Viso del Alcor, Seville, Spain, and the EPD names that Seville plant as the production site for the products it covers.^[6][17] The company's 2026 catalogue says it has worked with artisanal lime since 2013.^[5] The website's factories page lists Spain, Malaysia and Australia.^[2]

The site's product menu groups the paints into interior (Ecosphere, AmbientPro+, GCS Interior, three GrafClean finishes and Naturcolor Interior Matt), exterior (Biosphere, GrafClean Front, GCS Exterior) and functional paints, which include Proshield, a conductive paint.^[1][5] It also lists primers, treatments, protective finishes and an Earth Collection of decorative textures and finishes.^[1]

What do the data sheets declare?

Most sheets list specific weight, pH, solids content, washability and water vapour permeability as a minimum rate and an Sd value. Ecosphere is declared at V ≥ 1,400 g/(m²·d) and Sd ≤ 0.015 m, Biosphere at V ≥ 600 and Sd ≤ 0.03 m, and GrafClean Matt at V ≥ 185 and Sd ≤ 0.12 m.^[6][7][11] Two cautions. The sheets do not name the vapour test method. The cup-method standard for paints is EN ISO 7783, current edition 2018,^[22] but the sheets do not cite it, so we cannot tell how the declared minima were derived. And the sheets cite "EN 13300" without an edition; the 2001 edition was withdrawn on 1 December 2022 and replaced by EN 13300:2022.^[20][21] We did not read either EN 13300 edition or EN ISO 7783 beyond its catalogue page, so we cannot quote the class limits.

For application, the Ecosphere sheet gives two or three coats, 2–4 hours between coats and 24 hours to full dry at 25 °C and 60% relative humidity, and calls the paint an alkaline product, so skin and eye protection is needed.^[6] It says exact consumption should be set by a site sample.^[6] The website and the sheets do not always agree on use: the Ecosphere page describes it as indicated for exterior and interior walls, while the data sheet and the EPD describe it as an interior paint, and the GrafClean Matt page adds "unexposed exterior" use that its sheet does not.^{[4][6][11][17]} Read the sheet for the product you specify.

What do the certificates and declarations say?

EPD. The International EPD System lists S-P-01050 (EPD-IES-0001050:006), "Graphenstone Paints", owned by IEdiSA, with a version date of 22 January 2026 and validity to 28 June 2027.^[16] The declared unit is the paint needed to cover 1 m² with two coats for 10 years, with third-party verification and primary data from the Seville factory for 2019.^[17] For the group that includes Ecosphere, Siena, Biosphere and AmbientPro+ (white and colour), its results tables declare a total global warming potential of 0.178 kg CO₂ eq. for modules A1–A3 and −0.0483 kg CO₂ eq. in the use stage, which it attributes to the calcium hydroxide in the lime-based references; Ecosphere Color and Biosphere Color are declared separately, at 0.277 and −0.0421. For GCS Interior, GCS Exterior, GrafClean, GrafClean Eggshell and GrafClean Midshine it declares 0.196 to 0.241 kg CO₂ eq. for A1–A3 and no use-stage uptake; GrafClean Front (0.312) and GrafClean Ag+ (0.571) are declared separately.^[17] The EPD's content tables list calcium hydroxide (40%), water, calcium carbonate and additives for the lime group.^[17] Two inconsistencies are worth knowing: the registry gives PCR version 1.3.4 while the PDF cites version 1.1;^[16][17] and the Naturcolor Interior Matt sheet carries the EPD logo although the product is not in the EPD's list.^[15][16][17]

Cradle to Cradle. The certificate we could open from a hosted copy is a 2016 one: certification number 2788, Gold, issued 16 February 2016 and expiring 15 February 2018, for "Graphenstone indoor and outdoor paint (only white color) and filler".^[18] On 8 October 2026 the Cradle to Cradle registry listed three Graphenstone entries. "Graphenstone Lime Paints" shows Full Scope and Material Health Gold, version 3.1, certification number 9570, valid until 31 December 2026;^[26] "Graphenstone ® GrafClean" shows Full Scope and Material Health Bronze, version 3.1, number 11309, valid until 31 December 2026.^[27] The third entry covers lime mortars. The two paint entries show no product list ("0 products covered"), so we cannot say which paints each covers, and we found no registry entry at Silver level. The Silver levels quoted on some current sheets are therefore company statements.^[6][9][11]

Other labels. The sheets, the FAQ and the 2026 catalogue name Eurofins Indoor Air Comfort Gold, the EU Ecolabel, Global Green Tag, Sensitive Choice and ISO 9001 and 14001.^[3][5][6]

Test report. A laboratory report hosted on graphenstone.com is Tecnalia report 061665, commissioned by the company and issued 28 September 2016, on a white "Biosphere Premium" sample supplied by the company: solar reflectance 82.2 ± 0.2%, emissivity 0.79 ± 0.03 and a Solar Reflectance Index of 100.0 ± 0.3 at low convection, by ASTM E1980-11. The report says it concerns only the material tested.^[19]

Lime, silicate or acrylic: what differs?

The binder decides how a paint cures. In a lime paint the binder is slaked lime, which sets by reacting with CO₂ in humid air to form carbonate phases; the peer-reviewed overview by Rodriguez-Navarro and colleagues describes this carbonation in lime mortars and plasters, not in paints.^[24] Keim, a silicate manufacturer, describes a silicate paint as using a potassium silicate binder and says limewash sets by combining with carbon dioxide, while its own paints bond by silicification, a reaction with mineral substrates such as render, natural stone and concrete.^[25] An acrylic paint forms a polymer film.

On breathability, conservation guidance from Babergh and Mid Suffolk councils says masonry paints tend to be relatively unbreathable compared with limewash, while mineral paints tend to have similar breathability to limewash, and that some mineral paints use lime combined with other materials.^[23] The same guidance warns that once a paint surface is broken, moisture can become trapped between plaster and paint.^[23] Graphenstone's own sheets span these types: Ecosphere (lime) declares a water vapour Sd of 0.015 m or less, while GrafClean Front (acrylic) lists no water vapour Sd but a CO₂ permeability Sd above 50 m, a different quantity.^[6][14] Keim's comparison also says limewash often needs redecoration within a few years; that is a silicate manufacturer's claim about a product it competes with.^[25]

What we could not check

We did not open the registries or certificates for the other labels named on the sheets; the EPD gives ISO registration numbers but we did not see the certificates.^[17] We found no safety data sheets on the company's global site, so composition beyond the EPD tables is unread. We did not see the terms of the five-year product guarantee that the FAQ mentions for applications by official applicators.^[3]

Frequently asked questions about Graphenstone

Related reading

For a mineral interior finish applied as a plaster, see our clay plaster profile. For another finish judged on its documents, see our Rubio Monocoat and Osmo comparison.