The built environment contributes 40% of greenhouse gases globally. In an era defined by growing environmental consciousness, businesses are increasingly recognising the need to adopt sustainable practices to mitigate their impact on the planet.
Are you a manufacturer, trade association, architect, specifier or builder? Have you heard all the fuss about EPD? What exactly are EPD? What can they do for you? Quite simply: An EPD (environmental product declaration) is a document which may be used in different countries to quantifiably demonstrate the environmental performance of a product. They … Continue reading “What are EPD? What can they do for you?”
The phase out of the Green Guide to Specification, use of EPD in BREEAM, EN 15804 EPD, and online LCA tools. The Materials section in BREEAM is designed to raise awareness of and encourage sustainable procurement and use of construction products. For many years BREEAM has used the outputs of the BRE Environmental Profiles scheme … Continue reading “Environmental Assessment & EPD – Expanded Horizons”
As described in the earlier article Why building LCA?, BREEAM New Construction 2018 requires building LCA to be carried out for the new Mat 01 issue. The requirements in Mat 01 focus on rewarding good quality building LCA through comparison with a benchmark and options appraisal. Starting with the project brief/requirements, designers use building … Continue reading “Getting results with building LCA”
Life cycle assessment (LCA) is used to total up the environmental impact of a product’s supply chain. Providing sufficient data is available on the product’s composition and supply chain, LCA can be used to work out the environmental impact of almost anything from a can of baked beans to a car. The results of … Continue reading “BREEAM – Why building LCA?”
Following the decision for the UK to leave the EU and the political turmoil that has subsequently followed there have been many questions as to what Brexit will mean for our nation. One of these aspects relates to our involvement in European Standard committees of which BRE are actively involved in. BSI as our national … Continue reading “Keep Calm and Produce EPD”
The context for environmental assessment in the construction sector is undergoing considerable change. This is largely due to the publication of the suite of standards from CEN TC 350, which interlink with those from International Standards Organisation (ISO) relating to life cycle assessment (LCA) and Type III environmental labelling. Our experts have written a paper, funded by … Continue reading “Assessing the environmental impacts of construction – understanding European Standards and their implications”
BRE is about to launch BRE LINA (On-Line LCA Tool) at an event on 23rd June at Watford. There has been a steady growth in the number of Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) for construction products over the past five years but what industry needs is a quick and simple way to carry out the analysis … Continue reading “Time to tackle EPD and generate better value for business”
If you’re familiar or unfamiliar with The Green Guide to Specification, here are some facts about the history of this important publication, and what the future holds.. The Green Guide Past. Green Guide to Specification first published in 1996: 125 elements across 9 categories. Green Guide Ratings available were A, B, & C. Where A … Continue reading “The Green Guide to Specification: Past, Present & Future”
