There is a flurry of activity and excitement brewing in the construction materials sector. Partly due to the imminent arrival of the holiday season, but also the publication of the long awaited standard BS EN 15804 in January 2012, is surely up there as a cause for celebration.
This standard is entitled “Sustainability of Construction Works: Environmental product declarations, product category rules[1]” and is part of the broader harmonisation of sustainability assessment at the building level (CEN TC 350)[2]. These standards will help us move away from solely looking at carbon footprints and have the potential to support more sustainable development.
What’s next for construction materials
But there is another perhaps a more subtle group of changes looming over the horizon. The Construction Products Directive (CPD) is to be updated with the Construction Products Regulations (CPR) which will come into effect on 1 July 2013. This may seem like six light years away, but will not doubt be upon us before we have had a chance to say ‘where did 2012 go?’ Within these regulations are changes to requirement number three, plus there is a new requirement, number seven, which looks at natural resources in more detail. Then we have the layer of CE marking and the declaration of performance which will accompany the product. An EPD compliant to the BS EN 15804 standard may help cover some of requirements but there are still many grey areas in these requirements, or perhaps even opportunities to help regulators, depending on where you sit.
We (the construction materials sector) could spend inordinate amounts of time debating how the process works and what will happen if a particular country mandates against the CPR. I would much rather get stuck into these new EPDs and start to lobby and help the relevant parties come to a sensible place. Taking a leadership position is actually far more enjoyable than waiting to see what other folk decide about our industry.