Sustainability protocol from Envirospec - Electronic Blueprint
Electronic Blueprint and ENVIROSPEC provide building specifications
and training, on safe and sustainable buildings, for architects, engineers and builders.
Many products contribute significantly to building sustainability, either directly,
by reducing energy, saving water, lowering toxicity etc, or indirectly, by providing
low-cost efficient building solutions. The art of responsible green marketing is to
clearly identify the effects of a particular product on our environment, and to present
this honestly and simply to the design fraternity.
ENVIROSPEC has produced a Protocol to clearly define practical methodologies for
classifying building products, such that their contribution to sustainability is
easily identifiable. The comparison of comprehensive life cycle analyses, prepared
for competing products, is the most equitable basis of selecting sustainable products.
However, comprehensive life cycle analyses are controversial, because they involve
numerous assumptions regarding the manufacture, transport, construction, demolition
and re-use of the building products; and assumptions regarding their in-service
performance. To date, Building Regulations have concentrated on only some aspects
of in-service performance (e.g. specifying levels of insulation to achieve desired
energy minimisation). The process of preparing such regulations has highlighted the
problems in assessing the in-service performance of various products in various
applications.
Reflecting the current approach of building regulators, Part 2 of the Protocol considers
the special circumstances of in-service performance criteria, in isolation from the
other life-cycle considerations. It deals with the effects of a building product on the
sustainable operation of the building into which it is built, in the context of what is
both common practice and what is permissible under the Building Regulations. It provides
for:
- Collection of data for subsequent use in life-cycle analysis; and
- Methods of classifying building products by their in-service effect in specific applications.
Once in-service data is gathered by the methods described in Part 2, it may be used
as one of the inputs into a comprehensive life-cycle analysis used to produce
Environmental Declarations. Such declarations should account for the sustainability
impacts of the manufacture, transport, construction, demolition and re-use of building
products, together with their in-service performance. For further information, please
contact Electronic Blueprint, www.electronicblueprint.com.au.
For further information contact:
Electronic Blueprint
phone: +61 2 4360 2255
fax: +61 2 4360 2256
web: www.electronicblueprint.com.au
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