Envirospec Protocol by Electronic Blueprint - Green specifications made practical

Electronic Blueprint and ENVIROSPEC provide building specifications and training, on safe and sustainable buildings, for architects, engineers and builders. Addressing the Sustainability Forum of the recent Melbourne Design-Build exhibition, Rod Johnston emphasised the need for product specifications to:

• Honestly identify products that contribute to sustainability;
• Clearly quantify the contribution to sustainability; and
• Advance strategies to create awareness; and distribute reliable technical data to Architects, Engineers and Builders.

The Building Products Innovation Council (BPIC) is currently collecting data for the creation of a Life Cycle Inventory (LCI). This data will be used to populate design software, enabling designers to minimise environmental impacts. It will also be used to provide ecolabels for building products.

However, there is a real danger that the ecolabels may fail to provide enough precise data on the in-service performance for each product under a range of applications and climates. The role of ENVIROSPEC is to collate the ecolabels and other sustainability information, in a technically credible format geared specifically for use by designers, tailored for marketing innovative building products in particular applications.

For further details of the ENVIROSPEC Protocol - www.electronicblueprint.com.au.