Last Thursday we hosted our spring sustainability talk. Graham Hilton, Gary Newman, and Brian Murphy of the Alliance for Sustainable Building Products (ASBP) gave the assembled crowd an engaging and fast paced presentation of the difficulties in specifying environmentally sound products.
As energy use in buildings falls (due to improved efficiencies of mechanical and electrical systems) the embodied energy of building materials becomes a more significant proportion of its carbon footprint. Part of the aim of the recently established ASBP is to tackle this issue and demystify what is a “green” product. Any visitor to Ecobuild will be aware that the vast majority of suppliers claim to be conscious of the impacts of their products. While many are likely to match their claims there is no standardised method of providing hard evidence. If a system such as Natureplus was in place, specifiers could consider this figure along with cost and aesthetics when choosing which brick, plasterboard, etc. to pick. Brian painted an image of manufactures fiercely competing to win gold in their product category.
There was interesting question and answer session afterwards, most memorable was the debate regarding the BRE’s Green Guide to Specification. It’s author Jane Anderson discussed it’s strengths and weakness, along with ways in which the ASBP’s work can address it’s shortcomings. Our guests left with an awareness of the urgent need for clarity in this critical carbon cutting area of construction.
Here at Cullinans we will be enthusiastically following the developments of the ASBP in the future.
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