ASBP launches and says product-specific assessment approach to building products “necessary and in best interests of sustainability.”

The Alliance for Sustainable Building Products (ASBP) was launched at a packed event at Westminster Palace last night (16 November). One of the key aims of this new organisation is to highlight the need to move to evidence-based product assessments to help specifiers make well-informed decisions resulting in the uptake of truly sustainable building products.

ASBP’s Director Gary Newman said: “There is an urgent need to create greater clarity, information and trust when it comes to sustainable building products. Whether you are concerned with reducing carbon, resource efficiency, health and well-being in our homes or increased employment opportunities, sustainable building products have something to offer. The ASBP seeks to influence the market, policy as well as behaviour to make this opportunity a reality.”

The ASBP is a cross-sector, not-for-profit organisation that brings together product manufacturers, distributors, architects and other building professionals, as well as sustainability NGOs. In conversation with its members at the launch, it became apparent that all believe that too few within the construction industry understand the true sustainability of the products and materials specified. As such, an early priority of the ASBP is to develop the Natureplus eco-label in the UK, a comprehensive third-party accredited trust mark and Europe’s leading construction eco-label launched 10 years ago by industry and environmental organisations. Natureplus is the only eco-label that takes into account product performance, sustainability of the raw materials, human health in production and use, end of life, carbon and other life cycle assessed impacts. It is principally concerned with the sustainable use of raw materials – this means products made from renewable, abundant mineral and secondary raw materials. Natureplus does not accept products made predominantly from finite fossil-derived raw materials.

Asked how the ASBP will fit with the BRE Green Guide to Specification, Newman said that the Green Guide “is generally used for generic construction component assessment for the purpose of gaining credits within the Code for Sustainable Homes. The ASBP approach is very different. We take a product-specific, not a generic approach.” Although this approach does not currently fit the points system within the CfSH, the ASBP anticipates that a move from generic to product-specific measures is “necessary and is in the best interests of sustainability.”

And in case any of us were concerned that this was an organisation targeting niche builders, George Martin, Head of Sustainable Development at major construction contractor Willmott Dixon Group, said that there was very much a need in the industry for an organisation to champion and inform on sustainable building products: “Even for the most committed, sustainability choices can be confusing and sometimes overwhelming. The ASBP now exists to bring clarity and rigour to the choice of sustainable building products. The ASBP approach will make it easier to identify, use and gather evidence on building products that meet high standards of performance, energy use, embodied carbon and genuine sustainability – thereby encouraging innovation and rewarding sustainability leadership.”

Martin did, however, recognise that for sustainable building products to be adopted more by the mainstream construction industry “sustainable building products need to become cheaper to use than those that are not sustainable.”

Newman concluded: “Informing and educating is at the heart of the ASBP, which is why we also plan to initiate and support research focused on providing evidence to inform policy and to further develop sustainability standards.”

(Main image courtesy PAVATEX)