Sustainability and the new NBS

by John Gelder
Head of content development and sustainability

Next year we will be launching a new version of the NBS specification toolkit. This will continue to be developed after launch to expand its range (e.g. to briefing) and functionality (e.g. incorporating arithmetic capabilities). This article describes some ideas for future development in the area of sustainability.

System outline clauses

A core feature of the new NBS is the provision of 'system outline' clauses, which break each system down into its component products. In the future, through tabulation – adding columns against the clause – the software will be able to support various arithmetic functionalities, e.g. for costing. It should also be able to support waste management and environmental impact calculations. For each of these criteria we'd have three key columns – quantity, rate and sum.

Quantities for each product would be entered manually or automatically extracted from associated CAD files via BIM (building information modelling) linkage.

For waste reports, waste rates might be automatically derived from an authoritative online source such as WRAP's Net Waste Tool, or of course they could be entered manually. Multiplying the two figures (quantity x rate) gives a waste estimate. At early stages in the project these can be estimated values. During construction actual values can be recorded, which can then be compared with your design waste budget. Across different systems, totals for common products can be collected, e.g. for plasterboard, for bricks. We might even be able to deal with 'negative waste', arising from re-use of demolition material for example. For a Plasterboard partition system, the tabulation might look like this:

As you can see, this would be a Site Waste Management Plan tool. Logically it would be very desirable if we could integrate this with WRAP's own SWMP tools.

We can do something similar for environmental impact reports, hopefully through the BRE Green Guide to Specification online, a project we have been involved with for some time. We might even be able to integrate this with the BRE Green Guide Calculator.

It can be seen that the new NBS specification tool could one day work as a design tool. As one selects a system component (e.g. clay, concrete or calcium silicate bricks), so one will see the impact the choice has on cost, waste or the environment. If not acceptable, one can test alternative components until the cost, waste and environmental impact are all acceptable. Using the same tool for assessing these and other criteria, rather than a different tool for each criterion, will save designers a great deal of time and trouble.

BREEAM

We have already implemented BREEAM across NBS as far as we can within the present scope of the service (see NBS and BREEAM, by Bill Clark). With the new NBS, the scope of the service is being extended to include whole-building and whole-system considerations, so we will be able to deal with more possible BREEAM credits.

In the future we intend to extend the scope right back to project inception, providing opportunities for designers to record or stipulate credit-scoring requirements that would otherwise not be picked up in the specification (see BREEAM and the Plan of Work, by Bill Clark). For example, the 'Facility performance' section might stipulate site requirements for access to local transport or in respect of flood risk, assuming the site has not been acquired at that point. The 'Building outline – activities' section might describe the proposed building management regime, and anticipated user operation of lighting and ventilation systems.

All BREEAM-credit items recorded in the specification should be tagged and reportable, ideally with the ability to add up the credits they have earned by category (e.g. Materials), applying the weighting, and allocating the overall estimated building rating. Alternatives could be tested in the NBS software, in order to deliver the target rating. This will be quite challenging to deliver.

Third party product certification

Manufacturers may make first-party claims (ISO Type II) about the 'greenness' of their products. At best these can't be compared. At worst, they can't be trusted. Claims verified by authoritative third parties are preferred. There are three classes of such claims:

• Relative to a third-party multi-criteria life cycle assessment (LCA) standard which sets pass-fail points (ISO Type I). Examples include the EU Ecolabel, German Blue Angel and Nordic Ecolabel
• A report on environmental performance using an ISO 14040 series multi-criteria LCA standard, whether the performance is good or bad, to enable cross-product comparison (ISO Type III). Examples include BRE Environmental Profiles and IBU Environmental Product Declarations
• Single issue labelling, such as the Rakennustieto Emission Classification (RTS) and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) schemes.

Online registers of these schemes are available, but trawling through them is tedious for specifiers. It would be handy if they could be collected together, to simplify 'shopping' by specifiers or contractors, with links from relevant clause guidance in NBS. We would also like to automatically flag these against manufacturers and products in RIBA Product Selector and NBS Plus, and provide a prompt in NBS generic clause text where this type of certification is available for the product or system.

Environmental management systems

We hope to add a new section dealing with the client's environmental management system (EMS) requirements, to ISO 14001 or to BS 8555, for suppliers such as contractors. Contractors may have corporate EMSs in place, likely to be required to be submitted at tender or during prequalification, but they may be required to produce an EMS for the project, and submit it to the client shortly after winning the project. If the client is particularly interested in, say, the degree of openness and disclosure of information, the format and scope of documentation, or monitoring performance towards waste management and other objectives, then this could be stipulated.

Collecting data from disparate EMS registers is not easy to do (though TSO's QA Register has done this, but there is a £350 annual subscription for the service). Registers for some certifying agencies are freely available online:

• IEMA Acorn Register (Acorn is to BS 8555, and can lead to ISO 14001; not construction-specific – full register)
• BRE GreenBookLive (ISO 14001; construction-specific – only BRE-certified EMSs)
• IEMA EMAS Register (EMAS extends ISO 14001; not construction-specific – full register).

Others, e.g. LRQA's (Lloyd's Register), appear not to be online at all. As for third party product certification registers, it would be handy if they could be collected together, with links from relevant clause guidance in NBS. And again, we would also like to automatically flag these against manufacturers in RIBA Product Selector and NBS Plus, and provide a prompt in NBS generic clause text where this type of certification is available.

Simulations

External BIM-compliant design simulation softwares, for thermal performance, SBEM and so on, will need to be able to interrogate the entire model, not just the geometric (CAD) component. This will save a lot of multiple entry of the same non-geometric data (of which the specification is a major part), ensure that identical data is used for all simulations, and allow alternative design solutions to be assessed with a minimum of effort. Currently non-geometric data is entered manually into simulation softwares. To bring this to market we will have to deal with individual third-party software providers, to enable their content to find what it needs in the NBS. In some cases BIM-compliant software doesn't exist at all, at present. This would be a long-term development activity.

As noted, most of the ideas listed here can only be delivered after the launch of the new NBS. If you have any suggestions about how we should prioritise their development, I would be very pleased to hear from you. I'd like to hear of other suggestions for sustainability in the RIBA Enterprises suite of products and services, too. Contact me at john.gelder@thenbs.com.

Related NBS information:

Articles:

• BREEAM Assessment methods
• BREEAM and the Plan of Work
• NBS and BREEAM

Selected links:

• Green building
• Sustainable development

May 2011

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