BRE have published a briefing paper - Green Guide to Specification, Certified Environmental Profiles and BREEAM - setting out the road to BREEAM UK New Construction 2018 and what this means for the BREEAM UK New Construction 2014 scheme.
The selection and procurement of construction materials makes a major contribution to the lifecycle impacts of a building across the environmental, social and economic aspects of sustainability.
Much is said about materials selection and many sources of information are available mostly at the level of an individual material.
Through its built environment certification scheme, BREEAM, BRE has encouraged a more whole building level consideration of materials through the use of robust and science-based approaches during the design and procurement of buildings, infrastructure and others aspects of the built environment.
BRE’s Green Guide ratings and Environmental Profiles Certification scheme has been at the forefront of the environmental assessment of the built environment using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).
Where next?
The current focus on whole building LCAs reflects a strategic shift in the approach taken in sustainability assessment of the built environment within the BREEAM family.
BREEAM's strategy going forward will include a process for evaluating whole building environmental impacts as well as rewarding construction products with third-party verified environmental product definitions (EPD) based on the CEN TC 350 approach to the assessment of environmental impacts of construction works.
BRE have just released a briefing paper discussing the implications of this shift on the future of Green Guide ratings and Environmental Profiles Certification in more detail.
The document is relevant for product manufacturers, Trade Associations, BREEAM Assessors, clients, specifiers and designers alike.
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NBS and BDP join forces to improve generic carbon data in construction
Today, NBS (part of Hubexo), the platform for connected construction information, announces a long-term strategic partnership with BDP, a major global multidisciplinary practice of architects, designers, engineers and urbanists. The partnership recognises BDP's integral role in the development of NBS LCA, a new life-cycle carbon assessment platform providing professionals with high-quality, reliable and easy-to-use carbon data to ensure accurate tracking as construction projects evolve. BDP's primary contribution to NBS LCA has been the development of more than 1,300 pre-calculated generic assemblies, covering the most commonly used building fabric elements alongside key concrete and steel structural elements. These assemblies provide whole-element carbon data, giving designers consistent, UK-relevant carbon benchmarks from the earliest stages of project design. Users can easily and instantly apply carbon rates to a range of pre-configured common building elements, including walls, floors, and roofs. Developed by BDP and NBS, the assemblies remove the need for designers to manually build up material layers or calculate individual components at the concept stage. This saves significant time and effort, enabling proportionate and responsible carbon evaluation early in the design process, when decisions have the greatest impact on a project's overall carbon footprint. BDP also participated in collaborative workshops that directly informed the development of NBS LCA, helping to shape a tool that is practical, accessible and aligned with real-world UK construction workflows. Dr Lee Jones, Head of Sustainability at Hubexo, said: “BDP's contribution to NBS LCA has been invaluable. Their depth of project experience and technical knowledge has directly shaped the generic assemblies at the heart of the platform. These assemblies give designers a reliable, UK-relevant starting point for carbon assessment, without the burden of building everything from scratch. This is exactly the kind of collaboration that moves the industry forward, and we're proud to be working with BDP on a long-term basis.” Julia Yao, Associate, Sustainability Consultant at BDP, said: “Carbon assessment needs to be embedded in design from day one, not bolted on at the end. Working with NBS to develop its LCA product has been a genuine opportunity to put that principle into practice. The generic assemblies we developed draw on real project data and are designed to give designers meaningful, actionable carbon information at the concept stage. We're delighted to see them at the core of a platform that will be used across the industry.” With the UK Government outlining its commitment to responsible carbon reporting through its Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan, professionals need reliable, easy-to-use tools to assess and report embodied carbon. NBS LCA addresses this need by integrating carbon calculations with live design work, drawing on structured data from Circular Ecology's ICE Database and more than 12,500 verified, specification-ready construction products with Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) from NBS Source and ECO Portal. Over the coming months, NBS and BDP will continue to develop their partnership, with a shared commitment to improving the quality and accessibility of carbon data for construction professionals across the UK. NBS LCA is available now, with flexible subscriptions designed for all professionals. For more information, visit the website here.
