insights future watch
When it comes to specifying responsibly sourced construction materials and products, how much do you really know about the scope, rigour and consistency that lies behind the labels on products that more and more clients demand? What’s more do you really know what the label means? With the focus on responsible sourcing expanding to include a broader emphasis on social conditions throughout the supply chain, such concerns are now increasingly key issues for architects globally. Construction materials often have complex supply chains
covering a diverse range of geographical, political and economic variations. These often include parts of the world with high levels of enforced labour and other forms of exploitative labour practice. Of the 35.5 million people worldwide who are thought to be living in slavery, 70 per cent are found in regions which include major suppliers of basic and processed construction materials to the UK. The Modern Slavery Act which came into force last October has increased the emphasis on ensuring that such practices are not part of your supply chain. The international nature and fragmentation of many
materials supply sectors has meant that there is some inevitable inertia preventing them from robustly understanding the impacts and addressing them. Responsible sourcing schemes range from the BRE’s own generic BES6001 scheme to other sector-specific ones such as FSC, PEFC and others for timber, and CARES and EcoReinforcement for steel reinforcement products. Each of these schemes have their own strengths and
weaknesses partially resulting from the difficulties of the sectors that they deal with and partially a result of their relative immaturity. In carrying out its review for BREEAM, BRE is working with key responsible sourcing certification schemes (RSCSs) to identify these strengths and weaknesses and then to work to increase their rigour over time, so stimulating a shift in industry perceptions from the sometimes-seen view of responsible sourcing as a ‘nice thing to do’ to engagement with a transparent, fully scrutinised process. Architect and technical director at BRE Global’s sustainabil-
ity group Alan Yates comments: “It’s about encouraging scheme operators and the sectors they serve to get on board and improve and innovate in a way that is appropriate to their sector.”
‘The ultimate aim of the review is to ensure that the schemes recognised by BREEAM
continue to be managed robustly’
Over its 25 years, BREEAM has always included credits for
responsible sourcing. As part of its continued support of the key schemes currently in operation, the ratings body has scrutinised how well they have maintained their processes and kept up to speed with best practice. The principal purpose of this work is to amend the scoring process for responsible sourc- ing to take account of the differences between schemes and enable BRE to recognise future enhancements in this area. BRE is about to publish a revised version of its BREEAM
Guidance Note (GN18) with amended points scores for each scheme and a summary review of the six key RSCSs that it currently recognises in BREEAM – BES6001 for all materials and components, plus FSC, PEFC and SFI for timber and UK CARES SCS and EcoReinforcement for steel. The ulti- mate aim of the review is to ensure that the schemes recog- nised by BREEAM continue to be managed robustly and along the way offering specifiers greater transparency and con- fidence in the process. This will also, it is hoped, enable specifiers to in future have
a better understanding of what now-familiar labels mean, and what they do not. By bringing in a more sophisticated scoring process for responsible sourcing schemes within BREEAM comprising key criteria, BRE is aiming to underpin its credibil- ity via a consistent, fair and balanced approach. As detailed on the following page, this universal set of criteria will evaluate the schemes so that they can be better considered
15
www.architectsdatafile.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108