On 11 January 2016, the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology (BREEAM) published a briefing paper entitled “Strategic approach to the selection and procurement of construction materials and products”.
On 20 August 2015, both CEMBUREAU (the European cement association) and the European Concrete Platform (ECP) responded to the Euroepan Commissions public consultation on the circular economy.
In a world where resources are becoming more and more scarce, the European Union needs to achieve smart, sustainable and inclusive growth by becoming a resource efficient economy.
Buildings use a significant share of our resources in materials, energy, water and land, and at the end of their lives they make up a third of all waste; therefore they play an important part in this transition. If we want the European building sector to become more competitive and more viable in the future, we need to attain higher resource efficiency levels. The potential to make savings in both costs and materials and to reduce the impact on the environment in the buildings sector is an important one.
At the end of March 2015, the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission released a report covering “Building design for safety and sustainability”.
In mid 2014, the European Commission published a Communication which focused on resource efficiency opportunities in the building sector (COM 2014/0445). Initially, this communications was due to focus on “sustainable buildings”. Unfortunately, this was not the case as not only was the title of the final modified, but also the focus of the content which stood squarely in the environmental segment of sustainability. Society and economy appeared, regrettably, to have fallen by the wayside.
