Sustainability and Life Cycle Analysis Data in Construction Materials Certifications - A Case Study from the Steel Industry

Brankley, Lee; Tugrul, Ayhan; Knight, David and Anderson, Jane (2017). Sustainability and Life Cycle Analysis Data in Construction Materials Certifications - A Case Study from the Steel Industry. In: EFRS - 6th International Iron & Steel Symposium, 25-26 May 2017, Izmir, Turkey.

Abstract

Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), Environmental Product Declarations (EPD’s) and other social and environmental data are used by construction material certifications to provide confidence to construction clients and public procurement processes that sustainability impacts are understood and that performance is being managed to reduce negative impacts.

This paper explores the drivers behind this certification approach through the context of the CARES Sustainable Constructional Steels certification scheme and its markets. It explores the trends shown by data collection and the challenges and opportunities for improvement and differentiation.

The findings suggest that requests for information from clients are getting more sophisticated and detailed, with the scope of criteria expanding to include human rights and social responsibility issues and are increasingly being used in procurement processes. The use of EPD’s to demonstrate environmental performance is becoming more common. They have shown that the difference between supplier efficiency is more important than the transport impacts and distances. Value could be gained by integrated LCA and EPD with wider sustainability information and making it accessible in other formats, such as, building information modelling systems.

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