BPF Services EE EC LCA EPD (CPD) G#43351

GBE Green Building Encyclopaedia, CPD Continuing Professionals Development, Services EE Embodied Energy EC Embodied Carbon LCA Life Cycle Assessment EPD Environmental Product Declaration A03 BRM BrianSpecMan 040326 S1 Cover Slide BPF British Plastics Federation

BPF Services EE EC LCA EPD CPD

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GBE CPD Metadata

  • File Name: GBE CPD Services EE EC LCA EPD A03BRM040326 BPF.PDF in Dropbox
  • File Type: PDF of PPTX
  • File Size: PPTX: 21.4 mb; PDF Show: 11.8 mb
  • Number of Slides/Pages: PDF Show: was 92 Slides now 107 of 188
  • Created for: CIBSE EA 2013, BPF Event 2025
  • Presented to: CIBSE EA 2013, BPF Event 2025
  • Author: BrianSpecMan aka Brian Murphy ONC HNC Construction BSc & PGDip Architecture (Hons+Dist)
  • © GBE GBL GBC NGS ASWS 2008-2026
  • Created: 2008
  • Revision: A03
  • Updated: 04/03/2026
  • CAWS 1987: R10 – Y99
  • Tags: CPD, Lecture, NGS CPD CIBSE EA Services EE EC LCA BIM, National Green Specification, Continuing Professional Development, Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers, East Anglia, Embodied Energy, Embodied carbon, Life Cycle Assessment, Building Information Modelling, Cover Slide, BrianSpecMan
  • ProductSets: Building Services, LCA Calculations,
  • UserGroups: Services Manufacturers, Services Engineers, Services Students, Services Constructors

GBE CPD Content

(without images; See the slide show for the pictures)

•Life Cycle Embodied Energy – Fact or Fiction?
•BPF Pipe Division 2025 Leeds
Brian Murphy of National Green Specification
© 2013-2025
•Life Cycle Embodied Energy – Fact or Fiction?
•CIBSE EA
Brian Murphy of National Green Specification
©2013
•
•Brian Murphy will provide:
•A glimpse into the world of EE, EC, LCA, EPD, BIM, D&DT, M&E Carbon Calculators, CIBSE TM65 & TM66
•Validation of manufacturers information
•Offer some tools to help steer a safe root between sustainability and liability
•Suggest new career opportunities
•OE/C > EE & EC
•During the Sustainability Revolution we are progressing towards:
•low energy demand/carbon buildings
•shift our focus from operational energy and carbon towards
•embodied energy & embodied carbon
–building fabric (walls floor roofs etc)
–Services (pipes ducts cables and kit)
•If BRE and BREEAM ever catch up
•UK Perspective
•bre’s BREEAM Environmental Assessment Method
–Non-domestic, voluntary, going global, fail>pass>excellent>outstanding>green
–Tick box exercise, found wanting in many areas and supporting tools
–Emphasis on low operational energy buildings so biased (weightings) as a result
–5-7% of credits down to materials (weighting must change & % increase)
•Code for Sustainable Homes (created by bre based on EcoHomes/BREEAM)
–Government (DCLG) requirement for funded housing slow development to higher standards
–Delayed, progressively adopted in private housing development, then scrapped
–No requirement in private houses and self build (many living a >3++++ planet lifestyle + eco bling)
•bre’s Green Guide to Specification
–Backed by Construction Products Association
•Predominantly conventional materials manufacturers
•predominantly big or medium sized enterprises
•Or highly automated low labour force with big turnover
–Predominantly violet materials, but claims a level playing field
–Generic LCA, whole elements, conventional construction
•bre’s GreenBookLive
–Environmental Profiles EP  ≠ Environmental Product Declaration EPD, until EN 15804
–products, violet ingredients, carpets, PVC, bitumen
–EPD being worn as a green badge when it is not a green badge
•The UK at least needs an OR EQUIVALENT with a level paying field and green materials included
•bre are breaking into the EU & Global market with BREEAM
•EU and the world needs an OR EQUIVALENT
•Carbon in buildings
•Sequestered Carbon in biobased materials
•Embodied Carbon & Energy in materials
•Embodied Carbon in embodied water in materials
•Embodied Carbon in transport of materials
•Embodied Carbon in transport of people, plant, materials and waste
•Embodied Carbon in construction
•Carbon load of mains water in use
•Carbon in Energy & Fuel & Heat
•Operational Carbon in operation & maintenance
•
•Green & Violet Materials
Definitions
Coined at ‘Green is the colour’ 1999 BD Conference at RIBA
•Basics
•Avoid or reduce use of:
–Cement, Concrete, Steel, Brick, Mortar, Plastics, Aluminium, Chemistry,
•Increase use of:
–Timber, Solid Wood Systems, Natural Stone, Natural fibre boards and insulation
–Reclaimed and reused materials
–Recycled materials avoiding chemistry and cement binding
•Violet Materials
•Non-renewable, finite
–Fossil derivatives, fuel, hydrocarbons, high embodied carbon
•HydroCarbons: Oils, Greases, lubricants
–Petrochemical, chemicals, synthetics:
•Paints
•Plastics (from hydrocarbons)
•Unsustainable
–Carbon based: e.g. Fuel
–Release Carbon in manufacture or use: e.g. Cement
•High embodied energy: e.g. energy intensive manufacture
–Metals: Aluminium (was made with renewable energy, today more gas and coal)
–Steel 7% of manmade carbon
–Hot dip galvanizing: molten zinc 24/7/365
–Plastics: Hot melt, injection, extrusion, pultrusion, moulded
–Cement (UK uses more waste as fuel but tyres are fossil fuel too)
•Hazardous materials and hazardous waste:
–Wet, sticky, gooey or flows:
•resins, paints, sealants, chemicals, adhesives
–Fine particulate:  e.g. cement, asbestos, ceramic fibre
–Corrosive, acidic, alkali,
–Fire suppression chemistry
–Air conditioning chilling chemistry, leaks, decanting leaks
–Carbon Black in rubber components
•Ozone depleting & Global Warming
–Foamed plastics CFC HCFC HFCs HFAs
Aluminium production PFCs
•PFAS forever and everywhere chemistry
•Green: Environmentally Sustainable Materials
•Renewable: timber,
•Rapidly renewable: Plant based materials
•Abundant: Site subsoil, rocks, sand, gravel,
•Recycled & Recyclable:
–Post-consumer content,
•Reclaimed & Reused:
–on site materials, timber as timber not chipboard
•Carbon already out there:
–reclaimed bricks, slates, stone
•Carbon sequestration: low, neutral or Carbon negative:
–Plant and timber based
–Grow aggregate by carbonation C8Systems
•Low embodied energy: Plant based, minerals
•Local: low transport miles, fuel, emissions and congestion
•What are the issues? MEP Pipes
•Weight:
–Concrete, Clay, SS, Glass v Plastics, GMS
–Affects transport emissions (only?)
•Materials:
–Embodied Energy: Cooking, Melting
–Embodied Carbon:
•resource material & Fuel
–But LCA & EPD cover many other issues
–Substituting Plastics
•Example PVC v ABS v HDPE
–Substitutions can lead to reduced performance if done badly
•Calculated at building or systems level in LCA
–So violet look grey and green look grey
–But specifiers are considering materials too
•
•Risks 1
•BRE Green Guide to Specification
–Generic materials by sector
–Sector data collection
–Average figures derived
–Opportunity for high impact manufacturer can hide behind sector average
–No incentive to be greener
–PVCU windows were an example
•Risks 2
•One Click LCA
–(1 click is a marketing lie, its complex)
•EPD to EN 15804 AMD 1 & 2 cannot be seen in the same place nor figures merged in calculations
•Most are AMD 1
•All new EPD must be AMD 2
•5 years overlap until all are AMD 2
•So LCA is effectively unusable for now
•Risks 3
•Carbon Calculators
•Whole building, Retrofit, Historic, Interiors, Insurance Repair, MEP, Glazing, Flooring, Reclamation & Reuse, Pre-Demolition Audits
•BSRIA 2021
•CIBSE TM65 Project
• CIBSE TM 65
•Some of the information may be readily available from your supply chain or needs to be calculated from the information provided with generic materials impact data.
•I may also need to purchase licenses to other data sets including:
•CIBSE’s TM65 project Outputs including:
•TM65.1 Domestic Generic and
•TM65.2 Domestic Product
•TM65.3 Non-domestic Generic and
•TM65.4 Non-Domestic Product
•CIBSE’s TM66 project outputs including: TM66 Lighting
•TM65 Methodology, data sets and Calculator
•
•CIBSE TM65 Manufacturer Form
•CIBSE TM65 Reporting Form
•CIBSE TM65 Calculator
•£100 to download
•As are all the TM65 publications
–Now condensed into 1 document not 4
•Build your own calculator?
•Using TM65 Data sets and Method
•Home@ix Affordable Houses Developer Ever After Cottage house type.
•This can and should ideally include:
•Building Sub- and Super-structurer,
•Building Fabric (walls, roofs, floors) cladding,
•Interiors: finishes, linings, decoration, furniture and fixtures,
•Above and below ground Mechanical, Electrical and Public Health (MEP) services;
•Hard, soft and wet landscape and
•Grey, green and blue infrastructure and services.
• GMEPC calculator
•I have started the building calculations in Green Building Calculator (GBC is a MS Excel calculator of my own creation, more notes below)
•I will start the services calculations in the same spreadsheet within their own dedicated worksheet(s); these spreadsheets need to be developed by me from scratch urgently.
•I will populate these cells with the information you provide, but it may be as easy for you to communicate them to me by adding them directly into the spreadsheet.
•If you have already been auditing your impacts, you may have some of the information needed for this task in Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) or Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)
•GMEPC Calculator
•To carry out the services calculations
•I will a need a comprehensive set of information on the services installations you are responsible for inventing, designing, manufacturing and its installation.
•I need to quantify, by weight or volume, all different materials and products in the whole installation
•then convert to embodied energy and embodied carbon and
•if you include any plant- or timber-based materials then sequestered carbon too.
•Scope of Analysis: Everything
•System includes the following components:
•Roof mounted solar thermal tube assemblies (STTA),
•Roof integration supports, drainage and flashings to roof coverings
•Robustly insulated pipes from STTA down to heat distribution control panel (HDCP)
•Robustly insulated solar domestic hot water cylinder (SDHWC)
•with back up mains powered top mounted immersion heater.
•with display panel, heat distribution pump, thermostats, etc.
•SDHWC located close to HDCP and close to SDHWC
•Robustly insulated pipes from HDCP to SDHWC
•Power and communications wiring between many or all components of the system
•Switch, sockets and jointing back boxes, conduit or electrical looms and connectors
•Air source heat pump (ASHP) and support/restraint system
•Robustly insulated pipes from ASHP to HDCP
•Robustly insulated pipes from HDCP to SDHWC
•Robustly insulated pipes include all joints, bends and valves robustly insulated
• MVHR
•Is the following by you and does your system connect to these?
•Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR): heat exchanger and filters
•Insulated ductwork or ducts in insulated voids
•Room side ventilation inlets and any return grilles
•External inlets and outlet
•Robustly insulated pipes delivering heat to or from HDCP
• Attic Loft Space
•If any of your services are to be in the top floor’s loft space them, we will need to add access walkways above the thermal insulation to prevent it being squashed to become ineffective.
•Can you also provide me with:
•Layout information (as PDF format) I cannot read CAD files unless you suggest a low-cost reader)
•Plans and sections showing appliance positions and pipes, ducts and cable routes
•Alternatively, this information could be a 3D sketch with length dimensions
•Or a 2D sketch showing trunk and branches with length dimensions
•Domestic services Systems
•DHW System
•Isolated Non Systems
•BofQ
•EE EC SC
•LCA EPD
•I will also need:
•Duct and pipe wall thickness(es) along lengths and which materials for each
•Wires, their make-up, metal core(s), profile, thickness, spacers, sleeves and sheaths
•Supports: fixings, fastenings, spacing, size, profile, materials.
•Any fire or acoustic proofing at passages through elements of the building
•Controls: you may already have a parts list?
•Circuit boards: I believe there is a standard impact for industry average circuit boards
•Pipes Ducts Wires Volumes
•Any ready parts that you buy in:
•If you can name the manufacturer, product name and model number then we can do internet searches for product dimensional data and impact data.
•MEP PDC
• Country of origin of products
•To be robust I need to know:
•location (country of manufacture)
•power supply you use to manufacture mains electricity or direct from renewables.
•
•In view of the launch event on the 5th of November which needs to demonstrate some of these figures during a live demonstration of Home@ix your earliest response to this will be most helpful.
•For me to carry out other actions with this information.
•If your information is coming in phases this will be better than waiting to complete it all in one go.
• GBC (Green Building Calculator)
•GBC is a design and decision tool to assemble a numerical and textual model of a building(s) in which designers/users define the building(s) then select materials and products in each of its elements to obtain:
–upfront embodied energy and carbon
–in use energy and carbon
–building and running costs.
•It will emphasize choice of Green Building materials and Products in the quest to reduce the environmental impact and health of building
•but inevitably includes Violet Building Material and methods where no green choices exist and for comparison purposes.
•GBC includes essential inputs, ingredients, and outputs:
•Drop Down Lists
•TM65 Manufacturer Forms Merged
•MEP Equipment LUT
•
•MEP System LUT
•Inputs:
•GBPDC (Green Building Product Data Collection)
•GBPB (Green Building Price Book)
•GBREA (Green Building Readymade Elemental Assemblies)
•Outputs:
•GBPMP (Green Building Product/Materials Passport
•GBMS (Green Building Method Statement)
•GBRS (Green Building Robust Specification)
•Status Quo
•Our industry
•Self serving
•Fiduciary rules > Profit focused
•Compromise happy
•Building is a means to an end
•Competent building is optional
•Competent  Appropriate Environmental Construction is unlikely
•BIM & D&DT
•Government procurement via Building Information Modeling (BIM)
•we have the tools to draw and measure/quantify > cost
–but where is the Information & Modeling?
•BIM libraries are appearing:
–full of dumb models
•Design & Decision Tools are needed to:
–analyse, compare, choose appropriate products, materials
–make changes to our specification habits.
•Everybody needs to become involved in driving change:
–designer, specifier, cost controllers, value (vandel) engineers, manufacturer, installer, facilities manager.
•Architects
•Many Architects don’t fully understand
–physics of buildings and science of materials,
•Focus on philosophy, poetry, art and BS
•Quite often short on knowledge
•Rarely brief the engineers in sustainable approaches to be adopted
•Engineers with calculations can run rings round them
•Engineers
•Engineers are focused on the numbers of structural and services engineering
•whilst Environmental Assessment Method (EAM) are on efficiency drives;
–Tick box exercises
•Engineers need better guidance on the environmental opportunities.
• Services Engineers
•Services Engineers read the journals about novel approaches to:
–low energy lighting, lighting controls,
–sustainable urban drainage,
–water saving appliances and valves,
–smart meters and smart or intelligent buildings,
•but we still see many dumb solutions born out of:
–Business as usual
–fear of health and safety or PII responsibility
–some knowledge applied badly
–resulting in wasteful practices and higher energy consumption
•Specifiers
•Standard specifications are the norm,
–reliant upon the drawing annotation or schedules to point at the specification clauses relevant to the project.
•Standard specification quite often:
–permit the use of recycled aggregates or OPC replacement
–but do not require their use,
–unless the Engineer is proactive in requesting them in drawing annotation,
•Industry norm will be adopted for familiarity, supply chain continuity, simplicity and piece of mind.
•QS & Cost controllers
•compromise between what we design and what we build with:
–cost cutting,
–value ‘vandal’ engineering
–looking at more than one item at a time and finding cheaper overall solutions
•Usually cost cutting in disguise
–Engineering value out of buildings
•Specification substitution
–Highlighted by Grenfell Enquiry
•with low initial cost as the primary criteria for success
•CAPEX v OPEX
•TOTEX no where to be seen
• Contractors
•substitutions
–often replacing a good product with a worse one or a different performing product
•surreptitious substitutions
–Nobody verifies anything
–with profit margin as the primary criteria for success
•Constructors
•Further degradation of ambitions occurs on site through lack of communication from the design team,
•lack of understanding by site agents and managers leading to poor substitutions,
•poor supervision, lack of care or lack of knowledge of new systems or methods
•leading to misguided ambition or poor workmanship.
•Sustainability Revolution
•Aiming for:
•Healthy Environmental Resourceful Appropriate Competent Effective Yardstick Construction, it is possible. (HERACEY™)
•Falling a long way short mostly
•Even the dark greens are not always successful
•Thermal bridging permitted by mixing component size to reduce waste change k value of materials in cavity walls
•Resource Efficiency v
Effectiveness
•Interreg: Cradle to Cradle Network
•CARBON
•Definitions
•Carbon
•Carbon Dioxide
•EE Embodied Energy (fuel choice)
•EC Embodied Carbon (fuel & reactions)
•RC Renewable Carbon (Biobased mats.)
•SC Sequestered Carbon
•ECh Embodied Chemistry
•EW  Embodied Water
•Carbon
•Carbon C
•Charcoal
•Carbon Black?
–Highly polluting dying ingredient used in rubber tyres, membranes
–Fine powder, carcinogenic
•Diamond
•Graphite?
•Buckminsterfullerine C21
•Carbon Steel: Iron and Carbon
•CFC Chloro Flouro Carbon, HCFC, HFC
•PFC (intermittent polluting emission from aluminium production)
•Methane CH4
•Carbon
•Abbreviation: C in Periodic Table
•Atom: 1 part carbon
•A material
•‘Carbon’ also an unhelpful shortening of Carbon Dioxide
•They are not the same thing and result in different calculations
•Take care to be sure which is being described, tabulated, calculated
•Carbon Dioxide
•A gas
•1 part Carbon and 2 parts Oxygen
•Abbreviated CO2
•An important part of the Earth’s Atmosphere
–Not enough and its too cold,
–too much and its too hot
•Carbon Dioxide
•Can be liquid at cold temperature
•Recently used as a blowing agent in foamed plastics
•Has been used to fill double glazed sealed units
•Used in fire extinguishing once evacuated
•Carbon Dioxide
•Main Greenhouse Gas (GHG) produced from the burning of fossil fuels
•such as coal, natural gas and crude oil.
•Carbon In Fuel & UK Power
•Carbon In Fuel & UK Mains Elec
•Renewable Carbon
•Carbon in the form of cellulose fibre asgrown by plants and trees is renewable over a much shorter period
•Some is naturally fast growing
•Some slower and artificially fast grown in plantations
•Uses include: Food, Oils, Biomass fuel, Bio-fuels, material for cloths, utensils, boats, construction materials
•Renewable Carbon Materials
•Materials using plant and tree-based cellulose
•Trees: 40-100 years >
–Wood many applications
•Plantation thinnings: much sooner >
–small section and composite timber products, timber fibre and flour
•Wood fibre:
–Thermal and acoustic insulation, underlayment isolation, soft batts and rigid boards, moisture management without mechanical ventilation
•Rapidly Renewable Carbon Materials
•Plants: 1 growing season:
–E.g. cellulose fibre
–E.g. Hemp shiv
•Bamboo: 1 growing season >
–animal food
–Flooring, linings, boards, etc.
–Liquid store, pipes, scaffolding
•Oils and resins:
–1 growing season > Linseed oil,
–Linoleum flooring
–Paints, oils
•Renewable carbon materials v Non-renewable carbon materials
•Plant based materials with properties of plastics
•Potato starch made into equivalent of expanded polystyrene
–At end of use + water > reverts to starch
•Bio-plastics are being developed using plant-based material and plant extract resins
–With the properties of plastics
–Foamed plastics in particular
•Plant based resins in place of synthetic resins
– used to make carpet
•Resin and cellulose
–furniture
•Carbon Sequestration
•The naturally occurring or deliberate removal of carbon from the atmosphere
•The storage of carbon in materials or a store or a sink where it will remain.
•Types of sequestration include:
–’geological’ where CO2 is captured and buried underground or under ocean e.g. in porous stone
–’biological’ where CO2 is absorbed during the growth of plants and trees.
–‘Oceanic’ where CO2 is absorbed by the surface of the oceans
–‘Soil’ where CO2 is absorbed by topsoil
•Carbon Sequestration in Construction
•usually refers to building products derived from plant materials
–such as wood and hemp,
•where CO2 is absorbed as part of the growing process.
•The carbon remains ‘locked’ in the material for the lifetime of the building
–And potentially beyond end of first life.
–BRE Green Guide usually assumes its burned or landfilled
–But we have ½W2L
–Circular Economy in full swing not long until 0W2L
•Carbon Trading
(a kind of Fiction)
•Kyoto Summit’s Protocol called for Carbon reductions by all nations
•USA and a few others refused to sign up if it meant this might affect their business community’s profitability or profligacy
•A last-minute suggestion to try to get the USA to sign up was to invent a way for the developed countries to do nothing and pay another country for its share of unused ‘carbon credits’
•Carbon-Offsetting
•Carbon offsetting is the term given to the process of buying into projects that either absorb CO2 or prevent emissions of CO2 to counteract activities that produce CO2.
•Examples include investing in tree planting, buying ‘green’ electricity tariffs, and contributing to energy efficiency measures in developing countries.
•However, whilst many of these actions may have long-term benefits for the environment, offsetting should not be used as an excuse to relax efforts to reduce our current carbon emissions as it is current CO2 levels and emissions that need reducing.
•(Ecos Renews 17)
•Carbon-Offsetting
•Beloved by large corporate organisations and the financial sector, but derided by the environmental lobby as a “cop out,” carbon-offsetting works on the good old-fashioned principle of robbing Peter to pay Paul.
•If you can’t, or chose not to, reduce your CO2 emissions then carbon offsetting is a way of compensating a poor eco attitude.
•Carbon-offsetting is where wealthier northern hemisphere nations fund environmentally sound projects in the emerging economies of Africa and Asia swapping their high CO2 emissions for the latter’s low or non-existent emissions.
•Typical examples of the type of carbon offsetting undertaken is tree planting – prevalent in the UK; and renewable energy and ICT technologies in Africa and Asia.
•A clear distinction should be made with ‘carbon trading’ which is highly regulated stock market activity and legally controlled.
•(Building Magazine Steve Piltz, Turner & Townsend ’08)
•Carbon Offsetting
•A kind of Fiction
•Ask an abstaining couple to abstain from sex
•So you can have affairs when you want
•Everything is in balance

 

•Embodied
•A kind of Fiction
•Energy or Carbon or Water
•Conceptually Embodied in material
•Not embedded
•But left in the factory or released to the atmosphere or discharged into the drain or disposed in landfill

Embodied Energy

•All the energy required and used to grow, harvest, extract, manufacture, refine, process, package, transport, install of a particular product or building material.
•What about:
–maintaining and disposing of it?
–embodied energy of the labour force
•that  made it, stock it & travel to site to install it?
•Embodied Carbon
•Conceptually, Carbon ‘embodied’ in the material but not ‘embedded’ (no longer or never present in the material)
•Usually, the totalling up of the carbon
–used to create a material or product
–Or released in the manufacturing
–Includes the carbon from fossil-based fuels used in the manufacturing processes and transporting
•Embodied Energy v
Embodied Carbon
•Don’t mix them up
•They are not the same thing
•Many materials use energy to manufacturer
–Depending on the fuel choice
•different levels of carbon outputs
•Some materials release Carbon/CO2
–To the atmosphere
–Plastics
–Cement
•Steels are high embodied energy
•Plastics are high embodied carbon and energy
•Cement is high embodied energy and carbon
•Embodied v Embedded Carbon
•Embodied is understood
•Embedded:
–Unhelpful term too close to Embodied
–Related to Sequestered Carbon?
–But ……proposed definition…..
•Embedded Carbon?
•Plastics are made from hydro-carbons and still contain them
•The have ‘embedded’ carbon
•They can be ‘un- or re-processed’ back to hydro-carbons
•In time landfills will be mined to reclaim plastics to turn back into hydro-carbons
•to make fuel or other plastics
•Carbon Sequestration
•Growing plants, bamboo, wood, etc.
•Turns carbon dioxide from atmosphere into renewable carbon cellulose fibre
–Waste product is oxygen
•Stores carbon dioxide in wood fibre
•Timber in construction stores CO2
•For the life of the building
•Renewable Carbon Sequestration
•Carbon8Systems
•Carbon Dioxide, Water and particles
•Combine to grow calcium carbonate ‘stones’ around the particles
•Stones that can be aggregates
•Grow tiles around particles
•GBC V2>V3
Element EE EC & SC: Hemp
•GBC V2 EE EC SC Look Up Table
More datasets needed
•ICE 3.0 database
carbon reporting options
•Low Carbon alternatives
•OPC Ordinary Portland Cement
•Replace with OPC substitutes
–GGBS Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag Cement (from steel production)
–Or 65% GGBS blended with 35% OPC
–PFA Pulverised Fuel (High Carbon Coal)Ash Cement
•OPC replaced partially or completely
–with Lime
–Lower cooking temperature
–Carbon sequestered during construction and during building life
•Carbon negative,
positive & neutral
•Grow Trees
–Carbon sequestration from atmosphere
–Carbon negative C-ve
•Convert to wood or paper
•Burn wood or paper
–Release carbon to atmosphere
–Carbon positive C+ve
•Net result: Carbon neutral C+=-
•But there is a little energy and possible carbon in converting the  tree to wood or paper
–not quite Carbon neutral a bit Carbon positive C+ve
•Carbon Negative
•Hemp-lime construction
•Uses hemp shiv as an aggregate C-ve
•Uses lime as a binder C+ve
•To make a material like concrete C-ve
•But many other positive properties
•But add cement for fast set C+ve
•Add aluminium oxide to react with cement to foam like aerated concrete E+ve
•But still C-ve
•Carbon Positive
•Often used confusingly
•meaning carbon negative with a ‘positive’ swing
•
•Carbon Neutral
•Conceptually, a state whereby the CO2generated by a process is exactly balanced by the amount of CO2 either offset or sequestered by the process.
•A carbon neutral building is one that either uses no fuel that generates CO2or where its consumption of CO2-generating fuel is equally balanced by exported renewable energy.
•The definition continues to be debated as to the extent of direct / indirect CO2that is included in the equation
•E.g. CO2 generated in the construction of the building.
•Carbon Load
•Associated with water supply:
–Water is cleaned with chemicals and energy
–Water is pumped with energy into water towers to deliver by gravity
•A water sector is a major
–User of energy
•The energy sector is a major
–user of water
–waster of  energy and heat (75% of input)
–Power stations use steam turbines
–Turbines are fed with water turned to steam
–The steam is cooled in cooling towers
–Steam escapes and some water is recycled
•Its time this was sorted out, where is CH&P,
–whichever fuel they choose
•Low Carbon Building (LCB):
(In use)
•LCBs are buildings which are specifically engineered with Carbon Dioxide reduction in mind (a major Greenhouse Gas (GHG) with Climate change potential).
•So by definition, a LCB is a building which emits significantly less Carbon Dioxide than regular buildings.
•There is at the moment no emissions threshold under which a building would qualify as a LCB.
•But to be genuinely Carbon or CO2neutral, a LCB would have to achieve at least 80% Caron or CO2 reduction compared to traditional buildings.
•Achieving 80% Carbon Reduction is easy!
UsableBuildings Bill Bordass
•Achieving 80% Carbon Reduction is easy!
UsableBuildings Bill Bordass
•Life Cycle Assessments & Environmental Product Declarations
•Definitions:
EP LCA EPD PEF
•LCA Life Cycle Assessment
•Cradle-to-*
•LCA for transport
•Carbon Sequestration in LCAs
•BRE Green Guide to Specification
•Environmental Profile EP
•
•EPD Environmental Product Declaration
•CAP’EM Project
–Low cost LCA
•Carbon Footprinting
•EU PEF Product Environmental Footprinting
•Definitions:
•Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) a number crunching process to determine the environmental impact of manufacturing materials or products, it requires full disclosure of materials, recipes and commercially sensitive information so it should be protected by non-disclosure agreements.
•Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) a public declaration of the text and numerical results of the LCA process without revealing commercially sensitive material.
•Don’t start if you won’t finish
•Manufacturers contemplating spending on an LCA & EPD need to be aware of the costs, process, obligations, permissions and marketing opportunities.
•It is not practical to provide a firm quote in advance, before understanding the source of resources used, manufacturing processes, product, packaging and waste.
•The following sets out the various tasks in the process; where possible indicating the bulk of the costs
•Preparation
•To prepare for the first meeting (face to face or online), become aware of the data you have in your order or accounts books, inbound and outbound, transport, materials, energy consumption, renewable energy, electrical and other fuels and any data on waste, emissions and packaging.
•Understanding your materials flow diagram in sourcing, imports, ingredients, machinery modules, handling materials, manufacture, recycling, waste, packaging, transport.
•If you have been preparing information for LCA and EPD previously you may already be familiar with this information.
•We also need to see your technical and promotional literature, test evidence and certification; this will inform the words included in the EPD.
•Track record
•We sometimes suggest you decide which 12 months represent your average business activity,
–(Avoiding Brexit, Covid, Grenfell, Ukraine and now USA influences)
•If your production line is new you will not have a representative track record.
•We suggest you collect all data from the first days of production to build up your track record as soon as possible.
•It may be that the EPD is delayed to get 12 months track record or the EPD states the short track record.
•You could consider having it updated quarterly until you have 12 months of consistent data; or even showing progressively better data?
•But this is unlikely to be acceptable on EPD platforms until 12 months.
•We should take the LCA EPD practitioner’s guidance on that.
•Marketing through the EPD
•The EPD Template offers the opportunity to do a little marketing within the pages of the template or on the back cover.
•But this is should be a technical response rather than a marketing one, where we have taken the opportunity to compare a material with its competition in a generic way, by embedding EPD results into the text.
•You could start to prepare those factual statements and arguments.
•We will also review the text for any risks of greenwash and offer safer statements so none of your competition could argue to the contrary.
•I like them to be detailed in a succinct way, writing specifications is a good discipline for this kind of writing.
•The process is divided into two stages:
•LCA with is the number crunching exercise done in private by an LCA practitioner
•EPD is the public declaration to include the results of the number crunching but not the inputs to the calculation of LCA
•Normally the LCA and EPD practitioner will be happy to sign a Non-disclosure Agreement so that the manufacturer is confident about releasing Intellectual Property information.
•Fee: [Upon application].
•Guide price: circa £10,000 for simple material,
–complex products considerably more
•Prospects: See Renuables Ltd. Quotation
•Intellectual property
•LCA is an analytical process to determine the environmental impact of an ingredient, material, product, accessory, subsystem, assembly, element or building; including inputs and outputs energy, heat, water, wastes, packaging, everything.
•The manufacturer needs to disclose sources, materials, recipes, mix ratios, transport methods and distances, manufacturing processes;
–all of which are the Intellectual Property of the manufacturer.
•LCA includes ALL of the resources, materials, chemicals, additives, transports, processes and energy used by machinery no matter how little you use
•Scope of Assessment and why they are necessary
•The scope of the assessment is from the source, to at least the factory gate (see A1 to A3 below)
•Anything less than the total declaration of impacts is likely to get caught out when the competition do their LCA and EPD and compare notes or scrutinize any published EPD with a fine-tooth comb.
•If the manufacturer is not prepared to disclose all of the information to the LCA practitioner, then LCA is not for them.
•But as you will be increasingly aware that:
•Specifiers are now considering the environmental impact of their specification choices and are asking for LCA and EPD datasets
•Designers are using LCA calculators for components, elements and whole buildings and they rely on EPD databases and individual EPDs
•UK Government Procurement is reported to require EPD certified products in all projects.
•EPD are a promotional opportunity to:
•Display and explain the numbers without disclosing the Intellectual Property information
•Remember ‘Architects cannot read’ and ‘Architects cannot count’ so lots of images, logos, graphs, tables, charts, drawings, details, photos
•There is a new generation of Architects who care about the planet who are learning how to scrutinize the data and scythe through the ‘greenwash’
•Do some comparisons, in a generic way, between alternative materials.
•Explain and demonstrate environmental, financial and performance advantages of your product
•Promote the intentions of the problem-solving product
•EPDs are a combination of information from the LCA and manufacturer’s marketing text and images that is in line with the LCA and promotes the truth about the products.
•Add substantiated environmental green labels
•Add Mobius loop logos with ‘certified by ISO 14021’ recycling percentages e.g. NGS Echo
•Scope of the EPD
•For a formally registered and verified EPD the recently updated EN 15804’s minimum requirement is Modules A1-A4 (many existing EPD only address A1 to A3)
•A1 Product: Raw Materials Supply,
•A2 Product: Transport,
•A3 Product: Manufacture
•A4 Product: Transport from gate to site
•A5 Product: Installation
•So, this means data is needed for the manufacturer’s supply chain from factory gate, via the supplier to the construction site gate (A4)
•This will also help when adding EPD datasets to LCA tools that also use models Modules A to D of the EPD.
•There is increasing demand to complete A-D of the EN 15804 table.
•Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) (mandatory for members) Professional Statement (PS) guidance on calculations or calculating tools required more of the A to D to be considered and gives guidance on how this is to be done.
•https://www.rics.org/globalassets/rics-website/media/news/whole-life-carbon-assessment-for-the–built-environment-november-2017.pdf
•The Public consultation of the update to this document requires carbon sequestration (useful for plant or timber-based materials) must be calculated for all of Modules A-D or not at all.
•And total carbon (embodied carbon minus sequestered carbon) should not be calculated but the two figures presented separately.
•Peer Review:
•Once the EPD is complete, it must be verified by an independent 3rd party Peer Review by a LCA EPD Practitioner qualified to do LCA and EPD Peer Reviews for Business to Customer declarations.
•Fee: to be determined by quotation
•Rough Guide: £2100-£3400 (extracted from a study, subject to confirmation)
•Simple one material product: towards the lower end of this price range (subject to confirmation)
•Registering Peer Reviewed EPD
•The International EPD System:https://environdec.com/pricing/pricing-2021
•Registration fee: The registration fee is a one-time fee that is charged once per EPD for registration and publication via The International EPD System, prices at time of writing are:
•Registration Fees (per EPD)
•EPD No. 1:
–1000 EUR
•EPD No. 2, 3, 4:
–500 EUR
•EPD No. 5 – 99:
–100 EUR
•EPD No. 100 and more:
–50 EUR
•Annual fee:
•The annual fee is a recurring fee, charged on an annual basis and depends on your organisations size.
•Annual Fees (by org. size)
•Micro (1-10 employees):
–500 EUR
•SME (11-250 employees):
–1000 EUR
•MNE (>250 employees):
–2500 EUR
•Additional Options during EPD Registration: Fees
•Dual Registration into peer EPD programmes
•Mutual recognition in the International EPD Systems
•https://www.environdec.com/pricing/dual-registration-into-peer-epd-programmes
•4 are currently listed and prices: 500 – 600 EUR per EPD invoiced directly from each
•Create an electronic EPD registration certificate:
•0 EUR per EPD
•Create and publish a Climate Declaration based on the EPD:
•300 EUR service fee per Climate Declaration created by the EPD Secretariat
•https://www.environdec.com/all-about-epds/epd-climate-declaration
•EPD Registration
•The owner of the EPD is required to register with the Environdec website
•However it is complex and challenging first time of use, even for LCA practitioners
•The LCA Practitioners having done this a few times are better equipped to complete the Registration and posting the files.
•It is recommended to register yourself but use a password that you are comfortable sharing with the LCA Practitioner.
•Then share the password with the Practitioner to complete the registration and loading files.
•NB if your passwords are part of controlled security system, check if it can be changed after the LCA practitioner has completed their work.
•https://portal.environdec.com/register/user
•Other measures promote EPD:
•There are many LCA Tools appearing in the market almost monthly, including:
•BRE Green Guide to Specification (Elemental Assessment, Generic Materials only)
•BRE Green Book Live (Mostly BRE authored Environmental Profiles roughly = EPD)
•BRE IMPACT for BREEAM MAT 01 Materials Assessments for compliance with BREEAM
•BRE IMPACT Compliant Tools
•https://kb.breeam.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/KBCN1118_12.3.21-1.png
•IES-VE Integrated Environmental Solutions – Virtual Environment
•One Click LCA (temporarily problematic for EN 15804 V2 EPDs)
•eToolLCD’s Rapid LCA
•Highways England Carbon Tool V2.3
•Hawkins Brown & UCL Tool H:Bert Emissions Reduction Tool for facades only  https://www.hawkinsbrown.com/services/hbert
•Institute of Structural Engineers (ISE) ISE Carbon Tool
•BSRIA Services Guidance and tools
•CIRIA Carbon calculator
•Curtins Consultant’s own calculator
•CIBSE Carbon calculator for MEP Services TM65
•FCBS Architects CARBON  V0.8.3 beta release
•NGS’s Green Building Calculator https://GreenBuildingCalculator.uk
•NGS’s Green Retrofit Calculator https://GreenBuildingCalculator.uk
•Firstplanit platform initially for retrofit https://www.firstplanit.com
•More appearing all the time.
•GBE has teamed up with Renuables Ltd.
•We provide full Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPD);
•to help populate Green Building Product Data Collection;
•which feeds Green Building Calculator (GBC) look up tables and drop-down lists;
•to automatically populate the calculator cells when users type in company and product names,
•the calculators automatically update with the product data and determine if targets have been met and emissions from those choices.
•Ensuring your EPD is known about and used
•Once the EPD is promoted in the Environdec EPD platforms then the owners of LCA Tools should be keeping their own datasets up to date with the content of those EPD platforms.
•Currently there are over 10,000 registered EPD, not all of which are for construction.
•Some EPD platforms only show 700 construction EPD.
•As a precaution, manufacturers can run an email newsletter campaign to the owners of LCA tools to inform them of the newly Published EPD and supply an attached copy or a hyperlink to the EPD Platform file.
•GBE can obtain email addresses for those LCA Tool organisations.
•GBE and GBC can do email newsletter campaigns for manufacturers
•Email Newsletter campaigns to Designers and Specifiers
•GBE and GBC have a Mailchimp Newsletter account with >2500 addressees
•A dedicated Newsletter can be created to promote the LCA EPD service and the EPD publication with supporting information and links to website content and downloads.
•The GBE website can have a new GBE Newsletter and LCA EPD pages to link to the any EPD, NGS Echo EN 14021 certificate pages; with internal links to and from them and related pages and external links to websites and EPD platforms.
•PDFs & Machine-readable PDFs
•Place the EPD on the manufacturer’s own website as a PDF to download, from a download page, but also give it its own page.
•It should be noted that normal PDFs on website are not readable by Google but their metadata is
•So, it is recommended to copy the content of the EPD into the website
•Without altering anything, except formatting, nor removing anything
•NB. Grenfell enquiry has highlighted one ‘reputable’ manufacturer that had three versions of their fire test reports for different audiences, moreover the test reports were for a product they no longer produced; both are completely inappropriate behavior.
•Machine readable PDFs may overcome google capability issue
•Search Engine Optimisation of PDFs is important, focusing on the file metadata
•https://www.mightycitizen.com/insights/articles/seo-for-pdfs-optimizing-your-pdf-files-for-search
•The following may be a total distraction:
•There was a Sales Pitch Webinar on 23/06/2021 13:00 about PDF and Accessibility (Disability Access) and lawsuits that are happening more frequently.
•http://www2.crawfordtech.com/webmail/7102/1161433031/38427a2148a7a83e9e27df3698669aa4adda37af4676cef2dc6bf531a2d6ced9
•Getting product data BInformationM into BIM databases:
•There are a few, the most prominent being:
•National Building Specification’s ‘Source’
•The specification entry is a mixture of Guidance and Specification that takes some considerable time to turn into a robust specification
•Which is aiming to support BIM with Information and 3D Models of products
•Information being the most important and useful part to designers
•It being based on all relevant BIM thinking and International Standards
•Product Data Sheets (PDS) or their templates (PDT) and BIM versions rarely have a suitable space for EPD datasets; the best one can hope for is to include a hyperlink to EPD Platform files or your own website.
•Materials/Products Passports are now being proposed for reuse (original intention) and now first use to enable reuse.
•Digital Object Identifiers (DOI)
•can be used to track the location of EPD or any file (which may be relocated in the future) but this is not yet developed in the Construction industry.
•Madaster
•Platforms like Madaster collect product information and EPD datasets and make the information available to subscribers.
•Getting EPDs into general product databases
•There are many product databases but not all will have a pigeonhole for EPD
•It may be possible to add a hyperlink to the EPD Platform file or website
•If their page template permits it.
•In the long-term using BSI PAS 2060 and the EPD of all your products and Green Tariff energy supplies to all your sites, demonstrate your organisation’s Carbon Neutrality.
•Improving your Operations Scope 1 2 & 3 impacts
•Company: Green Energy Transitions (formerly GaeltelLtd. Until 12/04/2024)
•Contact: Eddie Pellegrom
•Mobile: 07738 555773
•2 sides of A4 PDF literature attached (at least 1 year old and out of date, Gaeltel logos and contact details are now redundant, new literature coming by end of month)
•Offer a service to enable manufacturers and suppliers to reduce their costs, consumption and carbon
•They address:
•Energy management in premises to reduce demand e.g. 10-20% saving.
•Renewable energy supply in preference to Mains supply: significant carbon reductions
•Cost effective purchasing of energy from UK suppliers by mass ‘Dutch bargaining’ from the biggest players: e.g. 8-9% cheaper.
•Fuel additives for road vehicles: e.g. 28% carbon reduction and 10% cost savings.
•Fuel additives for marine shipping: e.g. 28% carbon reduction and 10% cost savings.
•Carbon Capture plant is potentially part of the service mix offering.
•Review your supply and demand chains on all the above issues:
•Addressing: Raw materials: resources and additive supplier(s), Energy Suppliers, Shipping company, road fleet management, Fuel suppliers, Toll miller, mixing plants, installers.
•They wish to see bulk energy and fuel purchase data to be able to engage.
•Suggestions made: USA negotiated energy will be improved upon if UK negotiated separately.
•Even ships and lorries outside of manufacturers ownership or control can be improved upon.
•Much of what they provide is CAPEX free, additional kit paid for by supplier.
•Cradle-to-*
•Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) is often broken down into phases of lesser ambition.
•Cradle-to-cradle
–Where recyclable / reusable products are the subject
•Cradle-to-grave
–For non-recyclable materials that are destined to be disposed of
•Cradle-to-site
–extraction, factory production and delivery to site
–though these LCAs are useful and more common
–they tend not to tell the whole story
•Cradle-to-gate
–production from extraction of raw material and factory production
•LCA for Transport
•We need transport LCA calculators too
•For all parts of the journey
–From source by Land to coast or airport
–port to port by sea
–Airport to airport by aeroplane (fantasy)
–Coast to site by land
–Trains or trucks?
–What size truck?
–Via logistics centres different size trucks
•not just by sea (fiction)
•Carbon sequestration in LCAs
•BRE Green Guide argue that the carbon sequestered by plant or tree
•stored in construction materials for life of building
•Will be released when the materials are landfilled or burned (not always the case)
•However, landfill is no longer seen as end-of-life option so BRE cannot assume this any more
•Designers have a long way to go to habitually design for deconstruction, reclaim and reuse
•But MMC is easy to assemble, dismantle and reassemble
–So let’s make things well, durable & robust so they can be reused
•Carbon sequestration in LCAs
•BRE argue that materials will be lost to landfill
•but we argue they may also be suitable for composting so they still retain Carbon
•Some plant based thermal insulation materials are robust
•Can be used and reused
•Environmental profile
•The output of an environmental profiling process
•Profiling can be of a generic nature using general industry data or it can be of a proprietary nature using product-specific data
•for example as part of the BRE’s‘Environmental Profiles Certification Scheme’.
•Generic profiles (based on whole sector data) form the basis of the BRE’s ‘Green Guide to Specification’.
–A fiction based on fact
•Product Profiles (based onemanufacturer’s product) form the basis for BRE’s ‘Green Book Live’
•Occasionally Product profiles are used by BRE in Green Guide creating false impressions of green materials
•Environmental profiling
•The ‘identifying and assessing the environmental effects associated with building materials’ (BRE)
•usually using a standardisedmethodology
•The UK profiling market is dominated by the BRE, but other methodologies are currently being developed
•for example CAP’EM project.
•GBC GBC V3 LCA & EPD
reporting to EN 15804 GBC V2
•Life cycle stages A-D
–15 + 2 columns
•Impacts
–7 rows (1 is GWP or CO2equivalents)
•Reporting cells
–119 data points per component of building
•ICE 3.0 database
–does not relate directly to these
–(except to CO2 equivalents)
•EN 15978
•EN 15804
•GBC GBC V3 LCA EPD
•Life Cycle Assessment
•Environmental Product Declaration
–EN 15804 table spread out sideways
•Choose materials
•Auto-populates cells with Datasets
•Auto-Calculates
•GBC V2 LCA EPD (Dev)
•Each row is a component of an element (3 to 20 components make up an element)
–(framing, insulation, linings, etc.)
•Each group of components makes an element (up to 39 make up a building)
–(partition, wall, floor, roof, glazing, etc.)
•Each column is an EN 15804 stage A-D or subdivision column
•Each group of columns is an environmental impact (7 groups 7 impacts 1 is carbon=)
•Each row is a component of an element (3 to 20 components make up an element)
–(framing, insulation, linings, etc.)
•Each group of components makes an element (up to 39 make up a building)
–(partition, wall, floor, roof, glazing, etc.)
•Each column is an EN 15804 stage A-D or subdivision column
•Each group of columns is an environmental impact (7 groups 7 impacts 1 is carbon=)
•Each row is a component of an element (3 to 20 components make up an element)
–(framing, insulation, linings, etc.)
•Each group of components makes an element (up to 39 make up a building)
–(partition, wall, floor, roof, glazing, etc.)
•Each column is an EN 15804 stage A-D or subdivision column
•Each group of columns is an environmental impact (7 groups 7 impacts 1 is carbon=)
•Each row is a component of an element (3 to 20 components make up an element)
–(framing insulation lining)
•Each group of components makes an element (up to 39 make up a building)
–(partition, wall, floor, roof)
•Each column is an EN 15804 stage A-D or subdivision column
•Each group of columns is an environmental impact (7 groups 7 impacts 1 is carbon=)
•CAP’EM project
•An EU Interreg funded project, currently underway,
•to develop a harmonized assessment procedure for building materials based using a simplified LCA-based methodology.
•Services
•Carbon-Free?
•Renewable Energy sources
–Carbon-free energy:
•Solar PV, Solar Thermal, wind, hydro, wave, tidal, current,
–Carbon-neutral energy: Biomass
•Take care to distinguish between renewable energy and energy efficient
–Energy Efficient
•Heat Pump: air, water ground source
•Must use carbon-free energy-in
•To get carbon-free more energy-out
•Low impact services
•All natural or passive
•Natural Daylight Sunlight and Moonlight
•Passive or Active ventilation no AC
–Fabric ventilation systems
•Passive stack effect buoyancy
•Aquifer delivering freshwater to surface
•Gravity & syphonic drainage
–Wooden rainwater goods
•Fabric permeable ventilation ducts
•Metals and plastics: better choices than BAU
•ME&P
•Made of plastics, metals, circuit boards, etc. services
•will probably have the biggest impacts despite smaller volumes.
•Plastics: High Embodied Carbon and Energy
•Metals: High Embodied Energy (& Carbon from Fuel and chemistry)
•Circuit boards: Metals Plastics Chemicals
•RoHS & REACH & WEEE Regs.
•I said probably, we will only find out when we start to quantify it all.
•BIM
•Government Procurement ambitions
–Avoid Errors
–Save Money 20-25% anticipated
•On top of Egan 10% year on year?
–Reduce Government Procurement Costs
–Joined up thinking & doing:
•Design Build Operate
•Joined up thinking
•Needs joined up design teams
•Needs joined up building models
–Clash detection
–Artificial Intelligence
–No stretching or snap
–Coordination between disciplines
–Coordination between services teams
•Ideally no iteration (a fiction)
–Service routes worked out accurately and adhered to (a likely story)
–Ideally designed services (can you do it anymore?)
•not performance specification
•Needs joined up communication
•Needs joined up classification
•1987 Common Arrangement
•Joined up documents
•CPI Coordinated Project Information
–Drawings
–Specification
–Bills of Quantity
•RIP: BIM avoids need for all this
–Joined up automatically
•COBie
•Specifications to suit O&MM
•Classification to suit FM:
•Construction Operations Building Information Exchange (COBie)
•http://www.wbdg.org/resources/cobie.php
•D&DT
•SAP Regulation compliance tool
•rdSAP reduced data tool
•SBEM Non-domestic compliance tool
•Passivhaus & EnerPHit
•Carbonlite UK interpretation of PH
•TSB Technology Strategy Board
–D&DT Design & Decision Tools
–£1m invested in each
–Only aware for 3 surviving
•Validation of manufacturers claims
•GBE PASS
–Product Assessment Sustainability Screening
•GBE MASS (materials ditto)
•GBE ECHO Confirmation of Manufacturer’s Self-declaration ISO 14021
•GBS DoC Declaration of Conformity
•GBS DoEM Declaration of Excluded Materials
•GBS DoRR Declaration of REACHRequirements
•GBE PASS
•Product Assessment Sustainability Screening
•Group Comparison
•Group Comparison Conclusions
•KPI Key Performance Indicators
•EPI Environmental Performance Indicators
•SPI Social Performance Indicators
•GBE MASS
•Similar to PASS
•Material Assessment Sustainability Screening
•Sold without a Product Reference
•Timber steel cement concrete mortar, screed, timber
•GBE ECHO
•Confirmation of Manufacturer’s Self-declaration
•ISO 14021
•Claims must be based on evidence
–Evidence held available for scrutiny
•It must be transparent
–If its commercial in confidence its not permitted
•It must be explicit and not ambiguous
•Specification Declarations
•GBS DoC Declaration of Conformity based on ISO
•GBS DoEM Declaration of Excluded Materials
•GBS DoRR Declaration of REACHRequirements
•PVC
•I thought PVC was PVC
•But it is blended to order
•REACH regulations
•SIN List Substitute it Now
–(public consultation update imminent)
•SVHC Substances of Very High Concern
•Maximum 0.1% or must inform customers
•Plasticizers: (Phthalates) up to 30%
•PVC must change or it will disappear
•PVC skirting
•Adhesive failures
•Polymer migration from high plasticizers coving into adhesive
•Coved Skirting shrinking
–No longer fits
–Gap created
–Place for Bacteria to live
•Adhesive fails
–No longer adheres
–Cannot re-adhere (staple gun follows)
•PFI hospitals and schools
•Temporary loss of rooms & corridors to replace skirting
•Career opportunties
•Re Classification of MEP Specifications
–To Uniclass for BIM or wait for NBS Engineering
•Project Specifications
–Pro-actively Green rather than optional
•B Information M
–Information gathering, collating and dissemination
•B I Modeling
–3D CAD BIM ready models with Information added
•D&DT APPS
–GURUs who understand the Principles, Properties, Materials, Science
–Develop the APPS that bring the information together
•File Metadata
•File Updates 1
•Sampler:
•This is a cut down version of the original file to give you a sample of the whole
•It’s the front end of the file with the middle and rear end deleted
•to download the whole file
•You will find a large number of other files there too
•Feedback:
•These files are created by generalists with a big dollop of green flavour
•These files are updated from time to time
•We are not experts so from time to time these file may get out of date or may be wrong.
•If you feel that we have got it wrong, please let us know so we can put it right
•© 2013-2026 NGS GBE
•Brian Murphy ONC HNC Construction, BSc Dip Architecture (Hons+Dist)
–Technician and Architect by Training
–Specification Writer by Choice
–Environmentalist by Actions
–Writer and Educator as a Calling
–Number Cruncher by Necessity
•Greening up my act since 1999
•Founded National Green Specification 2001
•Funded and Launched www.greenspec.co.uk 2003
•Created: GBE at https://greenbuildingencyclopaedia.uk  2012 – 2022
•Created: GBL Learning: https://GBELearning.com 2020 – 2021
•Created: GBC at https://GreenBuildingCalculator.uk 2011 – 2022
•GoogleMyBusiness: National Green Specification
–National Green Specification

© GBE GBC GRC GIC GGC GBL NGS ASWS Brian Murphy aka BrianSpecMan ******
4th March 2026

Images:

GBE CPD

GBE Green Building Encyclopaedia, CPD Continuing Professionals Development, Services EE Embodied Energy EC Embodied Carbon LCA Life Cycle Assessment EPD Environmental Product Declaration A03 BRM BrianSpecMan 040326 S1 Cover Slide BPF British Plastics Federation

Based on presentation from 2013 with major update including CIBSE TM65 & GBC Green Building Calculator GMEPC Green Mechanical Electrical Plumbing Calculator

NGS CPD CIBSE EA Services EE EC LCA BIM S1 National Green Specification, Continuing Professional Development, Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers, East Anglia, Embodied Energy, Embodied carbon, Life Cycle Assessment, Building Information Modelling, Cover Slide, BrianSpecMan

GBE CPD Cover Images

© GBE GBC GRC GIC GGC GBL NGS ASWS Brian Murphy aka BrianSpecMan ******
4th March 2026

See Also:

GBE Events

GBE CPD

CPD Topics N#478

Seminars:

GBE In-House CPD

GBE Lectures

GBE Lecture Courses

RIBA Part 1 Year 2 2018-2019-2020 (University of Hertfordshire)

RIBA Part 1 Year 2 (LSBU 2016/2017)

RIBA Part 1 year 3 (2016/2017)

RIBA Part 2 Post-Graduate

RIBA Part 2 M Arch Lab 1 University of Hertfordshire 2019-2020

© GBE GBC GRC GIC GGC GBL NGS ASWS Brian Murphy aka BrianSpecMan ******
4th March 2026

BPF Services EE EC LCA EPD (CPD) G#43351 End.

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