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This certification scheme has been established to provide ongoing independent, third party assessment and certification of materials and products for their environmental performance. It allows product and system build manufacturers to demonstrate the environmental performance of their products - in manufacture and in use.
The scheme was launched in 2001 for certification of Environmental Profiles for construction products using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method developed by BRE. www.brecertification.co.uk
Environmental Profiles are used to measure the environmental impacts of manufacturing processes and the emphasis is on continual improvement. They demonstrate that a Company is interested in their environmental performance and can be used to differentiate products from others in the marketplace. The scheme is highly complementary to Environmental Management Systems.
An Environmental Profile consists of 13 environmental indicators and a BRE Ecopoints score. This compares the environmental impact of a product against a typical person. 100 Ecopoints equal the impact of one person in the UK for a year.
By generating an Environmental Profile for a product, manufacturers can access other BRE tools. They can obtain a Green Guide score for their product and also add their product to the range of materials available in the Envest software. These two products are used to award credits in BREEAM, for use of materials with lower environmental impact.
The Green Guide to Specification for Composites provides information for a wide range of specifications and gives environmental impact by using a simple A , B or C rating, where A represents good environmental performance. The Green Guide also provides summary ratings ranges (A - C). The ratings are measured in Ecopoints.
Products are assessed using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology developed by the Centre for Sustainable Construction at BRE (and reported in BRE report BR370 BRE methodology for environmental profiles of construction materials, components and buildings" 1999.), to generate Environmental Profiles for 1 tonne of each product as well as various elemental profiles to show their environmental performance as a square metre of a building construction .
Environmental Profiles may be calculated for materials, components and complete building elements and systems. This can include complete building solutions.
Profiles which have been created over the life of the project are held in the UK Database of Environmental Profiles of Construction Materials and Components, which is available via an Internet service. Materials producers can add new Profiles for additional products at any time and the database will be regularly updated.
For more information visit: www.bre.co.uk/envprofiles.
BRE and NetComposites are currently carrying out a project to calculate the environmental profiles of common FRP products.
Environmental assessment of GRP window profiles can be found at: www.omniglass.com
Three window frame materials (GRP, aluminium clad wood, and PVCu) were compared by addressing eight environmental issues. Energy use was considered to be the most important environmental factor. From this analysis it was found that GRP windows have the lowest overall environmental impact. The energy efficiency and long life of GRP windows, significantly reduces the need for purchased energy, which means that their impacts on resource depletion and embodied energy is also limited. The high energy use and to a lesser extent the emissions during production of aluminium-clad wood and vinyl windows were the principle factors working against these products. |