A NEW ISO IS BORN…
It is quite incredible that now, in 2007 – almost 2008 – everyone is talking SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION… even the ISO standards have managed to give birth to a new standard entitled: ISO 21930:2007 “Sustainability in building construction – Environmental declaration of building products”…
You can purchase this for 108 Swiss francs – which is another issue…
I quote from the official web site:
The standard describes the principles and framework for environmental declarations of building products, taking into consideration the complete life cycle of a building. ISO 21930 is expected to form the basis for Type III environmental declaration programmes of building products as described in ISO 14025:2006, Environmental labels and declarations - Type III environmental declarations - Principles and procedures.
The overall goal of environmental declarations in this sector is to encourage the demand for, and supply of, building products that cause less stress on the environment, through communication of verifiable and accurate information on environmental aspects of those building products that is not misleading, thereby stimulating the potential for market-driven, continual environmental improvement.
All very good and necessary – my question is whether so much bureaucracy, strict rules and diversity in methodologies doesn’t alienate the actors as opposed to attract them to make a bigger contribution towards creating better environmentally performing buildings.
Why don’t existing labels join together to make one label that has the necessary credibility and is adapted to answer the questions the end user poses to the construction industry ? At present there are too many TRUTHS flying about – and this increases confusion thus disabling any effort to change end user behavior.
Why don’t we stop talking about supplying building products and start talking about providing solutions ? This will be the only way that we stop focusing on gadgets – it will be the focus on holistic solutions, starting by improving building’s efficiency, that will make the break through to mainstreaming good practices.
