Validating a set of empirically weighted sustainability indicators for construction products

Sustainability assessment in UK construction is well established for buildings and civil engineering projects through tools such as the BRE Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) and Ceequal (the assessment and awards scheme for improving sustainability in civil engineering and the public realm). Assessment schemes such as these focus on the construction asset and give some consideration to the materials or products used, employing different techniques and varying degrees of guidance. Responsible sourcing seeks to address some of these shortcomings but only addresses the social and environmental aspects of the construction product. There is therefore a clear need for a more holistic approach to the sustainability assessment of construction products and materials. This need should be, in part, fulfilled at a generic level by the publication of BS 8905 "Framework for the assessment of the sustainable use of materials - Guide", but there is a gap in research. A questionnaire survey was developed to collate opinions on a range of sustainability indicators from 35 individuals within a construction product manufacturing organisation. These results were aggregated to derive overall weightings for a series of sustainability indicators. Environmental, social and economic sections are considered equally and weighted indicators are developed within each of these sections, which enhances the robustness of the process used in BS 8905. In general the survey weightings of the environmental indicators were in line with those from leading assessment schemes such as BREEAM, Ceequal and the BES 6001 responsible sourcing standard, thereby validating the survey findings. Such conclusions were not possible for social and economic indicators due to a lack of comparative indicators. The extension of this work could lead to a more holistic approach to the sustainability assessment of construction products and materials.