Can ISO 14000 and eco-labelling turn the construction industry green?

Abstract

A growing awareness of the impact of buildings on the environment has created a greater need to take account of environmental factors. To address this effectively, the environmental impact of a building has to be a primary consideration of the design team. Two approaches are available to the design team to provide clients with assurance that ecological design principles are carried through to construction. These are the comparatively new international environmental management systems standard, ISO 14001, and the slightly older approach of eco-labelling. The two approaches are different but aim at the same goal. This paper explores to what extent these two approaches can achieve their aim of sustainability with the construction industry and questions whether some of the wider issues of sustainability has been ignored.

Introduction

Burgeoning environmental awareness amongst clients and government legislation requires the construction industry to ask itself many questions: How can the industry respond to the increasing urgency and demand for a more environmentally sensitive design? What is the best practice in environmental design and how can this be assured? How can the added, non-monetary, quality of environmentally benign materials and practices be compared with more contemporary norms? Where are the suitable materials? How should environmental issues be managed within the overall design process? How can sustainability be achieved?

This realisation has permeated all fields as research findings are translated into commitments. For instance, the Earth Summit in Rio, which highlighted many pressing concerns of the human interaction with the environment and resulted in Local Agenda 21 [1]. In the UK, like many other countries, this was quickly translated into policy:

“A more holistic approach is called for, involving a comprehensive procedure to identify total environmental and social costs and alternative solutions to construction problems”. [2]

By the mid 1990s sustainability was firmly on the political agenda. For instance, the British Government endorsed the need for research into the integration of social and environmental issues that clearly included the construction industry. A more holistic approach to construction problems was called for, which should involve comprehensive procedures to identify total environmental and social costs and alternative solutions [2].

The moves towards urbanisation, industrialisation and cross-cultural design influences have created a greater tendency for individual buildings to be considered in isolation from their traditional local influences. Planning authorities representing the civic interest have the ability to control and direct development through the statement of general guidelines within which development is constrained. While the origins of planning legislation relate to the control of pollution, subsequent planning policies relate more to economic factors and social planning with a more recent move to recognise current environmental issues. In addition, the decisions relating to the siting, design and construction of buildings may be distorted by Governmental actions such as subsidies and investment grants, or tax regimes which favour maintenance costs over capital investment influences; commercial influences such as land and property prices, possibly distorted by planning zones; and marketing policies which do not permit comparison of the “real cost” of materials or construction techniques based on sale price. Current structures, therefore, do not favour the promotion of ecologically sound development. Environmentally conscious buildings still tend to be noted as exceptions rather than the commonplace. It is for this reason that the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) initiated their environmental policy charter [3]. Can eco-labelling and/or ISO 14000 contribute to the solution of this problem, or is there still something missing?