Building a better world

Environmental profiles

A method of identifying and assessing the environmental effects associated with building materials

  • What are Environmental Profiles?
  • The Environmental Profiles Certification Scheme
  • Which products are certified within this Scheme?
  • Which products are not certified within this Scheme?

What are Environmental Profiles?

The Environmental Profiles Methodology is a standardised method of identifying and assessing the environmental effects associated with building materials over their life cycle - that is their extraction, processing, use and maintenance, and their eventual disposal. It establishes a set of common rules and guidelines for applying Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to UK construction products, to produce Environmental Profiles. In outcome Profiles provide a means for presenting "embodied" environmental data to cut through the confusion of claims and counterclaims about the performance of building materials.

Environmental Profiles allow designers to demand reliable and comparable environmental information about competing building materials, and gives suppliers the opportunity to present credible environmental information about their products. This means that designers can have confidence in the "level playing field" status of Environmental Profiles for every material type.

BRE and material industry stakeholders believe that this method represents the most objective and workable approach that could be developed to deal with all building materials. It has been used by BRE and the UK materials industry to establish a one-stop-shop database of construction product environmental performance information.

Environmental Profiles can be created for construction materials, products and building systems and are presented at discrete life cycle stages. Reporting is commonly made on a unit mass (1 tonne of brick) or area (1m2 of floor finishing) basis. Manufacturers have the discretion to publish any or all of the Profile models they develop in the UK database. Common Profile models include:
  • Cradle to factory gate
  • Factory gate to factory gate
  • Cradle to construction site
  • Cradle to end of life
Environmental Profiles information is used in ENVEST2, the environmental impact estimation tool which allows designers to consider the life cycle environmental impact of building materials at the building inception stage. Environmental Profiles are also used in the Green Guide to Specification.

The Environmental Profiles Certification Scheme

The Environmental Profiles Certification scheme was established to provide ongoing independent, third party assessment and certification of materials and products for their environmental performance. The assessment is based on the Environmental Profiles Methodology.

The scheme publishes proprietary manufacture specific Environmental Profiles which are based on data from a detailed verification and audit process of the manufacture facility. Certificates and Environmental Profile appendices are awarded following satisfactory evidence verification. Certified Environmental Profiles are reviewed and verified on an annual basis to ensure that information is both valid and up to date, and are recalculated every three years.

Which products are certified within this Scheme?

The Environmental Profile Certification Scheme focuses on those materials and construction products with significant embodied environmental impacts and those for which credits are available in the following schemes:
  • BREEAM
  • EcoHomes
  • Code for Sustainable Homes

Within these schemes credits are awarded for the use of materials with low embodied environmental impact. The building elements that allow the achievement of credits and the schemes to which they are applicable are shown in Table 1. The Certification scheme covers only the significant materials within the elements listed. Materials that are deemed not significant relative to these include paints, fixings and ties.

Which products are not certified within this Scheme?

The impacts of construction materials and building components vary by orders of magnitude. To ensure that Certification captures the most significant environmental impacts, the Scheme currently excludes finishes, fittings, services and minor elements. Examples of these might include:

  • Finishes
    • Paints
    • Wallpaper
  • Fittings
    • shower trays
    • taps
  • Services
    • air conditioning units
    • plumbing and wiring
  • Minor elements
    • Stairways
    • doors