Sustainable construction: the development and evaluation of an environmental profiling system for construction products

There has been a rapid increase in the number of low environmental impact or 'green' buildings constructed in recent years, due to factors such as the UK government's Sustainable Development Strategy, new environmental legislation and perceived operational and business advantages. Consequently, the demand for up-to-date information, guidance and design 'tools' to help property professionals procure greener buildings also continues to grow. The development of a new edition of one such tool: The Green Guide to Specification, was based on research designed to evaluate user needs and current design and specification practices and expectations. Many property professionals do not use environmental tools on all projects because of time considerations and the disruption caused by having to take an 'extra step' in the design and specification process. Specifiers would only use such tools either when instructed to do so by clients or because of the specifier's own organisational green agenda. For environmental tools to be more widely used, information should also be embedded within commonly used specification programmes such as the National Building Specification (NBS) as well as in stand-alone versions.