ENVIRONMENTAL PROFILING
In recent years there has been an increasing interest on the part of the specifier to understand more about the sustainability of building materials and the environmental impacts of products and materials utilised in the built environment.
Using methodology developed by the BRE (Building Research Establishment) and BERR (The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform), PermaRock commissioned third-party whole Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) on two of its key external wall insulation systems. The LCA measures the environmental impacts of the systems during their economic life, from the extraction of the raw materials and components to the disposal of the product at the end of a 60 year life cycle (i.e. cradle to grave).
The environmental impact is determined by 12 categories, including Climate Change, Acid Depletion, Ozone Depletion, Pollution to Air, Pollution to Water, Mineral Extraction and Waste Disposal. The data obtained from the LCA is then analysed and weighted, using the BRE methodologies, and an Ecopoints rating for each system has been established.
Ecopoints
To improve the usefulness of the environmental data and make it easier to understand, the BRE developed Ecopoints ratings – a method of ranking and scoring different environmental impacts.
The lower the Ecopoints score, the lower the environmental impact. The results achieved by PermaRock are very impressive, estimated Ecopoints scores of 0.10 per m2 and 0.15 per m2 on PermaRock’s Mineral Fibre External Wall Insulation System and Phenolic External Wall Insulation Systems respectively were achieved.
Such extremely low Ecopoints scores reflect the extensive work that PermaRock has put in to environmentally engineering its products, including reducing the energy costs associated with sourcing and transporting raw materials, manufacturing the products themselves, and delivering the products to construction sites throughout the UK. Significantly, PermaRock’s drive towards the incorporation of recycled content into its products has also had a beneficial impact on the Ecopoints score.
To put the results into context, assessments have also been made on other construction products: For example a traditional brick cavity wall construction achieves a score of 0.48 per m2.