A new ‘Green Building Guidance’ task group aims to combat ‘greenwash’, reduce confusion and help make sustainability profitable.
The task group, launched by the UK Green Building Council (UK-GBC), plans to provide a comprehensive framework for the construction and property sector, sign-posting businesses to information and advice.
The UK-GBC said its launch was a response to the proliferation of information, tools, guidance, products and services around green buildings.
Due to report early in the New Year, the group will explore issues such as how products and services can meaningfully be compared, what constitutes best practice in sustainability and what evidence currently exists that provides a business case for organisations to become more sustainable.
Paul King, chief executive of UK-GBC said: “Even for the most committed, the sustainability landscape can be confusing and sometimes overwhelming. People looking to demonstrate good or best practice – wherever they stand in the building lifecycle or supply chain – need practical and clear guidance, to help them embed sustainability in their business, and benchmark themselves against their peers.”
It was also announced that UK-GBC chairman, Dan Labbad, has been appointed to co-chair the government’s Green Construction Board, Building reported.
Labbad, who is Lendlease chief executive for Europe, Middle East and Africa, will head the board alongside business minister Mark Prisk.
The board, set up by the department for Business Innovation and Skills, is charged with driving the government’s sustainability agenda.
- In a separate story Building reported that the Climate Change Risk Assessment, to be published by the government this winter, will call on builders and homeowners to prepare their properties for heat, floods and water shortages, as part of a new approach to climate change that accepts rises in temperature are inevitable.
The assessment will set out a national adaptation strategy to ensure all new housing, commercial buildings and infrastructure is designed to handle environmental changes associated with global warming.
