The Green Guide to Specification

This easy–to–use guide to the environmental impacts of building materials is based on sound data from the BRE. It is part of BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method), an accredited environmental rating scheme for buildings. The Green Guide now contains more than 1200 specifications used in various types of building. Since the last edition, information on the relative environmental performance of some materials and components has altered reflecting both changes in manufacturing practices, the way materials are used in buildings, and our evolving environmental knowledge.

The guide has been expanded to cover six generic building types: Commercial; Educational; Healthcare; Retail; Residential; and Industrial.

Materials and components are arranged on an elemental basis so that designers and specifiers can compare and select from comparable systems or materials as they compile their specification. The elements covered are: External walls; Internal walls and partitions; Roofs; Ground floors; Upper floors; Windows; Insulation; Landscaping; and Floor finishes.

This data is set out as an A+ to E ranking system for environmental performance and impact based on the following issues: Climate change; Water extraction; Mineral resource depletion; Stratospheric ozone depletion; Human toxicity; Ecotoxicity to freshwater; Nuclear waste; Ecotoxicity to land; Waste disposal; Fossil fuel depletion; Eutrophication; Photochemical ozone creation; and Acidification

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Project sponsors

The authors

Part1 Introduction

1 Background

2 The Green Guide and related BRE titles

3 Life cycle assessment (LCA) in The Green Guide

4 How The Green Guide to Specification was compiled

Part 2 Using The Green Guide

5 How to use The Green Guide to Specification

Part 3 The Green Guide ratings

6 The Green Guide tables

6.1 Ground floors

6.2 Upper floors

6.3 Separating floors

6.4 Roofs

6.5 External walls

6.6 Windows and curtain walling

6.7 Internal walls

6.8 Separating walls

6.9 Insulation

6.10 Landscaping

Appendix: Project steering group and peer review panels

Contacts and further information

References

Index

Jane Anderson, Building Research Establishment, Centre for Sustainable Construction, UK

David Shiers, Department of Real Estate and Construction, Oxford Brookes University, UK

?The fourth edition is fantastic?having not seen the other three and I can′t categorically say it′s the best – but the fact there are 1,200 specifications, and in the first print there were 200, means it′s a fair assumption to make.? ( Building Engineer ,September 2009)