Over the course of 2010, the Environment Agency, British Waterways, Halcrow, Morrison Construction and Interserve Plc with Forum for the Future, jointly developed a sustainability appraisal method for construction materials and processes.

The method assesses materials and their impacts across seven sustainability criteria. It goes further than many existing materials assessments as it considers impacts during manufacture, construction, maintenance, operation and end of life. It informs decisions from the earliest design stages around material specification in a whole life context.

What does the Sustainable Materials Appraisal Method aim to do?

• It provides a systematic whole life assessment of construction materials at a strategic level.
• It identifies, describes and quantifies (where appropriate) any significant impacts and benefits of a material against seven sustainability criteria across the four lifecycle stages.
• It enables comparison between alternative materials.
• The outputs can:

o Inform the selection of construction materials in the early design phase, or
o Speculatively assess new products, or
o Inform more sustainable product innovation.

• The data input will also enable the development of a sustainable materials database – comprised of the data collated from assessments carried out.

What are the benefits of using this method?

The aim is to enable more informed, effective decisions. Business benefits include:

• Early screening process for new materials, saving time for designers;
• Repeatable and comparable standard format for assessing the sustainability of materials in a whole life context;
• Informed and effective decision-making that could reduce maintenance and replacement of materials, supporting the concept of whole life costing;
• Transparent assessment methods for material producers and contractors to use to assess and improve materials.

What is available to use?

The sustainable materials appraisal method comprises of:

• one-page summaries that set out the issues to be considered for each criterion;
• MS Excel-based tool that enables the full assessment and provides comparable results;
• high-level guidance notes in both Environment Agency and British Waterways formats;
• full user guide.

The outputs

• Are displayed in a traffic light system that is easy to use and track back
• Can be easily tailored to the level of detail needed by the user.
• Should be used to inform design teams when making decisions about materials, who should then work with suppliers to reduce the red flags, or choose a different material.

Who was involved in developing the method?

The method was developed under the Engineers of the 21st Century (E21C) scheme, run by Forum for the Future, which brings together collaborative partnerships to work on key issues for sustainability in engineering.

To find out more about the scheme visit Forum's E21C project page.

Seven engineers from the Environment Agency, Halcrow, Morrison Construction, Interserve and British Waterways formed the core project team, which was managed by Forum for the Future. Eight senior managers represented each organisation and the Royal Academy of Engineering formed a steering group for the project.

Where do I find more information?

The method is currently being piloted by the project partners, but we're always happy to talk it through and share our learning.

If you would like to learn more about this project or would like to use the method, please contact Anna Warrington.

Read the press release.

Media coverage

Building Engineer -  New Sustainability Assessment Method for Construction Materials.

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