In July 2013, the UK will fully adopt the new EU Construction Products Regulation (CPR). This is a significant change that also casts the mould for potential future changes, namely environmental reporting of construction products and materials.

If the UK decides to regulate in the new area of ‘sustainable use of natural resources’ added to the CPR, then it will be obliged to use CEN/TC350, which essentially introduces energy/CO2 labelling to construction products and materials … much like we currently have on our household appliances.

I suspect that the calculation of the environmental impact of a construction material will not be as black and white as energy in use of a fridge or washing machine but at least it is a start …