This guidance is primarily aimed at public procurers involved in a range of contracting agreements related to building materials and products. This includes the purchase of building materials for construction works, but may also extend to material extraction, manufacturing, building, retrofit, refurbishment, design, interior fit out, and end-of-life demolition or deconstruction processes. 

Plastic pollution and climate change are serious and interconnected threats to public and planetary health, as well as major drivers of global social injustice. Prolific use of plastics in the construction industry is likely a key contributor, resulting in burgeoning efforts to promote the recycling or downcycling of used plastics.

This book intends to clarify the concept of Sustainable Buildings and Construction (SBC) in Africa. It is based on primarily African research and building projects implemented in different parts of the region. The publication is meant to be read by real estate developers, building industry professionals, researchers, planners and policy makers, and users of buildings.

The Sustainable Construction Leaders (SCL) peer network, available through Building Green and based in North America, is a community with regional ties that shares best practices, advocates for, and inspires change in a way that is collaborative, non-competitive, trusting, positive, and results-oriented.  It aims to leverage the construction industry to combat climate change and create healthy environments.

Contractors are uniquely positioned to impact the sustainability of building projects. In preconstruction, contractors impact the design of a building by providing feedback to designers and clients. They influence product and material selection through the submittal process. Finally, contractors control how a project gets built, including the equipment that’s used, how construction waste is managed, and the extent of surrounding site and landscape disturbance.

Manufacturers voluntarily disclose product information on easy-to-read Declare labels. These labels report all product ingredients and use a simple color code system to flag chemicals of concern. Further information is provided on the product’s final assembly locations, life expectancy, end-of-life options, and overall compliance with relevant requirements of the Living Building Challenge (LBC).

Cradle to Cradle Certified® is the leading multi-attribute standard used globally across industries by designers, brands and manufacturers for designing and making products that enable a healthy, equitable and sustainable future. For more than a decade, Cradle to Cradle Certified has been helping companies to innovate and optimize materials and products according to the world’s most advanced science-based measures.

Tally is a life cycle assessment (LCA) tool that enables calculation of the environmental impacts of building material selections, directly in an Autodesk® Revit® model.

Since 2002, the United States Federal Government has outlined its intent to advance sustainable building principles and practices throughout its portfolio established through a number of statutory and executive policies that every Federal agency has integrated and utilized. 

Renewable and biodegradable materials derived from biomass are attractive candidates to replace non-biodegradable petrochemical plastics. However, the mechanical performance and wet stability of biomass are generally insufficient for practical applications.