Environmental and health related criteria for buildings - ANEC

IBO - Environmental and Health related Criteria for Buildings
Detailed information of neighbours and the public in general (including contact points for
complaints) are reserved to large-scale building sites in the current version of TQB, but will
probably be integrated for “average” building sites in future versions.
10.7. Summary and Conclusions – Construction Site Management
Summary
Construction sites are responsible for various impacts, especially at a local level. These arise
from disturbance (noise, dust, etc.), pollution and waste. The weighting of construction site
related issues is usually marginal (at about 3% of all achievable credits) 97 compared to
criteria assessing the use stage of the building. Nevertheless, they illustrate a phase within
the building’s lifecycle in which social impacts are extended to neighbourhood and workers at
the building site.
The analysed building assessment systems refer to similar impacts caused by building site
activities (construction waste, noise, dust, environmental impacts to soil, water), but use
different indicators for rating.
Ratings differ in scope and subject of assessment, extent of impact and groups affected by
the considered impact.
Example “dust”: Dust avoidance in DGNB primarily refers to working conditions and handling
of construction machines generating dust (main target group: operatives). TQB considers
dust prevention measures primarily in order to avoid disturbance of neighbours, although
workers benefit as well from dust attenuation at the building site (e.g. interdiction of free
storage of sand and debris; grave or paved building streets; wetting of waste during
reloading, etc.).
Apart from CSH and DGNB, working conditions during construction are not part of
assessment systems of buildings.
CSH, the Code for Sustainable Homes offers the most comprehensive evaluation for
construction sites using an established third-party certification scheme of the construction
industry (“Considerate Constructors”) to detect and assess all relevant impacts of
construction site activities including operational safety and health protection measures and
cleanliness of site as well as information policy and a code of behaviour for operatives.
Besides this certification scheme, CSH additionally awards the ecological value of site and
its conservation, monitoring of energy and water consumption of building site activities and
responsibly resourcing of construction timber.
Third Draft for EU Ecolabel mainly relies on process-related criteria. It asks for certification
of constructors (e.g. QMS, EMS) and approved experience of designers in ensuring quality of
planning and construction. CSH, the Code for Sustainable Homes as well as all BREEAM
(based) schemes refer to QMS and EMS by assessing the production process of materials,
but not construction site activities.
DGNB also includes several process-related assessment criteria (such as integration of
sustainability requirements in tender guidelines, quality of design process, quality of
97 CSH, TQB, LEED for Homes
Final Report 122 31 03 2011