PVC and building rating tools
PVC and building rating tools - Vinyl Council Australia
| Rating tools are increasingly being used to assess the environmental performance or sustainability of buildings and their design and construction. In Australia, tools have been developed to assess energy efficiency of buildings (such as NABERS), to rate the performance of windows (WERS) and to rate the design of buildings (such as Green Star). The influence of the ratings sector is significant, and the PVC industry welcomes their input into reducing the impact of building development on the environment. Our industry believes that, in order for building rating tools to drive best practice and improved environmental performance, their criteria need to focus on performance. We support therefore, performance outcome focused criteria in rating tools rather than prescriptive guidelines that reduce design flexibility and may not produce the intended environmental result. Material neutral, performance based criteria are more credible because it is the application of the material in a product or assembly within the building that influences sustainable outcomes, not a material per se. Performance based ratings tools are more credible where they set clear benchmarks or targets to be attained for the performance of the building over its life, not just the construction phase. An overly prescriptive approach to materials in rating tools, without taking into account how the material is used and its life cycle performance relative to alternatives, may lead to perverse environmental outcomes whereby the alternative used has a greater life cycle impact. As the peak body of the Australian PVC industry, the Vinyl Council of Australia works to ensure decision makers at every level are informed about the sustainability of PVC building products. All materials have environmental impacts arising from the production, use or end-of-life phase of their lifecycles. Materials may nevertheless provide environmental benefits such as assisting in reduced energy usage or being so durable over the years that replacement is rarely necessary. Green building rating tools should encourage the use of the best application from a performance and sustainability stand point. Building designers and specifiers should be free to choose all products based on their merits in terms of fitness for purpose, life cycle cost and environmental impacts, relying on reputable science to assess environmental impact. This allows specifiers greater design flexibility to achieve the best environmental outcome possible. |
Comparing Applications – Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) |
| The only way to compare the environmental impacts of alternative materials, is by considering a product or assembly over its lifetime use in a building using tools such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Such comparisons require a detailed 'cradle-to-grave' assessment of product systems through all stages of their lives, including raw material extraction, product manufacture, use and ultimate disposal. LCA is appropriate when carried out on the functional unit measure of an application, rather than merely on a material; comparing the impact of 1 tonne of PVC and 1 tonne of copper is less meaningful than comparing the comparative impacts of 1 metre of both PVC and copper pipe. Visit the section on LCAs for more information on PVC's life cycle. |
