THE MINERAL Products Association is the trade association for the aggregates, asphalt, cement, ready-mixed concrete, lime, mortar and silica sand industries.

The MPA represents 100% of GB cement production, 90% of aggregates production and 95% of asphalt and ready-mixed concrete production. Each year the industry supplies £5 billion of materials to the £100 billion construction and other sectors. The MPA has a growing membership of over 220 members across the UK.

The MPA has also engaged with other associations across the concrete industry to form a specific sustainability group known as the Concrete Industry Sustainable Construction Forum (CISCF). One of the main aims of the forum has been to develop a sustainability and responsible sourcing strategy to meet Government targets and to also meet the expectations of clients within the construction industry.

The concrete industry as a whole has been collating data in relation to 2007 and 2008 production, and has used these figures to produce a series of Performance Indicators directly linked to both Government targets and also to the Building Research Establishment (BRE) Environment & Sustainability Standard ‘BES 6001 Framework Standard for the Responsible Sourcing of Construction Products.

Indeed, the forum produced the CISCF Guidance Document to support BES 6001(3), and by doing so became the first construction products sector to accept the new BRE standard and offer guidance to member companies. The launch of the guidance document took place at a joint event with BRE on 18 December 2008 at the Building Centre, London.

Since that time, extensive work has been undertaken by the forum and member companies in order to develop systems and procedures to meet BES 6001 and also the new draft British Standard ‘BS 8902 Responsible Sourcing Sector Certification Schemes for Construction Production Specification. These efforts will allow companies to gain certification against BES 6001 and conform to BS 8902 via one auditing/assessment process, thus effectively gaining dual certification to satisfy all responsible sourcing criteria.

In this respect, and in support of the above, the forum has developed and published standard definitions, methodology and metrics for the all the Performance Indicators and is currently finalising industry targets against each one, to be published in the very near future. The above process has involved each forum member/association creating specific targets against each standard performance indicator, which are now being collated to form one ‘concrete industry’ figure.

In addition to the above, the British Ready- Mixed Concrete Association (BRMCA), part of the MPA, has produced a publication offering guidance on sustainable construction and rating systems to aid in the understanding of the considerations to be taken into account when designing in concrete, and also to provide terms of reference for main/management contractors and specialists concrete contractors alike.

The document explains how the BRE Green Guide, Code for Sustainable Homes and BREEAM documents fit together and how to interpret their requirements in terms of concrete construction to ensure the best ‘whole life option’ is used.

Indeed, following publication of this document, BRE subsequently issued a press release supporting the findings, stating: “Specifying materials or products solely on one criterion, such as embodied carbon or recycled content, can lead to suboptimal overall sustainability choices. Specifiers must understand that the embodied environmental impacts, as measured in the Green Guide, are only a part of (and not the same as) the overall sustainability of a building as measured
in BREEAM and CSH. Materials or products not getting A or A+ ratings in the Green Guide can still be, and already are, part of buildings achieving high levels in CSH or BREEAM.

The total amount of credit available, based on the Green Guide, within CSH for ‘Mat 1: Environmental Impact of Materials’ is 4.5% and for BREEAM Offices 2008 it is 4.16%.”

The forum welcomes feedback on any of its activities and may be contacted via www.sustainableconcrete.org.uk