Laval, Quebec -- The use of sustainable building materials is expanding in the construction industry, driven by lack of materials, increased demand for green building materials, and growing sustainability concerns. The future is green. With the ever-growing awareness of the importance of sustainability, more and more builders are looking for ways to reduce the environmental impact of their projects, not only as an effort to protect the environment but also as a strategy to use less energy and water, generate less waste, and create fewer emissions than traditional buildings.
The sustainable building materials market exceeded $377 billion in 2022 and is projected to surpass $950 billion by 2030, Global Green Building Materials Market recently reported. The report cites increasing demand for green building materials, rising construction in North America, and increased government initiatives.
Project teams are increasingly seeking sustainable attributes and certifications in building products. Sustainable products are widely recognized as having lower environmental and human health impacts than typical products in the same category. Evaluating environmental and human health impacts can be complex, further confused by varying product claims and ever-evolving green building standard requirements relating to sustainable products. Fortunately, as the green building industry expands, so does the availability of sustainable products.
What makes a sustainable product?
There’s a wide range of certifications and attributes manufacturers can use to promote their products as sustainable. Some products are promoted based on their reduced environmental impacts when compared to a baseline environmental performance in a life cycle assessment (LCA). Other manufacturers transparently communicate their products’ ingredients’ impacts on human health. Some identify their social impacts and commitment to all their stakeholders including employees, individuals throughout the supply chain, communities, installers, and consumers. Some claim their products are developed with careful attention to research and development, the manufacturing processes, and packaging choices. Most focus on single attributes such as recycled content, carbon footprint, and VOC content and emissions, while others evaluate impacts on both human health and the environment.
The sustainable attributes of a product advise project teams that a product has met a standard and offers either environmental or health benefits; they also eliminate greenwashing — misleading or unsubstantiated claims about the environmental and health benefits of a product. Sustainable products with third-party certification are considered the most valuable among green building standards and certification systems. Third-party certification means a product has been independently verified as meeting environmental and/or health standards, offering assurance to architects, designers, specifiers, and consumers that a product’s claims reflect its sustainable attributes. As a result, as the demand for products with sustainable attributes in the building market continues to increase, so does the number of sustainable product certifications.
Consequently, the variety of sustainable product certifications and attributes can be overwhelming. Even for an informed person it can be difficult to absorb all the information provided, consumers should not be expected to analyze each of these certifications and attributes. This has not hindered the growth of these sustainable attributes as there is an increasing number of single- or multi-attribute human health and environmental criteria. In addition, the certifications and attributes of sustainable products can vary significantly depending on the product type. All sustainable attributes are important, however, based on the product type, some are more important than others. For instance, the sustainable attributes of concrete mix are different than the sustainable attributes of wood doors, both of which are different from the sustainable attributes of tile-setting materials.
Due to these variabilities, assessing sustainable product certifications and attributes requires a deeper understanding of every product’s potential impact on human health and the environment, third-party standards and certifications for both green buildings and green products, and the availability of products in the building market including aesthetics, performance, cost, and sustainable attributes.
For tile-setting materials, several characteristics differentiate sustainable materials from traditional ones:
The process of selecting and/or specifying sustainable products can be time- and budget-consuming. However, industry leading manufacturers, including MAPEI, understand that third-party certification is becoming increasingly important, as sustainable construction is becoming the norm rather than the exception. As new and more stringent requirements continue to be introduced in sustainable construction, project teams can expect continued progress in advancing sustainable products.
About the Author
Brittany Storm is the sustainability manager at MAPEI. Her background as a sustainable building consultant and experience in construction management allow her to speak to both big picture and technical aspects of a project. Brittany is a LEED Fellow as well as a WELL AP and Fitwel Ambassador. In addition, she is active in several sustainability committees.
About MAPEI
Founded in 1937 in Milan, MAPEI is now one of the world’s leading manufacturers of chemical products for the building industry and has contributed to the construction of some of the most important architectural and infrastructure works worldwide. With 102 subsidiaries operating in 57 countries and 90 manufacturing plants in 35 nations, MAPEI Group employs more than 12,000 staff worldwide. The foundations for the success of the company are specialization, internationalization, research & development, and sustainability.
MAPEI Canada (MAPEI Inc.) represents the Canadian subsidiary of the MAPEI Group. Canada was in fact the first country outside of Italy where MAPEI established production facilities and where the company began its internationalization plans in 1978. Today, the Canadian subsidiary has facilities located throughout the country, with production facilities in Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia, a distribution center in Alberta. MAPEI Canada is part of the MAPEI North America group of subsidiaries, which also includes MAPEI USA (MAPEI Corporation) and MAPEI Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands (MAPEI Caribe). MAPEI North America represents 28 facilities collectively with a workforce of over 1,800 employees. MAPEI facilities have been certified to ISO 45001, ISO 9001, and ISO 14001 quality standards. An environmentally conscious manufacturer that reinvests 5% of its revenue into R&D, MAPEI offers training for architects, contractors, installers and distributors through the MAPEI Technical Institute. For more about MAPEI Canada, visit www.mapei.ca or call +1 800-42-MAPEI (2734).
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