Understanding Sustainability of Construction Products: Answers from Investors, Contractors, and Sellers of Building Materials

Jacek Michalak,Bartosz Michałowski

doi:10.3390/su14053042

Abstract

Preventing environmental degradation and climate changes are some of the primary challenges of our civilization. Changes to the construction sector, which consumes vast amounts of raw materials, emits significant amounts of greenhouse gas and significant amounts of waste, are very important to reduce emissions and stop negative environmental changes. Regardless of the type of goal, an essential element to achieve it is understanding the purpose and tools necessary to implement appropriate and efficient solutions. This paper presents the survey results on understanding issues related to assessing construction products, including their environmental impact. The survey was conducted among professional groups related to construction, i.e., 181 investors, 522 contractors, and 116 sellers of construction products from various regions of Poland. Questions concerning thermal insulation materials and the external thermal insulation composite system (ETICS), the most widely used solution in the EU for the improvement of thermal performance of buildings, were asked. The obtained results indicate that the knowledge of the basic requirements of construction works under the Construction Products Regulation (CPR) is not too high (the share of correct answers was respectively 33.5%, 23.2%, and 16.2% in contractors, sellers, and investors groups). Similarly, the awareness of the tested, related to the environmental burden in terms of GWP of insulation materials and components of ETICS, should be assessed (49.7% of investors, 57.1% sellers of construction products, and 76.4% contractors indicated the thermal insulation material as the ETICS component with the highest environmental impact in terms of GWP). The obtained research results indicate the need for further education for evaluating construction products and sustainability.

Highlights

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutralThe European Union (EU), recognizing the importance of climate problems and environmental degradation and understanding the need to urgently intensify actions to reduce the threat to Europe and to the whole world, in December 2019, adopted an action plan called the European Green Deal (EGD) [1]
The obtained results indicate that the knowledge of the basic requirements of construction works under the Construction Products Regulation (CPR) is not too high
The EGD aims to help the EU economy recover from the situation arising from the COVID-19 pandemic

Summary

Introduction

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutralThe European Union (EU), recognizing the importance of climate problems and environmental degradation and understanding the need to urgently intensify actions to reduce the threat to Europe and to the whole world, in December 2019, adopted an action plan called the European Green Deal (EGD) [1]. The plan’s primary goals are to achieve a net-zero level of greenhouse gas (GHG) by 2050 and separate economic growth from resource consumption. These activities need to be implemented so that no person or region is left behind. For the implementation of the EGD, the European Commission intends to spend one-third of the amount of 1.8 trillion euro earmarked for investments under the NextGenerationEU recovery plan and from the funds from the seven-year EU budget [2]. Specifying further actions in July 2021, the European Commission revealed the plan to meet 55% GHG emission reduction by 2030 compared to 1990 in a fair, cost-effective, and competitive way [3]

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Discussion

Conclusion