Sustainable consumption and production strategy for South African construction products

Abstract

The adoption of green building principles and the rollout of energy efficiency regulations for buildings are not sufficient to align the environmental performance of South African construction products with the requirements for environmental sustainability. Amongst others, the need and also the opportunities to reduce the environmental burdens associated with the production and consumption of materials and components are overlooked or not sufficiently addressed. Achieving environmental sustainability demands a paradigm shift from prescriptive to science-based methodologies; and from fragmented approaches to systems perspectives entailing action and commitment by all stakeholders in the product supply chain. LCA-based legislative and economic policy instruments such as Green Procurement, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), Cleaner Production (CP), Design for Environment (DfE) and eco-labelling / Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) are discussed.