The Next Big Thing

What does the acronym RSM mean to you. If you are in the army, it could mean Regimental Sergeant Major. If you are in the medical profession, it could mean Royal Society of Medicine. To a salesman it could mean Regional Sales Manager. But the RSM I am writing about today is none of these things, it’s a brand new acronym – Responsible Sourcing of Materials. Get used to it. If you supply to house builders, or local authorities, or housing associations or just about anybody other than the domestic consumer (for now at least) you are likely to be asked in the not-too-distant future about the sourcing of your materials – RSM.

To their credit, the timber industry recognised this some time ago and now there are various schemes designed to ensure the manageable exploitation of forests. Perhaps the main one being the Forest Stewardship Council, FSC. This was set up in the 90s after it was realised that vast amounts of forests had been destroyed with little or no prospect of them being restored. Even now illegal logging is destroying forests to make way for cattle, biofuels and other needs of mankind. One figure I was given suggested that the majority of timber imported into the UK was illegally sourced. I am always doubtful of such claims without evidence, but the disappearing forests must be going somewhere. But at least the scheme is having some effect and is a basis to build on. It is an example that construction products can follow in the current push to RSM with a certified chain of custody. Already we have seen the Code for Sustainable Homes include a requirement for nearly all timber to be FSC accredited and for other materials to demonstrate something similar. (The latest version of the Code can be downloaded from www.pauljervis.net, but it is no different from the original version as far as windows and doors are concerned – wait for Building Regulation changes for that!).

To support the drive to establish RSM across all the Building Research Establishment has produced a draft standard for the Responsible Sourcing

of Construction Products. The scope of this BRE Sustainability Standard concerns the management, environmental, social and economic facets of sustainability that must be considered generically in the certification of the responsible sourcing of construction products in the UK., As it is a draft it is not yet available for wide circulation. It will be made publicly available if and when it is approved although there is a suggestion that BSI should address the topic and produce a British Standard for it instead. If it is that important, maybe there will be a push for a European or International Standard.

The aims of the draft standard are given as

• to encourage product stewardship through the entire life-cycle of the construction product,

• to give clear guidance as to the management, environmental, social and economic facts of sustainability that must be addressed when demonstrating the responsible sourcing of construction products through the entire supply chain,

• give construction professionals confidence that the raw materials and products they choose are being responsibly sourced by construction product manufacturers.

The requirements are not just aimed at windows but are intended to be generic across all construction products. Anybody with experience of management systems certification will recognise the structure of the document with the inclusion of requirements for compliance with legislation, identification of requirements and responsibilities, training, records and the like. The basics identified are based around commitment to comply, or compliance with BS EN ISO 9001:2000 (Quality Management Systems) and integrating RSM into a company’s procedures and commitment to comply, or compliance with BS EN ISO 14001:2004 (Environmental Management Systems)  and BS OHSAS 18001:2007 (Occupational Health and Safety). In other words, you need all three or be on the way to having them before you can be considered for any certification under the RSM scheme.

Of course, a standard such as this cannot identify all the significant environmental aspects for different construction products, so it would be down to us as an industry to identify those that we consider to be relevant. We would then need to determine strategies for the reduction of the impacts within defined timescales, either on our own or in conjunction with interested external bodies (e.g. the Environment Agency).

Compliance with this standard at a single point in the supply chain is not much use on its own either. It’s no use having all the certification in the world if you are buying from a supplier who uses child labour in sweatshops while polluting the high seas and killing off the dolphins with icebergs from melted polar icecaps caused by their excessive CO2 emissions, would it? For it to mean anything it has to apply at each stage from raw material extraction onwards including raw material use minimisation, use of recycled materials, reduction of transport burdens, social aspects (a whole raft of topics all by itself including the aforementioned child labour, for instance), economic aspects (make a profit!), energy, water, waste, and so on (and on, and on and …)

And, I bet you couldn’t see this one coming, it all has to be backed up by independent third party audit, without which any claims could not be properly verified.

The draft includes a “Maturity Matrix”. Not to be confused with the latest in the movie series (although it can be equally as impenetrable!), this is a table of all the requirements of the standard with points allocated for each element of requirement and the status of compliance with it. Somewhat confusingly, this has “Compliance”, “Compliance+”, “Compliance++” and “Compliance+++” with differing points allocation. As an example, there are 5 points awarded for a commitment to having Quality Management Systems to ISO 9001, 10 points for Compliance to ISO 9001 and 15 points for Compliance+, whatever that may be. I suppose the maturity aspect is the development from having a stated intent to actually doing something and achieving certification for it.

The points are then tallied and achievement levels of Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum (why not Gold+, Gold++ and Gold+++ to keep the theme going?) identified for points totals.

The drive behind the proposed scheme is the apparent  need and desire for procurers to have this information already. It is claimed that some procurers are already asking for such information to be provided as a condition of tendering, so a common UK scheme would avoid the necessity of demonstrating compliance with procurers’ individual requirements with the effort that would entail. If this is an accurate representation of the current procurement arena, then it is inevitable that you will see these questions appearing in tender documents and specifications in the near future. Many system suppliers have already got environmental management systems in place, so the extension to achieve RSM may not be too onerous for them, but for the majority of fabricators and suppliers into this market, there may not be the same amount of environmental management system certification and it is here where the burden will fall. We are an industry with many small companies unlike, for instance, the brick industry with a few larger manufacturers. For all those companies to expend the time, effort and money to achieve RSM certification will be a big burden, but it may well be necessary if they wish to supply the non-domestic sector of the market. I suppose it’s the price we have to pay to do our bit to save the planet.