wienerberger UK & Ireland has published Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for its UK manufactured brick and roof tiles, supporting customers in their search for transparent and accessible sustainability data.

The publication of factory-level EPDs is the latest step in the company’s sustainability strategy, which outlines the transition to a net-zero emission, nature-positive company.

EPDs are standardised and externally verified documents that set out a product’s environmental impact across its entire life cycle, from raw material extraction through the manufacturing, installation, operational and disposal/recycling phases. Increasingly sought-after by specifiers, architects, installers and merchants, they provide data on impacts such as carbon emissions, water use and secondary materials (recycled content).

By accessing the EPDs from the wienerberger website, customers can easily obtain the embodied carbon for wienerberger’s brick and roof tile products and improve the accuracy of their supply chain (Scope 3, Purchased Goods) emissions accounting. The EPDs also enable customers to earn credits for green building certifications such as BREEAM and LEED.

Stephanie Palmer, Head of Sustainability at wienerberger said: “Publishing EPDs for our UK-manufactured bricks and roof tiles empowers our customers to make more informed choices. We’re committed to transparency and accessibility, and have invested a significant amount of time in getting to this point, with comprehensive EPD documents explaining the modelling scenarios we have used.

“Creating EPDs also provides valuable insight into future decarbonisation opportunities for us too. We’ve set ambitious carbon reduction targets for 2026 and 2030 as key milestones to achieving net-zero carbon emissions before 2050.”

She continued: “While we’re proud of the decarbonisation progress we’ve made, we recognise there’s more to do – publishing EPDs is just one of many projects outlined in our Carbon Reduction Plan.  We’ll continue to produce EPDs over the coming years to get full coverage of our core UK and Ireland product range.”

Browse wienerberger’s suite of EPDs and the summary documents for bricks and roof tiles by visiting: www.wienerberger.co.uk/epds

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Since the new Labour government was elected in early July, one phrase has been circulating more than any – grey belt.

As promised during the election campaign, Labour has hit the ground running with its focus on housing and an overhaul of the planning system – and by introducing ‘grey belt’ hopes to hit its ambitious 1.5m homes target.

However, for any project to succeed, a developer needs to know a proposed scheme will work – and to do this the industry must have clarity on what grey belt land is, says Paul Davis, co-founder of site-finding platform Nimbus.

“We need to understand how grey belt will be defined. Only then, can we identify which sites fall within that definition to establish the viability of the proposals.

Paul said: “Grey belt is a term that has invoked mixed reactions since it was first coined. It involves taking poor quality and neglected spaces within green belt and turning the disused wasteland into communities with vital housing provisions. However, the controversy lies in the fact that at its core, it still involves building on green belt, which covers roughly 13% of England and has historically been protected.

“Currently, the main confusion across the industry are the parameters for grey belt: what will be classified under it, how the planning process will work and how it will differ from current green belt and brownfield regulations. Without these details, it’s just a name.

“Knight Frank has reported that 100,000 to 200,000 new homes could be built on grey belt sites, and others have produced similar findings showing just how valuable this land can be in meeting housing targets. However, knowing the specifics of each of these sites will be the key to unlocking the housing potential there. Through examining our data, we can see not only the plots that could fit the grey belt criteria but also the feasibility of those sites from a planning and financial point of view, so that they can be unlocked as opportunities.

“For example, Cobham in Surrey sits in the London commuter belt and as such is a highly desirable location. Currently, there are 20 sites within the small village that fit grey belt criteria as we understand it, and based on minimum standards each of these plots could yield at least six flats. That’s a minimum of 120 additional dwellings.

“Access to data insights such as these will not only speed up developing on these grey belt areas but will also add some much-needed clarity to the potential that grey belt offers. Equally, other information will give insight into historical uses or planning information to further inform the bigger picture. The government, developers and the rest of the supply chain need to work in partnership to gather these insights and deliver housing targets – it’s not enough to work in isolation anymore if we want to collectively make change.”

“Grey belt is not without its challenges and critics, but the data doesn’t lie. If housing is our top priority as an industry and for the government, this seems like a very viable route. It holds the promise of new homes and revitalised communities but also poses questions about environmental standards and economic viability – and, if Labour is to reach its targets, likely, the green belt itself will have to be reimagined.

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