Current Students and Staff

// University News

18 May 2017

Loughborough academic steers creation of new BSI standards

Work to launch three new British Standards to help improve material resource efficiency and reduce waste in the construction industry is set to complete.

BS 8895 series has been developed by a committee of leading industry experts, chaired by Dr Mohamed Osmani, Senior Lecturer in Architecture and Sustainable Building Design from Loughborough University’s School of Civil and Building Engineering

BS 8895 Part 1 was published in September 2013. This was followed by Part 2 in August 2015. Work on Part 3 has just started.

Part 3 sets out the process for the integration of designing for material efficiency thinking and processes during the technical design stage.

It builds on the earlier Standards and provides guidance and case studies on how to implement material efficiency in detailed drawings, material specifications and coordination of technical design information undertaken by architects, structural and building services engineers, consultants and specialist sub-contractors and/or suppliers.

Dr Osmani comments: “Existing and forthcoming environmental regulations and increased client awareness of the need to improve material resource efficiency from the outset are the backdrop for clear and unified material guidance which BS 8895 offers. There is already a noticeable impact of the already published Standards on industry practice.

"For example, the revised material section of BREEAM (the most established and widely used environmental management system in construction) refers to BS 8895 as the first tool to guide material efficiency strategies in building projects. We anticipate a further surge in the adoption of BS 8895 in construction projects moving forward.”