Sustainable use of natural resources indicator

A system for determining a single indicator to reflect the sustainability of abiotic and biotic resources used to manufacture construction products and functional units is presented. The indicator reflects the availablity in nature of a natural resource for future generations and the quantity of secondary materials incorporated into the product. The indicator includes the natural resources used to provide the energy used in the extraction, transportation and manufacture of the product or functional unit over part or all of the life cycle. Each natural resource is placed in a residual life class. The totals for each class can be used to provide information on the sustainability of the natural resources used to manufacture a construction product as needed by ‘basic requirement for construction works 7: sustainable use of natural resources’, of the Construction Products Regulation. The residual life classes are converted into an impact score. A weighting system is included that is proportionally greater for natural resources with shorter residual lives. The ‘impact score’ can be used as one indicator in an environmental product declaration.