News about the seminar on sustainability and building materials, Bureau Veritas

Sustainability and building materials seminar

Dec. 19 2022

Representatives from various production, industry and construction companies participated as Bureau Veritas held a seminar about sustainability and building materials. It was an exciting day with a lot of interesting and applicable presentations, good questions and highly informative discussions.

Sustainability was the main topic as internal and external experts tried to enlighten the participants at the seminar regarding eco-labelling, eco-audits and environmental declarations as well as basic sustainability principles.

- Many think of sustainability as something primarily concerning the climate and the environment without regarding social and financial perspectives, Chemical Consultant at Bureau Veritas, Rikke Bernberg, stressed at the start.

She told about the different perspectives regarding sustainability and about environmental declarations of building materials. Klaus Behrndt, Lead Auditor at Bureau Veritas joined her at the end.  

Henrik Hougaard from Eco-labelling Denmark also stopped by and talked about eco-labelling of building materials including the Swan and the EU Flower. After lunch Morten Brodde from FSC Denmark enlightened the participants on FSC certification of building materials. Tomas Riegels-Jørgensen, Sales Manager at Bureau Veritas, rounded off the day by talking about the UN’s 17 sustainable development goals.

Sustainability demand

The participating companies had many relevant questions. Laws and regulations within the sustainability area seem quite complex to many. The right professional feedback and consultancy is thus very important. Several of the participants mentioned that they participated in the seminar because their customers had started demanding sustainability.

- I chose to participate in the seminar as we started meeting different customer needs. Our customers are asking about numbers and inputs for their climate reports and documentation of sustainable constructions if they are to be certified or the like. I would like to know more about how to meet our customers’ demands and how we make the right demands on our suppliers, says Henriette Gade Pedersen, CSR coordinator at Sanistål.

Seminar about sustainability and building constructions, Bureau Veritas

A mutual responsibility

At the seminar it was emphasised that sustainability is more than a competitive advantage. It is a mutual responsibility. The fine attendance also indicates that many companies are becoming aware of taking their part of the responsibility.

The recognition that many sustainability criteria are still complex, makes it even more important to help each other. Thus, the participants were introduced to Bureau Veritas’ plan of establishing a network group within sustainability.

You can read more about sustainability and Bureau Veritas at www.bureauveritas.dk/sdg