Industry urged to measure its sustainable progress

The UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) has urged the industry to improve the measurement and sharing of data on sustainability performance if it is to meet challenging environmental targets.

Paul King, the organisation's chief executive, told CJ there is too little consistent measurement of industry performance to drive forward the sustainability agenda.

"People just aren't measuring how they are performing," he said. "We can't begin to benchmark without realistic statistics."

Discussing the UKGBC's Roadmap to Sustainability, he claimed the industry is not sure how to get involved in the sustainability agenda and suffers from having to access information from too many sources.

King added: "The data doesn't have to be with us, but it has to be all together.

"The roadmap will include all key dates and targets, and contain data from across the industry - down to the minutes of the last zero-carbon task group meeting."

But King said it's not just the construction industry that has to up its game, adding that there has been a period of inertia on progress towards zero-carbon homes by 2016 within the government.

He said: "The zero-carbon taskforce is in desperate need of some project management. Currently, the various parties meet and go away without too much progress and we really need to bring all the different streams together."

The idea of a body, similar to that which currently advises on non-domestic buildings, is also being pushed by the Construction Products Association, which has argued that not enough emphasis - or finance - is being directed towards the zero-carbon agenda by the Department for Communities and Local Government.

It is expected that such a body will be in place by the end of 2008.