Assessment of building products attributes – a comparative study between eco-labelled and non-eco-labelled products available in the New Zealand market

Abstract

Green consumers often report confusion about types of sustainable products available on the market; they question a product’s durability, reliability and its specific environmental credentials against their non-green counterparts. The construction industry is a very pertinent sector responsible for a high level of energy consumption, hazardous emissions, and waste generation. There is a high demand in New Zealand’s construction industry for studies that identify attributes of sustainable products. The overall objective of this study was to assess sustainable aspects of building products in New Zealand and compare eco-labelled and non-eco-labelled products. The main attributes analysed were performance, retail price, and environmental credentials, including: volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions, recycled content, hazardous substances, waste and energy management. In addition to comparing eco-labelled to non-eco-labelled products, historical information of eco-labelled products was obtained from the period before the eco-label certification in order to show the main changes that had occurred over time in specific sustainable products. (Note: date range varies between product to product. In the studied sample the range is from 1996 to 2012). The analysis was carried out according to eco-labels standards, the New Zealand Building Code, and New Zealand market trends. Building products studied were restricted to paints, carpets and thermal building insulations. These groups of products were chosen based on a number of criteria, including: different lifespan, importance for New Zealand’s consumers, number of manufacturers and retailers in New Zealand, and number of certified products. The comparative analysis regarding the specific environmental credentials showed that the majority of the organizations with eco-labelled products provide more comprehensive information (such as: chemical components and product performance) for consumers in comparison to non-eco-labelled product manufacturers. Concerning performance, eco-labelled carpets shows a greater improvement than non-eco-labelled ones. Nonetheless, thermal building insulations and paints performance were no different between eco-labelled and non-eco-labelled products. The retail price shows a different figure; non-eco-labelled paints have a lower retail price than eco-labelled ones, while carpets and thermal building insulation provide similar prices between the eco-labelled and non-eco-labelled products. Finally, the historical data analysis indicated that the majority of the organizations did not provide sufficient information about products’ specific environmental credentials in the period before product certification. Yet, information obtained from the few organizations that provided historical data demonstrate that the environmental benefits were indeed lower in the period before the environmental certification. Today, diverse “sustainable” products are available in the market; however, green consumers face barriers (amount and quality of information) concerning the sustainable aspects of these products. This study demonstrates that the extent of information that organizations provide to consumers depends on the level of requirement from external inputs; eco-label products need to comply with comprehensive and strict criteria, thus their manufacturers are obligated to test their products and make the information (findings) public. . Hence, credibility regarding these products’ environmental credentials is higher. A pressing demand for further research is whether building products manufactures are concerned and understand about their products’ environmental credentials. How these figures can, at the same time, help nature while saving resources and helping the competitiveness of manufacturers in the New Zealand market. Besides, another area of further research could be how much consumers perceive and care about these environmental credentials in building products.