This week DECC confirmed arrangements for the demise of SWMP’s

You will no longer be required by law to prepare a site waste management plan (SWMP) from 1 December 2013. However, SWMPs may still be required by BREEAM, the planning permission or by the main contractor or client. Even if you don’t need to produce one, completing a SWMP will help you to handle your materials and waste correctly, helping you reduce and save money in the process. 

We should see this as an opportunity to rethink our relationship with waste, and focus upstream, not on waste, but on solutions through appropriate material management. And one solution lies within the Living Building Challenge, a restorative sustainability philosophy, advocacy and accreditation programme for the built environment.

It is heartening to note that the Living Building Challenge Material Petal, does not refer to waste (as BREEAM and LEED do) but on Conservation and Re-Use, requiring each project team to create a Material Conservation Management Plan that explains how the project optimises materials in:

• Design,  including consideration of appropriate durability in product specification

• Construction, including product optimization and collection of wasted materials

• Operation, including a collection plan for consumables and durables

• End of Life, including a plan for Adaptable Reuse and Deconstruction

Through ISO 14001, Environmental Management, and Living Building Challenge support for projects and organisations we are slowly moving SWasteMP’s thinking towards MConservationMP’s and to Adaptable Reuse and Deconstruction Plans.

If you would like more information to seize this opportunity to move your organisation forward please do get in touch. (Innovation Vouchers can help offset costs!)

Links:

Introducing the Living Building Challenge in the UK

Living Building Challenge Infographic

Changes to SWMP regulation (DECC)

Your waste responsibilities (DECC)