Consultation on Sustainability Labelling Within Building Standards

The aim of the proposed amendment was to embed in the Scottish Building Regulations a requirement for the sustainability labelling of new buildings.

In achieving this, the following objectives were identified:

• To recognise the level of sustainability achieved by the 2010 building regulations (bronze level)
• To allow planning authorities a simple route to achieving their obligations under section 72 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 (bronze star level)
• To encourage the adoption of even more demanding sustainability standards with optional higher levels of achievement (silver and gold levels)
• To adopt a sustainability labelling system that can operate within the scope of the building standards system in Scotland
• To encourage consistency between local authorities in supplementary planning guidance on sustainable construction
• To give simple benchmarks that can be referred to when local authorities aspire to developments that meet a higher measure of sustainability