Source · Select Committees · Environmental Audit Committee
Recommendation 48
48
Acknowledged
Introduce eco-labelling for building products to popularise low-carbon materials in housebuilding.
Recommendation
Whilst the Government has taken initial steps to promote timber through the Timber Construction Roadmap, there remains a lack of clear incentives and guidance to encourage the adoption of low-carbon material in housebuilding. The Committee believes the Government should take a more active role in shaping how low carbon materials are popularised. This could be done by providing market signals that reward sustainability. One such measure could be the introduction of eco-labelling for building products, enabling builders and developers to identify materials with lower embodied carbon. (Recommendation, Paragraph 159)
Government Response Summary
The government states that more can be done to encourage, incentivise, and implement environmental and sustainable practices across the construction products sector, and that it intends to remain aligned to the EU regime, but stops short of committing to eco-labelling for building products while it analyses consultation responses.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
85. We believe that more can be done to encourage, incentivise, and implement environmental and sustainable practices across the construction products sector. This must be done in a proportionate way that also delivers on safety and supports productivity, innovation, and growth. Following the Construction Products Reform Green Paper in February 2025, which reaffirmed the Government’s commitment for system wide reform of the construction products regime, the Government published the Construction Products Reform White Paper - GOV.UK in February 2026. The white paper sets out the Government’s response to the green paper and next steps to meet the ambition for safe products, safely used. 86. The European Union has reformed its construction product regime, with its new regulation published in December 2024. The revised EU regime introduces several new environment and sustainability requirements for those products covered by a mandatory standard. The white paper confirms an intention to remain consistent with the EU’s Construction Product Regulation (EU-CPR) where this meets our reform objectives, including the new environmental requirements. 87. In June 2025, DESNZ published a technical consultation on a policy framework to grow the market of low carbon industrial products, with an initial focus on steel, cement, and concrete products used in construction. This framework aims to enable buyers to identify and choose lower carbon industrial products and in turn build industry confidence in the profitability of decarbonisation. 88. The policies proposed in the consultation include: • An Embodied Emissions Reporting Framework. This could include best practice guidance for product-level carbon accounting as well as an IT system. These would aim to make reporting easier and cheaper for businesses and the results more consistent, transparent, and robust. • Product Classifications, which can help buyers compare their options by providing a structure for understanding embodied emissions data in context, for example using A-G ratings. These models provide a foundation for defining what constitutes low carbon steel, cement, and concrete. • Green Procurement Guidance, which would encourage buyers to consider the embodied emissions of products they purchase and outline best practice recommendations for organisational policies and processes. Through green procurement, the Government aims to use its buying power to directly support innovation and the growth of low carbon manufacturing. 89. The consultation also sought views on longer-term policy options including ecolabels for steel, cement, and concrete. 90. The consultation closed in September 2025, and responses are currently being analysed. A Government response will be published in due course and delivery of the framework will begin in 2026.