Introducing the Building Products Information Rating

5th Sep 2019

Winston Churchill once said: “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.” That sentiment is now increasingly backed by evidence, with a strong focus now on the development of buildings that are safe, resilient to the impacts of a changing climate, environmentally friendly in their construction and operation, and which promote occupant health and wellbeing.

To meet those requirements, it is essential that architects, designers, engineers and other specialists involved in the planning, design and construction of buildings have access to products, materials and systems that are truly ‘fit for purpose’. Similarly, building owners are increasingly seeking information about the building materials present in their existing structure, the suitability for the building and how those materials should be maintained. Yet, surprisingly, there are few places that building owners and professionals can go in order to readily find information about building materials and compare alternatives. The result of that absence is either hundreds of wasted hours of research time across the sector or, perhaps worse still, the specification of inputs into buildings that are inappropriate or sub-optimal.

Benefits for EPD owners

As a solution to this Edge Environment has developed the BPI Rating platform. BPI Rating stands for Building Product Information Rating, and is a platform designed to create a home for all that data.

BPI Rating provides information on the Compliance, Resilience, Environmental and Social credentials of building products, systems and materials. Any product with an EPD automatically scores very highly in the Environmental rating section due to the transparent and verifiable nature of EPDs.

It is free to use for those searching for and comparing products, and its open to building product suppliers such as our EPD owners to create an account and enter their organisation’s details, products and credentials.

BPI Rating is a joint venture between Edge and the software solution firm Comply Flow, supported by the Insurance Council of Australia.. To find out more about BPI Rating, visit BPIRating.com.au, or contact Edge Environment.