Congratulations to David Andrews who successfully completed IRTEC training with the Road Haulage Association onsite in Smet Building Products Ltd Newry. 
We are delighted our Marketing Manager, Deborah Smet took part in The Carbon Literacy Project Action Day 2022 – achieving the Climate Literacy Training accreditation – delivered by Hattrick.
Superior Render Solutions
Render is a uniquely versatile material that can be used to coat virtually any building, create new buildings, remodel existing ones, and create fine façade detailing to any budget.
We’re giving nature and people a chance to thrive at Mourne Park – an incredibly rare piece of Northern Ireland’s remaining ancient woodland, by donating to the Woodland Trust Mourne Park NI Appeal Fundraiser on Nov 22.
We are BES 6001 Compliant!
Please download our Environmental Policies:
Responsible Sourcing Policy | Smet Building Products Ltd
Corporate and Social Responsibility Statement Policy | Smet Building Products Ltd
Why is this important?
Responsible sourcing is becoming increasingly important when procuring materials for construction. Standards such as BES 6001 (responsible sourcing of construction products) are increasingly specified on major projects. The BRE developed the BES 6001 Framework Standard for Responsible Sourcing. It is an independent stakeholder-supported, third-party scheme that enables manufacturers to have the responsible sourcing credentials of a wide range of materials assessed and certificated.
Responsible Sourcing of Construction Products provides a holistic approach to managing a product from the point at which component materials are mined or harvested, through manufacture and processing.
Responsible Sourcing of Construction Products is demonstrated through an ethos of supply chain management and product stewardship and encompasses social, economic, and environmental dimensions.
Responsible Sourcing of Construction Products addresses aspects such as stakeholder engagement, labour practices, and the management of supply chains serving materials sectors upstream of the manufacturer.
What is BES 6001?
Framework Standard for Responsible Sourcing
BES 6001 – The Framework Standard for Responsible Sourcing – see the Green Book Live Responsible Sourcing of Construction Products page to access the standard and related information.
The standard sets out requirements under 3 main headings:
- Organisational management
- Supply chain management
- Environmental and social issues
BES 6001 Certification gives manufacturers the opportunity to:
- Differentiate their products against competitors
- Demonstrate corporate reputation and leadership
- Benchmark their manufacturing performance and facilitate continuous improvement through certification
And specifiers and purchasers the benefit of:
- Securing additional BREEAM credits for their buildings
- Reducing risk down the supply chain
- Demonstrating corporate reputation and leadership.
Read how our two main German suppliers for screed, render, and tiling are doing in their commitments to the environment and sustainability:
Sustainability is very important to CASEA and it is implemented at all levels – from the supply of raw materials and logistics to production and recycling. Regional focus on quarries in different parts of Germany also contributes to sustainability because it avoids unnecessary climate-damaging transport routes. Read More: https://www.casea-gips.de/en/profile/sustainability/
With low-emission products and health-promoting, eco-friendly projects. Sopro Bauchemie honours its responsibility to nature, the environment, and future generations. Read More: SOPRO SUSTAINABILITY.
We recognise as a supplier of superior quality building products and services; we must ensure our operations are carried out to the highest of standards of corporate responsibility including legal and regulatory requirements.
In order to achieve this, since 2014 we have operated a BSI-registered ISO 14001: 2015 Environmental Management System. This management system underpins our commitment to reducing the environmental impact of our day-to-day activities.
SMET is BSI ISO 9001: 2015, ISO 14001: 2015, and ISO 45001:2018 registered
ISO 14001 is an internationally accepted standard that outlines how to put an effective environmental management system in place. Within its framework, we can remain commercially successful without overlooking environmental responsibilities.
Our Commitment – Environmental Policy Statement
ISO 14001 Certificate – Smet Building Products Ltd
We realise that we can only remain successful if our activities and products reflect the environmental attitudes of society. Environmental issues and society’s values are considered in the future development and planning of the company. To this end we will:
♻ Conduct our operations in such a way as to have a minimum adverse impact on the environment.
♻ Strive to purchase materials that can be used and disposed of responsibly.
♻ Promote the use of materials that can be recycled where possible, and which can be used in an energy-efficient way.
♻ Minimise waste in our operations by following the principles contained within the Hierarchy of Waste.
♻ Ensure responsible and ethical disposal of any waste products to avoid and prevent pollution in accordance with relevant legislation
♻ Plan to conserve energy through the efficient use of our equipment, vehicles, and office facilities.
♻ Favour suppliers who are committed to sustainable environmental improvement.
♻ Train our employees in environmental issues relating to their day-to-day work and encourage them to care for our community.
♻ Encourage our employees to make suggestions on how our environmental performance can be improved.
♻ Continually strive to improve our environmental performance.
♻ Comply with all applicable legislation and any other requirements that relate to our environmental aspects.
Joris Smet, Managing Director of Smet Building Products Ltd says, “We’re committed to reducing our impact on the environment, and having an internationally recognised standard will allow us to not only control our environmental impact and comply with the relevant legal requirements but also help our customers do the same. By influencing our employees and customers we can ensure best practices in envirnomental impacts and continually improve our operating systems and procedures”.
We offer a comprehensive range of EPDs for a wide range of German-made building materials. Offering transparency through LCA, specifiers are in an informed position to reduce environmental impacts by calculating embodied carbon, eliminating toxic materials, and understanding the ‘Cradle to Grave’ impact of their chosen materials. SMET’s online EPD Platform published by the IGBC offers this comparative ability in decision-making.
SMET has made it easier to access EPDs for your projects and is delighted to offer a comprehensive listing of over 40 for a range of its superior German-made materials including; Screed, Tiling, Renders, Plasters, baseTherm® and Membranes. These EPDs are available now, and free for download on EPD Ireland’s programme – Ireland’s go-to Environmental Product Declaration platform. To access these third-party verified EPDs, open the platform: www.igbc.ie/epd and search for ‘SMET’.
How we deliver with EPDs available for a diverse range of building materials.
Sustainable construction trends have driven the demand for environmental product declarations (EPDs) for building products. In many building certification systems, the criteria for evaluating sustainability include a standardised, systematic life-cycle assessment (LCA), which – as the name suggests – covers a building’s entire lifespan. The data used in these assessments are based on EPDs prepared in accordance with international standards ISO 14025 and EN 15804. EPDs contain statements on energy and resource use as well as the extent to which a product contributes to the greenhouse effect, acidification, eutrophication, destruction of the ozone layer and smog formation. They also include details of the technical properties needed to assess the performance of a particular product in the building, e.g., in terms of service life or impact on indoor air quality.
The ability to Assess Life Cycle Impacts
Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) are a standardised way of providing data about the environmental impacts of a product through the product life cycle. In Europe, they must conform to the European Standard, EN 15804, which ensures that EPD for construction products use a common methodology, report a common set of environmental indicators, and have a common reporting format. This means that EPD can be integrated into building-level assessment and used to compare construction products in a building context. EPD including all life cycle stages is known as “cradle to grave” EPD. EPD can also show the potential benefits of any reuse, recovery, or recycling after end of life in Module D. These modules and stages are standardised across products and building-level environmental assessment (using EN 15978, another of the CEN/TC 350 suite of standards for sustainable construction) so that EPD data can be easily used at building level to assess the life cycle impacts.
Sources of impacts
Remember a product with an EPD is not automatically a product with low environmental impact – the EPD only provides the environmental information about the product which allows you to discover this by comparing it to other products at the building level. However, in obtaining an EPD, the manufacturer will receive an EPD Project Report which explains the sources of impacts through the life cycle, which will allow them to consider how they might best reduce them. Most importantly for designers and specifiers, EPDs have a major role to play in enabling better product choices in delivering lower carbon buildings.
Calcium Sulphate flowing screed EPD | SMET
Why do we host with EPD Ireland?
The IGBC (Irish Green Building Council) developed the EPD Ireland programme. This allows Irish producers to create an Environmental Product Declaration for their product, using Product Category Rules (PCR) for Ireland and have it verified and published on the platform. EPD Ireland also allows manufacturers to upload EPD from other programme operators on its website as is the case above. EPD Ireland is a member of Eco Platform, the organisation of European EPD programme operators which ensures the quality of the programme and maximises harmonisation of EPD programmes across Europe. All the declarations published under EPD Ireland programme are available in digital format (XML and CSV) on the EPD Ireland’s website and on ECO Platform’s ECO Portal. This ensures that the Environmental Product Declarations are made visible to specifiers across Europe and data is ready to use on Building level LCA software.
IGBC Certificate Smet Building Products until Sept 23
In 2018, the IGBC also launched the EPD Campaign. This campaign asks specifiers of construction products to demand Environmental Product Declarations and prefer products with EPD where possible within procurement restrictions. The commitment is for all those in the value chain who can influence the specification of products in buildings: investors, developers, home builders, local authorities, engineers, architects, contractors, and consultants. Likewise, the IGBC has recently developed Carbon Designer Ireland, a free early-stage whole-life cycle carbon assessment tool for Ireland where you can find all the data, tools, information you need to carry out IS EN15978 compliant whole life carbon assessment of buildings in Ireland. They also offer training courses for professionals to learn how to quantify carbon emissions associated with their building designs.
EPDs and the Alliance for Sustainable Building Products
SMET is a member of the Alliance for Sustainable Building Products (ASBP), a non-profit sustainability organisation that seeks to increase interest and uptake in EPD within the industry, particularly via knowledge-sharing webinars and briefing papers.
We’re so delighted to be included in the new ASBP Members’ list of published EPDs. This database showcases a curated selection of Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) for ASBP members’ building products.
“We are seeing real growth in interest in EPD within our cross-sector membership and wider network. We aim to announce new partnerships with two major EPD providers in early 2022 which we hope will make the EPD process more manageable for SME members and increase the amount of EPD available for construction products.” – Richard Broad, Projects & Communications Manager, ASBP
baseTherm® published EPD under the EPD Ireland programme
We are delighted to announce in cooperation with our Smet Supported Partner, baseTherm®, we have published an EPD under the IGBC’s EPD Ireland programme, for baseTherm® Ltd.
This is a Cradle to Gate EPD for:
baseTherm® Low Lambda
baseTherm® 150
baseTherm® 200
baseTherm® 250
Read more and download the baseTherm® EPD here.
