The National Plastics Exposition (NPE) recently took place March 23-27 in Orlando, Florida. Let's go behind the scenes and take a look from a plastics engineering standpoint at some of the regulatory impacts in key plastics end-uses and related technologies.

In a three-part recap, we'll look at automotive lightweighting, food labeling/packaging and green building.

Green building regulatory goals drive plastics use

The construction and operation of buildings has a significant impact on the environment. In the U.S., buildings account for 39 percent of total energy consumption and 38 percent of carbon dioxide emissions. Buildings also use a tremendous amount of natural resources to construct and operate.

Constructing green buildings that consume resources more efficiently is the primary goal. In turn, this will minimize pollution that can harm renewable natural resources that are crucial to a sustainable future.

"Green Building," the practice of minimizing the impact a building has on the natural environment has several clear goals:

  • Select building materials and methods that conserve resources and materials required to construct a building.
  • Create a healthy indoor environment for occupants, free from volatile organic compounds (VOCs), mold or other harmful airborne pollutants. Studies have shown that healthy indoor environments can improve productivity.
  • Reduce energy consumption and fossil fuel use to heat, cool and illuminate the building. In addition to benefiting the environment, energy-efficient buildings cost less to operate.
  • Incorporate water-conserving systems that limit the use and prevent pollution of this important natural resource.

Green building legislation, regulation and certification is here to stay in plastic building and construction applications. Significant potential cost-effective energy savings and CO2 emissions reductions exist in new and existing buildings.

The Directive on Energy Performance in Buildings (EPBD) — Directive 2010/31/EU — is the main legislative instrument affecting energy use and efficiency in the European building sector. It tackles both new construction and existing building stock in all sectors. The recast, approved May 19, 2010, significantly increases energy efficiency ambition levels in EU buildings well into the future decade.

Major provisions of Recast Directive 2010/31/EU:

  • As of Dec. 31, 2020, all new buildings in the EU will have to consume "nearly zero" energy and the energy will be "to a very large extent" from renewable sources (Dec. 31, 2018 for public buildings).
  • No specific target is set for existing building renovation, but member states are advised to take measures for stimulation of low-energy refurbishments.
  • Minimum requirements for components are introduced for renovations and replacements.

Individual goals set by Member States are:

  • United Kingdom: Zero-carbon homes by 2016 (heating and lighting).
  • Hungary: Zero-emission buildings by 2020 (Climate Change Strategy).
  • Netherlands: Energy-neutral buildings by 2020.
  • France: Energy-positive buildings by 2020.

Returning to the U.S., the California Green Building Standards Code (CALGreen) is the first mandatory statewide standards code in the U.S. that addresses green construction to fight climate change. Formerly a voluntary standard, CALGreen was substantially modified and reissued as a statewide mandatory code for state-owned buildings, low-rise residential buildings, qualified historical buildings, general acute care hospitals, and public elementary and secondary schools.

The California Air Resources Board estimates that the mandatory provisions will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 3 million metric tons equivalent in 2020. CALGreen requires that every new building constructed in California:

  • Install low pollutant-emitting materials.
  • Divert 50 percent of construction waste from landfills.
  • Reduce water consumption by 20 percent.
  • Install separate water meters for nonresidential buildings' indoor and outdoor water use.
  • Mandatory inspections of energy systems (furnace, air conditioner, mechanical equipment) for nonresidential buildings greater than 10,000 square feet to ensure operating efficiencies relative to design.

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is an internationally-recognized green building certification system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). LEED is intended to provide building owners/operators a concise framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions.

LEED promotes sustainable building and development practices through a suite of rating systems, including:

  • Green building design and construction.
  • Green interior design and construction.
  • Green building operations/maintenance.
  • Green neighborhood development.
  • Green home design and construction.

U.S. Green Building Council
Green building energy flows.


Buildings as consumers of energy — Implement technologies for improving energy efficiency of buildings:

  • Green design/green materials
  • Improved insulation
  • Heat recovery
  • No thermal bridges — a thermal bridge is the penetration of the insulation layer by a highly conductive or noninsulating material that occurs in the separation between the interior (or conditioned space) and exterior environments of a building assembly or envelope.
  • District heating

Buildings as producers of energy — Implement technology for producing energy and increasing the share of renewable energy:

  • Solar cells (photovoltaic)
  • Solar collectors
  • Combined heat and power generators
  • Wind turbines