MA1: Materials Selection - Construction
Maximum Score
Determined by materiality
Prefill
Eligible
Validation
Other answer is manually validated
2025 Updates
None
Does the entity consider sustainable material sourcing?
Assessment Instructions
Intent: What is the purpose of this indicator?
This indicator examines the entity’s management of health and environmental risks associated with material supply chains through the provision of disclosures and certificates. Furthermore, including environmental and health requirements in the selection of construction materials assists entities with conserving resources, reducing waste and limiting the impact (including embodied carbon) of new assets. It also mitigates health risks associated with the use of harmful materials.
Input: How do I complete this indicator?
Select Yes or No: If selecting ‘Yes’, select applicable sub-options.
Terminology
Environmental Product Declarations
Products and materials for which life-cycle information is publicly available and which have positive, sustainable, life-cycle impacts. An Environmental Product Declaration should conform to ISO 14025, 14040, 14044, EN 15804 or ISO 21931, or have publicly available, critically reviewed life-cycle assessment, confirming to ISO 14044.
Health and environmental information
Fully disclosed and publicly available information about the human health and environmental impacts or characteristics of the products or materials used. (e.g., MSD sheets)
Health Product Declarations
Products and materials for which the inventory of all ingredients used is publicly available, with a full disclosure of all known hazards and associated effects.
Locally extracted or recovered
Materials that are extracted, harvested or recovered within a specified distance from the construction site.
Low-emitting VOC materials
Materials that have reduced concentrations of chemical contaminants (volatile organic compounds or VOC) that can damage air quality, human health, productivity, and the environment.
Low embodied carbon materials
Embodied carbon is the sum of all the carbon required to produce materials, considered as if that carbon was incorporated or embodied in the product itself. Also known as “low embodied energy materials.”
Materials and packaging that can be easily recycled
Materials and packaging that are composed of elements that can be easily recycled in waste management systems.
Materials that can be reused as part of a circular economy
Materials and packaging that are composed of elements that can be easily repaired and reused.
Rapidly renewable materials
Materials made from agricultural products that are typically harvested within a 10-year or shorter cycle, such as bamboo, wool, cotton insulation, Agrifiber, linoleum, wheatboard, strawboard and cork.
Red list of prohibited materials
Contains the worst in class materials prevalent in the building industry as published by the International Living Future Institute.
Recycled content materials
Products made from pre-consumer and/or post-consumer material diverted from the waste stream.
Validation: What evidence is required?
No evidence required. Only the 'Other' answer is manually validated.
Other Answer
Other disclosure: state the additional type of health and environmental information for disclosure when selecting construction materials. Technical specifications, such as “low VOC products,” are not applicable for this other answer.
Other material characteristics specification preferences: state the additional, specific material characteristics specification or requirement that is considered when selecting construction materials during development projects.
It is possible to add multiple other answers. If multiple other answers are acceptable, only one per sub-option will be counted towards scoring.
Evidence is mandatory but is not subject to manual validation.
Document upload or hyperlink: The evidence must sufficiently support all the items selected for this question.
Depending on the selected answer options, the document upload can represent a:
Copy of environmental and/or health product declarations
Copy of specific disclosure of health and environmental attributes from suppliers (e.g., embodied carbon, etc.) or certificates AND/OR
Copy of specific construction product specifications or requirements
Scoring
Does the entity consider sustainable material sourcing?
Scoring: How does GRESB score this indicator?
The scoring of this indicator is equal to the fraction assigned to the selected option, multiplied by the total score of the indicator.
Other Answer
The 'Other' answer is manually validated and assigned a score which is used as a multiplying factor, as per the table below:
Accepted
1/1
Not Accepted
0
Duplicate
0
Phase Materiality-based Scoring
Specific materiality weightings are assigned to the indicator depending on whether the entity reported to be in its construction or pre-construction phase under the Asset Development Phase section of indicator RC4. The weightings are set at one of two levels as shown below:
No relevance (unscored) - pre-construction phase
Medium relevance (scored at medium weighting) - construction phase
Where the indicator is of ‘No relevance’, and therefore the entity has reported to be in its pre-construction phase, it is not considered for scoring. If the indicator is of ‘Medium relevance’, and therefore the entity has reported to be in its construction phase, the indicator counts towards the score with ‘standard’ weighting. This ensures that the evaluation of a project’s sustainability is contextually nuanced and reflective of the project’s unique circumstances and at any given point in its development lifecycle.
Get Support: Solution Providers
GRESB Solution Providers are independent, third-party organizations within the GRESB Partner network that offer specialized products, tools, and services to support sustainability performance outside the GRESB Assessment process.
Currently, there are no GRESB Solution Providers associated with this indicator.
GRESB will continue to update this section as the GRESB Solution Provider network grows. Please check back regularly to find GRESB Solution Providers who can support your sustainability performance.
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