End of March 2016 the British Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) published new criteria for the international sustainability evaluation of buildings (BREEAM International New Construction 2016 – NC 2016). These replace the former evaluation scheme that has been on the market since 2013.

Dear ladies and gentlemen, last week we informed you at this place about the latest DIBt (German Institute for Structural Engineering) statement of Dec 2015, concerning the future of national technical approvals after the CJEU’s judgment of Oct 2014.

Dear ladies and gentlemen, with this first customer info of the new year 2016 we would like to inform you about the new statement by the )about the legal position concerning after the CJEU’s judgment of Oct 16, 2014 which can be summarised as follows:

Since fall 2015 eco-INSTITUT Germany GmbH is member of German Environmental Management Association (Bundesdeutscher Arbeitskreis für Umweltbewusstes Mangement e.V.  – B.A.U.M.) and is listed at B.A.U.M. site forum for sustainable business partners www.marktplatz-nachhaltigkeit.de .

In the last week a new stainless steel test chamber of 5 cubic metres for emissions testing according to ISO 16000 was brought into service by eco-INSTITUT Cologne. The test chamber is at disposal mainly for manufacturers of furniture, mattresses, construction systems or electrical equipments and large-size printers.

eco-INSTITUT on the recent comment from the German Institute for Structural Engineering (Deutsches Institut für Bautechnik – DIBt) on the European Court of Justice’s judgment from Oct 16, 2014 and its related impacts on national technical approvals 

In Jan 2015 the updated M1 Protocol for Chemical and Sensory Testing of Building Materials was published. From this version on office furniture are considered. Further the loading specification and VOC measurement specification have been updated.