Updated BCO guidance to provide help on material selection

Material selection has become one of the most exposed pressure points in UK construction. Warnings from the Construction Leadership Council that conflict in the Middle East could further disrupt material supply chains reinforce a shift that the industry has been edging towards for some time. Projects are now increasingly vulnerable to rising prices, extended lead times and fragile logistics.

Geopolitics is only one strand of a much wider challenge. Even before the current period of volatility, tightening regulation, evolving technical standards and growing sustainability expectations had already added new complexity to the process of material selection. What was once a technical consideration is now a key factor for project viability, risk and long-term asset value.

Environmental and health impacts

At the same time, the industry is running up against the limits of resource availability. Scarcity, whether driven by environmental constraints, regulation or global competition for resources, is pushing designers and developers to engage with a broader, less familiar palette of products and systems.

This shift is positive in encouraging the industry to move away from single-use, high-carbon materials towards circular economy principles. Engineered timber, products with high recycled content, composites and smart materials are increasingly being promoted as answers to the industry’s carbon and resource challenges. But these materials also demand a more sophisticated approach to specification and risk, particularly when applied at scale or in unfamiliar contexts.

Environmental Product Declarations, once a niche concern, are becoming essential tools, providing the industry with a standardised practice for accounting for environmental impact from extraction and manufacture through to reuse or demolition. This longer-term perspective is reshaping how material performance is judged and exposing the shortcomings of short-term, cost-led decision making.

Safety has sharpened the focus further. High-profile failures and ongoing concerns around materials linked to respiratory illness and cancer have highlighted how profoundly material choices affect human health, safety and trust in the built environment. The emerging recognition of the potential long-term impact of forever chemicals and microplastics on people and the natural environment add new challenges for us to consider.

Strategic selection

As materials become more complex and performance requirements more demanding, blunt approaches to specification are no longer fit for purpose. What the industry now requires is clarity: a consistent, risk-based material selection process that balances sustainability, performance, environmental protection, durability, health impact and supply resilience. Developers, designers, insurers and regulators need a shared framework that supports better decision making at the point where choices are made, not after problems emerge.

In this context, practical guidance has taken on renewed importance. The British Council for Offices’ longstanding Good Practice in the Selection of Construction Materials guide emerged from precisely this need. First published in 1997, its aim was to move the industry away from material blacklists and towards the appropriate application of construction materials, with the necessary precautions to ensure best practice in their selection. The second edition in 2011 built on its success and offered a structured way for developers, designers, lawyers and insurers to assess material risk across a broad range of building components and, in doing so, helped create a common language around performance, sustainability and liability.

In today’s environment, guidance must remain grounded in real project conditions accounting for commercial pressures, programme constraints and contractual realities. It must support professionals in navigating uncertainty, not simply add another layer of complexity. Above all, it must recognise that material selection is central to delivering buildings that are safe, sustainable and resilient over their lifetime.

Updated guidance

The pace of change across construction materials means even well established frameworks cannot stand still. New products, testing methodologies, tighter regulation and a heightened focus on health, carbon and supply chain resilience have all altered the baseline assumptions that underpin good practice material selection.

In uncertain conditions, confidence depends on clarity. To help the industry respond without compromising project viability, the BCO is updating its 2011 guide to reflect current best practice, due for publication in October 2026. Risk-based material guidance, rooted in real project experience and technical evidence, helps bridge the gap between innovation and assurance. At a time when material selection can determine not just cost, but programme certainty, safety, long-term asset performance and lifecycle, such guidance plays a quiet but essential role in protecting project viability.

As the industry continues to adapt to resource constraints, climate imperatives and heightened scrutiny, the ability to make informed, defensible material choices will be one of its defining capabilities.

Neil Pennell is chair of the BCO Technical Affairs Committee and head of design innovation and property solutions at Landsec