‘Communications Manual 1.0’ is a comprehensive reference on sustainability
As of February 2016, a new handbook has become available to members of the Institut Bauen und Umwelt e.V., which will support them in their communications and public relations work. On 28 January, the ‘Communications Manual 1.0’ was introduced within the context of the annual IBU communications workshop.
The Institut Bauen und Umwelt (IBU) is an association of approximately 180 building materials manufacturers and associations who together have committed themselves to sustainable building. With environmental product declarations (EPDs), the IBU operates an independent information clearinghouse for building products. EPDs are required to be verified by independent third parties, and contain comprehensive quantitative information based on life cycle assessments. Thus, they transparently indicate potential environmental effects without evaluating them, and form an important basis for environmental factors finding their way into the sustainability evaluations of buildings. The range of topics is very complex, and objective communication requires extensive background knowledge. ‘The contents of an EPD are addressed to experts’, explains Dr Burkhart Lehmann, Managing Director of the IBU. ‘Explaining the functionality of EPDs is not easy, but it’s an enormously important task. This is one of the ways the IBU supports its members. We have, for example, put together an explanatory film that describes the function of EPDs and the differences between the evaluative quality seals in a simple and understandable way. This is because it is important not only to reach the experts in the building industry, but also the general public’. As of January 2016, IBU members can now also rely on a handbook for their communications work.
The Communications Manual, with a glossary and list of abbreviations, serves as a reference for members of the IBU — particularly for employees in the areas of public relations, marketing and sales. In addition, the most pertinent information about the IBU, about sustainability in the building industry, life cycle assessments, EPDs and building certification are summarised clearly and descriptively, and are supplemented by estimates and statements from experts from various areas. ‘It is particularly important to us to provide increasingly better support to our members for their communications on topics of sustainability and EPDs, and to demonstrate our commitment with this communications manual. We give them extensive background knowledge to make their daily work with these topics easier’, explains Anita Kietzmann, Coordinator of Public Relations at the IBU. On 28 January, together with the Angela Neumann PR agency, which was responsible for the concept and the realisation of the handbook, Dr Burkhart Lehmann and Anita Kietzmann presented the communications manual at a workshop in Cologne on the topic of communication with and about EPDs. The communications manual is currently available to IBU members through the IBU office as a digital version and can be preordered also as print version.
Caption: Angela Neumann presents Dr Burkhart Lehmann with the Communications Manual during an IBU Workshop in Cologne.