GERMANY: natureplus, the international association for sustainable building and living with headquarters in Germany, has appointed Joe Wild, founder and managing director of Ecomerchant, to its main board to represent European commercial trading organisations.

Backed by European divisions of the WWF, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, natureplus has operated a world-leading eco-quality labelling system for over ten years.

Speaking about the appointment, Joe Wild said: “The UK construction industry has been plagued by a plethora of building products with very tenuous ecological claims and I am looking forward to raising the profile of natureplus and promoting its credible and rigorous assessment regime. I like the fact that the label guarantees the product is ecological. We really need a trusted certification scheme and natureplus is streets ahead of any other label on the market.”

Mr Wild has been active in the ecological building field for over 15 years, specifying, researching and promoting materials and will add a UK perspective to the board. Other organisations represented include ecological institutes and research organisations from Germany, Austria, Belgium and Switzerland.

Natureplus labelling of a product shows not only that the manufacturers have met European minimum future standards for construction products but that they have demonstrated that the properties far exceed them in relation to health, climate, environment and resource conservation. No other standard or labelling system is as stringent and all-encompassing, making natureplus the most credible labelling system in use across Europe.