STARK Group’s latest Sustainability Market Outlook Report maps how new requirements for product climate data and environmental documentation are expected to change the building materials market towards 2030.
This shift, according to the group, is both “creating new requirements and new roles for suppliers, distributors and tradespeople… (as) data and documentation are becoming an increasingly important part of the decisions made across the value chain.”
Subtitled From sustainability ambition to market access: How the building materials market is changing, the report reveals that product environmental documentation is moving from a specialist requirement in selected projects to becoming a market standard across the construction industry. In turn, this is becoming an important prerequisite for market access as “new requirements for carbon footprint data and environmental documentation mean that the ability to document the environmental performance of products increasingly influences which products are selected for construction projects.”
This is changing the roles across the value chain, according to STARK, as “suppliers will need to provide more comprehensive and verified product data, while tradespeople and builders will increasingly need to document their material choices.”
This gives distributors a more central role in ensuring customers have access to the documentation, product data and guidance they need to navigate the new requirements. Distributors such as STARK Group are therefore becoming “not only suppliers of physical products, but also of data.”
Louise Askær-Hune, Senior Director Group Sustainability & ESG at STARK Group, said: “The construction industry is facing a significant shift. Data and documentation are becoming an increasingly important part of the decisions made across the value chain. At the same time, we see a strong need to make this new complexity manageable.
“The companies that can turn data, documentation and guidance into simple and value-adding solutions for customers will be best positioned in the market of the future.”
As part of this development, STARK Group has invested in climate data, digital tools, and training sustainability ambassadors to help customers and suppliers navigate increasing requirements for product data and documentation.
Louise explains: “We have been preparing for this development for several years. The report shows that documentation, data and guidance will become an increasingly important competitive factor in the construction industry. This gives us, as a distributor, a new and more central role as a partner helping customers and suppliers navigate increasing requirements.”
The Sustainability Market Outlook Report was developed by The Footprint Firm in collaboration with STARK Group and is based on analysis of regulatory developments, market dynamics and trends across Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Germany, Austria and the UK.
The development is driven in part by new European legislation, including the Construction Products Regulation (CPR) and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), which from 2026 will gradually introduce stricter requirements for environmental data, carbon footprint and documentation for building materials.
Key findings from the 2026 Sustainability Market Outlook Report
Environmental documentation is becoming a market standard: The share of building materials sold into projects requiring environmental documentation is expected to increase from approximately 14% today to around 40% by 2030.
The market is moving towards documented products: Products without verified environmental data are expected to decline from approximately 55% today to around 35% by 2030. At the same time, verified environmental data is expected to become a baseline requirement across the building materials market.
Customers need more guidance: 40% of SMEs are concerned about increasing compliance requirements, while 65% already seek guidance on sustainability and documentation requirements from their building materials distributor.
Click here to download the report.
