Although extensive work is being done to improve the environmental properties of products among manufacturers and suppliers, a large number of products remain on the market whose environmental properties are not compatible with a sustainable society. The responsibility for such products being phased out and replaced by those with less hazardous properties is shared between manufacturers, designers and purchasers.

Against this backdrop and with the objective to effectively contribute to phasing out the use of particularly hazardous substances in chemical products and construction products, the four largest construction companies in Sweden, NCC, JM, Peab and Skanska, together with their trade organisation, the Swedish Construction Federation, have initiated the development project BASTA. The Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL) is also taking part in the project.
The roots of the BASTA project lie in the forthcoming European chemicals regulation REACH, in which responsibility will rest heavily on suppliers to study and inform their customers about the impact on health and the environment. The national strategy adopted by the Swedish Parliament for A Non-Toxic Environment and A Good Built Environment, as well as the Swedish construction sector´s own action programme under the auspices of the Ecocycle Council for the Building Sector, forms the framework of the project.