Carolin Spirinckx

Environmental product declarations entering the building sector: critical reflections based on 5 to 10 years experience in different European countries

PurposeGrowing awareness of the environmental performance of construction products and buildings brings about the need for a suitable method to assess their environmental performance. Life cycle assessment (LCA) has become a widely recognised and accepted method to assess the burdens and impacts throughout the life cycle. This LCA-based information may be in the form of environmental product declarations (EPD) or product environmental footprints (PEF), based on reliable and verifiable information. All of these use LCA to quantify and report several environmental impact categories and may also provide additional information. To better understand on the one hand existing EPD programmes (EN 15804) for each country and on the other the recent developments in terms of EU reference document (e.g. PEF), the authors decided to write this review paper based on the outcomes of the EPD workshop that was held prior to SB13 Graz conference.MethodsThis paper presents the state of the art in LCA and an overview of the EPD programmes in five European countries (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland) based on the workshop in the first part and a comprehensive description and comparison of the PEF method and EN 15804 in the second part. In the last part, a general conclusion will wrap up the findings and results will provide a further outlook on future activities.Results and discussionThe high number of EPD programmes underlines the fact that there is obviously a demand for assessments of the environmental performance of construction materials. In the comparison between and experiences of the different countries, it can be seen that more similarities than differences exist. A comparison between PEF and EPD shows differences, e.g. LCIA impact categories and recycling methodology.ConclusionsIndependent of raising awareness of the construction material environmental performance, the existence of so many environmental claims calls for clarification and harmonisation. Additionally, construction materials being assessed in the voluntary approaches have to follow the harmonised approach following the principles of the European Construction Products Regulation (regulated) not to foster barriers of trade. The authors therefore highly appreciate the most recent activities of the sustainability of construction works (CEN/TC 350 committee http://portailgroupe.afnor.fr/public_espacenormalisation/CENTC350/index.html) currently working on these issues at the EU level. Finally, the LCA community is further encouraged to increase the background life cycle inventory data and life cycle inventory modelling as well as the meaningfulness of certain environmental impact categories, such as toxicity, land use, biodiversity and resource usage.

Biodiesel and fossil diesel fuel: Comparative life cycle assessment

Complementary to VITO’s demonstration project on the use of biodiesel as engine fuel (including on the road emission measurements), a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) has been performed for rapeseed methyl ester (RME) and fossil diesel fuel. The LCA study covers: (1) a description of the LCA methodology used; (2) an inventory of the consumption of energy and materials and the discharges to the environment for both alternative fuels; and (3) a comparative impact assessment. The LCA inventoried all environmental impacts (resource consumption, emissions, waste) from cradle to grave. After the classification of these burdens into environmental impact categories, the environmental profiles of the two automotive fuels have been compared. Moreover, sensitivity analyses on the most important parameters have been carried out (e.g. type of fertiliser, data source, allocation method). The results of this comparative LCA can be used in the final decision-making process including the results of a social and economical assessment.

Striving for a more sustainable Belgian dwelling stock

A four-year project (SuFiQuaD) started in 2007 to optimize the Belgian dwelling stock. The optimization focuses on environmental impacts, financial cost and quality aspects. The aim is to evaluate the whole life cycle of representative housing types and formulate recommendations for improvement. In a first phase the methodology has been developed and is now being applied to a limited selection of extreme dwelling types. Based on this application, the methodology will be revised and applied to representative dwelling types. This paper elaborates on the developed methodology and the first results of the implementation. The basic approach for the optimisation is to search for the highest marginal quality improvement for the additional cost. The cost consists of different aspects: initial financial cost, initial environmental cost, life cycle financial cost and life cycle environmental cost. The environmental cost is calculated by translating the environmental impact – estimated based on life cycle assessment – into financial terms. Finally, a quality evaluation is included. This is considered as an essential part of the analysis since a good quality is a requirement for sustainability, but moreover, the inclusion of the evaluation of the performance of a building enables comparative analysis.