Johannes Wall

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.

Sustainable buildings, construction products and technologies: linking research and construction practice

In the last two decades and especially since the publication of the Brundtland Report in 1985 and the Rio Declaration in 1992(SchubertandLang2005; Klopffer2003;WECD1987), the issue of sustainability and sustainable development has increasingly received general recognition from the public as key topic. Legislators and other political decision-makers at all levels of government are now aware of the importance of promoting measures for environmental protection and social justice while still pursuing economic growth and economic stability. The environmental aspects of sustainability are treated by Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) (ISO 14040:2006 and ISO 14044:2006). Transferring the principles of sustainable development into the construction sector requires a change of paradigm. But, this transfer is challenged by the fact that there is no universally accepted definition of, and no unique solution for, sustainable buildings. The perception of what comprises a sustainable building is changing over time and depends on one’s location. It istimely to push this paradigm changefrom theory into practice, and this was actualized by organizing a conference to make a significant contribution to the development of sustainable building in Central Europe by targeting policymakers, investors, practitioners, users, researchers and students.