Page 26 - European Energy Innovation - winter 2018 publication

26 Winter 2018 European Energy Innovation
COMMUNICATION
Environmental Product
Declarations (EPDs)
A Success Story: Will This Currently Voluntary Construction Industry Standard for Environmental
Impact Product Disclosures Become a Legal Requirement?
By Frank Grootens, Institut Bauen und Umwelt e.V. (IBU), Berlin
It is generally acknowledged that the construction sector
plays an especially important role when it comes to the
advancement of sustainable construction. The European
Construction Products Regulation (CPR) issued on 9 March
2011 marked the first time that European institutions
designated building resource efficiency as one of the
seven current Basic Requirements for Construction
Works. In addition to the "sustainable use of natural
resources", as the new Basic Requirement No. 7 is titled,
the requirements for environmental protection (Basic
Requirement No. 3) have been expanded from those of
the since-repealed Construction Products Directive
(CPD). For example, buildings now are also required to be
designed and constructed in such a way that their impact
on the climate is mitigated over the course of their entire Nevertheless, in the recitals, which are not legally binding,
life cycle.
The Basic Requirements for Construction Works can
also have an indirect effect on product requirements.
This means that essential product characteristics with
respect to the Basic Requirements for Construction
Works need to be defined and stipulated in harmonised
technical specifications. These could either be harmonised
European standards or European Assessment Documents
(EADs). The product manufacturer is required to declare
data on all of the product’s essential characteristics in the
Declaration of Performance (DoP). This declaration, in turn,
forms the basis for CE marking.
The new Basic Requirement 7 and the extended Basic
Requirement 3 have not yet, however, resulted in the
inclusion of concrete product requirements in any
of the total of ?x? harmonised construction product
standards. Normally, this would take place in response
to one or more standardisation mandates the European
Commission would request from the CEN.
the Construction Products Regulation recommends
that evaluation of the sustainable use of resources and
assessment of the environmental impact of buildings
be based upon Environmental Product Declarations
(EPDs) (recital 56). EPDs represent a standardised
instrument for providing product-related environmental
data. The information they contain is based upon a
life cycle assessment and in recent years, EPDs have
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