Author: Anh-Migrate

In the last 20 years energy efficiency has become an increasingly important aspect of the planning and evaluation of buildings, as well as a subject of legislation within the EU. As a result, the operational energy consumption of new and refurbished buildings has decreased considerably during this time. Figure 1 shows the ratio between the operational energy (for regulated uses such heating, ventilation, cooling and lighting according to the EPBD) during the use phase, and the embodied energy due to the fabrication of the building products as well as their end of life (EoL). The use phase for the older buildings dominates all other life cycle stages. Today, new buildings may consume less than 15 kWh final energy for heating per m² per year if they complying with the Passivhaus standard. The new types of ‘energy surplus’ or ‘positive energy’ building may even be net producers of energy. Therefore the ratio between operational impacts (the use phase) and the embodied impacts (e.g. for production and EoL) is now more or less balanced (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Ratio of use phase to production/EoL for a 10–20 year old building compared with a newly built Passivhaus

These changes emphasize that as well as optimizing the use phase of a building it is also important to consider the embodied impacts of the materials used in its construction. As a result, the Energy-Efficient Buildings Initiative now needs to consider a life cycle perspective ‘from cradle to grave’, with energy consumption being only one environmental aspect within a multicriteria framework that includes, for example, waste generation and climate change.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is the method used to address the environmental impacts of products and buildings. It models a product’s technical life cycle, documenting energy and material flows entering or leaving the product system, and assessing the associated environmental burdens.

LCA has been defined as a generally applicable method in [ISO 14040] and [ISO 14044]. Extensive documentation on LCA is given in the ILCD Handbook [ILCD 2011a, 2011b, 2010c]. More specific definitions on how to use LCA in the construction industry are given in [EN 15804] and [EN 15978]. This document provides guidance on how to conduct LCA studies of construction products and buildings, and how to apply the available standards and other rules.

1     Introduction

• 1.1    Energy-efficient buildings in Europe.
• 1.2    Basic information about this guidance document
• 1.2.1    Goal of this guidance.
• 1.2.2    Scope of this guidance.
• 1.2.3    Primary audience for EeBGuide.
• 1.2.4    Secondary audience for EeBGuide.
• 1.3    Life cycle analysis in the construction sector
• 1.3.1    Previous European projects on LCA of buildings
• 1.3.2    European standardization works on LCA of buildings
• 1.3.3    LCA studies within research projects of the Energy-Efficient Building European Initiative (E2B EI)
• 1.4    EeBGuide within the European context 

This guidance document – the EeBGuide – provides information on calculation rules, metrics, provisions and instructions for LCA studies of energy-efficient buildings and building products for European research projects of the E2B Initiative. The core objective is to give pragmatic and relevant guidance to LCA practitioners and construction experts on how to move forward in the field of LCA towards comparative, meaningful study results, both within individual studies and between them.

This document is the outcome of the European research project ‘EeBGuide – Operational guidance for Life Cycle Assessment Studies of the Energy-Efficient Buildings Initiative’, which ran from November 2011 to October 2012. The project was co-funded as a coordination and support action (CSA) by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme, contract no. 285490. The project was coordinated by the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics Sustainable Construction Group (Germany). Other members of the consortium were PE International AG (Germany), Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment (France), Escola Superior de Comerç International (Spain), BRE Global Ltd (UK) and Prof Ch Sjöström Consultancy (Sweden). As members of the review panel, Friderik Knéz and Dr Wolfram Trinius contributed to the development of the document, as well.

LCA studies are generally conducted for one specific scope. Within the construction sector, such a scope typically refers to construction products or to buildings, particularly in the field of research for energy-efficient buildings. In order to simplify access to relevant guidance of for practitioners, the EeBGuide project yielded two separate documents: one for building products, and one for buildings. Some elements are common to the two documents, but others differ, owing to the different scope.

1     Introduction

• 1.1    Energy-efficient buildings in Europe.
• 1.2    Basic information about this guidance document
• 1.2.1    Goal of this guidance.
• 1.2.2    Scope of this guidance.
• 1.2.3    Primary audience for EeBGuide.
• 1.2.4    Secondary audience for EeBGuide.
• 1.3    Life cycle analysis in the construction sector
• 1.3.1    Previous European projects on LCA of buildings
• 1.3.2    European standardization works on LCA of buildings
• 1.3.3    LCA studies within research projects of the Energy-Efficient Building European Initiative (E2B EI)
• 1.4    EeBGuide within the European context 

This guidance is focused on LCA studies of buildings and building products within the framework of the Energy-Efficient Building European Initiative (E2B EI), which creates technologies for an energy-efficient Europe. LCA assesses the environmental loads and performance of these new products and technologies, demonstrated mainly within building applications. LCA is used within European research projects on matters of energy efficiency in the construction sector that are managed under the E2B EI umbrella. The main aim of this guidance is to provide rules and instructions on how to conduct LCA studies consistently within such research projects.

A variety of questions, aspects and topics often arise during such an LCA study, but the answers in the literature and standards are often not coherent, or sufficiently extensive. The key objective of this guide is therefore to provide information on definitions, calculation rules, assumptions and comparative results of LCA studies for energy-efficient buildings and building products with regard to such aspects.

The guidance is based on existing ISO standards on LCA [ISO 14040-44], European standards [EN 15804] and [EN 15978] with regard to LCA, and other reference documents [ILCD 2010a], [ILCD 2010b], [ILCD 2010c], as well as on current discussion topics within the LCA construction community. It brings this information together in one comprehensive guide. It also clarifies aspects that are not totally consistent or may even be contradictory in the various LCA-related standards and reference documents, as well as those aspects that are generally not specified.

There are two main approaches to LCA studies: attributional and consequential. Attributional LCA studies generally do not investigate the potential consequences of a product system for the background system or for other systems (the ILCD Handbook denotes this as decision context situation A). By contrast, consequential LCA studies do investigate those consequences (decision context situation B in the ILCD Handbook). In section G-02, guidance is given on how to identify the decision context of a study. In general, this guidance document is limited to the case of attributional LCA studies. This is consistent with CEN standards EN 15804 and EN 15978, which are limited solely to this case.

For consequential LCA studies, various scientific aspects are yet to be clarified, and a broad scientific consensus on the different aspects is yet to be reached. If a practitioner identifies the need to conduct a consequential LCA study, guidance can be found in the literature and in the ILCD Handbook.

1     Introduction

• 1.1    Energy-efficient buildings in Europe.
• 1.2    Basic information about this guidance document
• 1.2.1    Goal of this guidance.
• 1.2.2    Scope of this guidance.
• 1.2.3    Primary audience for EeBGuide.
• 1.2.4    Secondary audience for EeBGuide.
• 1.3    Life cycle analysis in the construction sector
• 1.3.1    Previous European projects on LCA of buildings
• 1.3.2    European standardization works on LCA of buildings
• 1.3.3    LCA studies within research projects of the Energy-Efficient Building European Initiative (E2B EI)
• 1.4    EeBGuide within the European context 

The EeBGuide is oriented mainly at LCA practitioners and/or building LCA tool developers. It is not an introduction for novice LCA users, as it assumes a basic knowledge of the standards [ISO 14040], [ISO 14044], the ILCD Handbook, and EN 15978 and EN 15804, as well as practical experience, although detailed knowledge of these is not required. However, it is assumed that the reader using this document has access to these sources (especially the ISO and CEN standards) as they are referred to, and need to be consulted in detail for some items.

The principal audience for this document is the LCA practitioner who is required to deliver an LCA study within a European research project, particularly those that fall under the EeB PPP framework (see 1.3.3). For this audience, the document contains the rules and guidance to produce the study in a generally agreed and consistent way. The goal of projects of the EeB PPP framework is to “deliver, implement and optimize building and district concepts that have the technical, economic and societal potential to drastically decrease energy consumption and reduce CO₂ emissions in both new and existing buildings across the European Union”. LCA plays a large role as a measuring instrument in these projects, but the main focus clearly lies on technical innovations. The target audience of the project outcomes is mainly researchers, companies, designers and consultants in the field of construction.

1     Introduction

• 1.1    Energy-efficient buildings in Europe.
• 1.2    Basic information about this guidance document
• 1.2.1    Goal of this guidance.
• 1.2.2    Scope of this guidance.
• 1.2.3    Primary audience for EeBGuide.
• 1.2.4    Secondary audience for EeBGuide.
• 1.3    Life cycle analysis in the construction sector
• 1.3.1    Previous European projects on LCA of buildings
• 1.3.2    European standardization works on LCA of buildings
• 1.3.3    LCA studies within research projects of the Energy-Efficient Building European Initiative (E2B EI)
• 1.4    EeBGuide within the European context 

The secondary audience includes LCA practitioners who seek practical yet scientifically sound guidance to deliver an LCA study that is, as far as possible, in line both with the European standards on environmental performances of buildings (EN 15804 and EN 15978) and with the ILCD Handbook. Another secondary audience comprises developers of LCA software for buildings. They can use the EeBGuide provisions and guidance as guidelines in choosing consistent data, methodology, reference or default values according to the various study types when developing or updating their LCA software for buildings.

A further secondary audience comprises experts responsible for the definition of calculation rules for building labelling systems, as well as for national or European EPD programmes. For these people, the EeBGuide provides generally agreed calculation methods that are characterized by good consistency with existing approaches, and a general agreement among European stakeholders on the calculation method. Using the EeBGuide as a basis for the development of new EPD or building rating programmes, or for the revision of existing ones, will improve the overall consistency of the application of LCA in the context of the European construction industry, which is surely a key concern of many stakeholders.

In the case of the secondary audience, a basic knowledge and experience of LCA methodology and standards is also presumed.

1     Introduction

• 1.1    Energy-efficient buildings in Europe.
• 1.2    Basic information about this guidance document
• 1.2.1    Goal of this guidance.
• 1.2.2    Scope of this guidance.
• 1.2.3    Primary audience for EeBGuide.
• 1.2.4    Secondary audience for EeBGuide.
• 1.3    Life cycle analysis in the construction sector
• 1.3.1    Previous European projects on LCA of buildings
• 1.3.2    European standardization works on LCA of buildings
• 1.3.3    LCA studies within research projects of the Energy-Efficient Building European Initiative (E2B EI)
• 1.4    EeBGuide within the European context 

Several European projects dealing with LCA and buildings have been conducted over the past few years. Most of them were aimed at adapting the methodological rules for LCA studies in the construction sector and enabling the development of user-friendly tools that can be used by building stakeholders, who are usually not LCA experts. These projects included, for example, REGENER, Annex 31 IEA, PRESCO, IMPRO-Building, ENSLIC Building and LoRe-LCA.

Two previous projects conducted under the Seventh Framework Programme (ENSLIC-Building and LoRe-LCA) may be seen as closely connected with the goals and scope of the EeBGuide project. These two projects have helped to define LCA methodology for the construction sector, and have identified needs for further research. Below are presented the citations from the projects’ websites.

“The ENSLIC project (ENergy Saving through promotion of Life Cycle assessment in buildings) promotes the use of life cycle assessment (LCA) techniques in design for new buildings and for refurbishment, in order to achieve an energy saving in the construction and operation of buildings. This action draw on the existing information generated from previous research projects regarding: design for low energy consumption, integrated planning, environmental performance evaluation of buildings, design for sustainability and LCA techniques applied to buildings. The output – compiled with the collaboration of key target groups – is a set of guidelines with a methodology which clarifies the various aspects of the LCA, e.g. purpose, benefits, requirements, flexibility and different techniques. This is applied to real buildings by a number of collaborating target groups. The results are disseminated to a wide target group through multiple channels and the potential for energy saving highlighted. Through this project tools for use in an integral planning process are being promoted to stakeholders who require a means to optimize environmental performance of buildings in a truly sustainable way.” [ENSLIC 2011]

“LoRe-LCA (“Low Resource consumption buildings and constructions by use of LCA in design and decision making”) aims to coordinate activities regarding the application of LCA in the European construction sector, focusing on comparing and improving the functional units used for LCA for whole buildings, improving the possibilities to compare results for different alternatives during design stage, and for comparison of results for different buildings. The project focuses on harmonisation and use of LCA-methods in design and decision-making for reaching overall goals of reduced resource consumption.” [LoRe-LCA 2011]

Another interesting initiative covering European countries and some others is the Sustainable Building Alliance (SBA). Officially created in 2008, the SBA is a collaboration between international research institutes, certification bodies and other actors in the building industry. The main research action of SBA aims at answering the need of the real estate and construction industry for the development and application of harmonized common metrics for assessing building performance, to be implemented in existing certification schemes. A draft Framework for Common Metrics was elaborated in 2009 and 2010 by a core group of SBA members. It covered six main impacts, which included four environmental indicators based on LCA methodology: these deal with energy, water, greenhouse gases (GHG) and waste. The next step was to ensure the operational feasibility and comparability of LCA results for buildings, especially in terms of calculation rules, Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) databases, life cycle stages and considered contributors (i.e. all the factors that are considered in an LCA). This was done in 2011, when the availability and maturity of methods, data and tools were studied. The SBA Common Metrics Framework was pilot-tested on real buildings to analyse its applicability, and possible future integration into existing certification rating schemes. This work has involved seven research and certification bodies in five European countries and in the USA. The working group highlighted the fact that the availability of homogeneous EPDs in each country is a crucial issue. The comparability of LCA environmental indicators is being tested in 2012 through a modelling study in each country, based on a single building design.

In these previous projects, no comprehensive guidance was given in a structured way according to the LCA steps as defined in ISO 14040 and the life cycle stages of the new European standards from CEN TC 350.

1     Introduction

• 1.1    Energy-efficient buildings in Europe.
• 1.2    Basic information about this guidance document
• 1.2.1    Goal of this guidance.
• 1.2.2    Scope of this guidance.
• 1.2.3    Primary audience for EeBGuide.
• 1.2.4    Secondary audience for EeBGuide.
• 1.3    Life cycle analysis in the construction sector
• 1.3.1    Previous European projects on LCA of buildings
• 1.3.2    European standardization works on LCA of buildings
• 1.3.3    LCA studies within research projects of the Energy-Efficient Building European Initiative (E2B EI)
• 1.4    EeBGuide within the European context 

LCA, as an instrument to assess the environmental performance of buildings and building products, is generally seen as a way to provide a holistic overview of a building’s or product’s life cycle. It is generally standardized in ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 as an instrument to assess the environmental performance of products and services. For the construction sector, it is now subject to the standardization activities of the European standardization body CEN TC 350’s committee on sustainability of construction works.

The European standards EN 15804 and EN 15978 provide general calculation rules for LCA of products and buildings. Both standards use a modular description to structure information for the various stages of the building or product life cycle. For some modules, information is provided primarily at the product level; for other modules, it is typically gathered at the building level. Information on the production and assembly of building products (Modules A1–A3) is typically assessed in detail in product LCA studies. In building LCA studies, this information is aggregated to reflect product utilization within the building. Information on operational energy use (Module B6), on the other hand, may be provided for individual products with the use of default scenarios, but information on actual operational energy use is generally gathered within a building LCA study. These relations are reflected in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Relation between product LCA and building LCA along the life cycle modules. Figure based on EN 15804and EN 15978

1 Introduction

• 1.1    Energy-efficient buildings in Europe.
• 1.2    Basic information about this guidance document
• 1.2.1    Goal of this guidance.
• 1.2.2    Scope of this guidance.
• 1.2.3    Primary audience for EeBGuide.
• 1.2.4    Secondary audience for EeBGuide.
• 1.3    Life cycle analysis in the construction sector
• 1.3.1    Previous European projects on LCA of buildings
• 1.3.2    European standardization works on LCA of buildings
• 1.3.3    LCA studies within research projects of the Energy-Efficient Building European Initiative (E2B EI)
• 1.4    EeBGuide within the European context 

In numerous European research projects, LCA is used as a supporting study method that is typically seen to be somewhat independent from the rest of the project. If, for instance, LCA is used at the end of a project, the environmental optimization potentials cannot be exploited, as the LCA results cannot be fed back into the technology development cycle.

This guidance document is aimed at improving the use of LCA within such research projects. This chapter therefore gives guidance on how LCA studies should preferably be conducted in European research projects of the Energy-Efficient Building European Initiative (E2B EI).

The primary decision to be made during the compilation of a project proposal is whether LCA should be used as a comparison method for a developed technology (i.e. the developed technology is assessed against a reference scenario that, for example, reflects the conventional alternative technology), or whether it should be used as a decision support tool, identifying environmental weak points in technical designs and associated improvement potentials that can be realized during technology development. In both cases, certain considerations need to be addressed.

For LCA as an ex-post assessment of a developed technology, such considerations include the following:

• Data supply: The critical barrier to obtaining meaningful LCA results is the lack of specific data. LCA is typically not taken into consideration during technology development processes, and no responsibility is defined for the provision of data. Moreover, intellectual property concerns may hinder the provision of data.

This needs to be taken into account by ensuring that, within the work items of technology development, one or several participants are mandated to provide information to the LCA work team.

• Definition of objectives for the LCA study: Often, the expectations of participants in a research project concerning the results available from the LCA study do not match the results that the study can provide.

Within a project consortium, the expected and possible outcome of an LCA study should be made clear for all stakeholders involved. This includes discussion of the questions that the study needs to answer, the associated level of detail for the study, and the corresponding requirement for data. Also, sufficient resources need to be allocated to the LCA work item to meet the expected outcome.

• Usually, it is advisable to define one stand-alone work item (a work package or a task within a work package) for the LCA calculation, and to define data collection for the LCA study as part of technology-related work packages. LCA is a flexible and iterative methodology, and the findings and results of its various steps will influence subsequent ones. For this reason, it is also advisable that the LCA work item duration be suitable and sufficient to provide relevant feedback to other work items of the project.

For LCA as a decision support tool in technology development, such considerations include the following:

• Integration into the development cycle: To use LCA as a supporting tool within technology development, the LCA study work item should be included directly in the technology development work item. This supports direct interaction between the LCA experts and the technology development experts, and ensures direct data exchange. It also means that procedures need to be established that allow the technology development to consider relevant LCA results, and that the exchange between technology development and the LCA study needs to be set up with iterative cycles.
• Iterative approach to LCA: The results are only as meaningful as the technical data that is fed into the LCA calculations. This means that a procedure should be established that takes account of the fact that imprecise data are provided in the early design stages, and that imprecise LCA feedback is provided then. With several iteration cycles, the data provision and LCA feedback have to be refined in a stepwise fashion.
• Such a use of LCA is challenging, because it requires significant flexibility from all actors, and asks for innovative development procedures. But it also it has the potential to yield the best outcome in terms of improving the environmental performance of a technical system, which should always be the ultimate goal of using environmental assessment methods.

1 Introduction

• 1.1    Energy-efficient buildings in Europe.
• 1.2    Basic information about this guidance document
• 1.2.1    Goal of this guidance.
• 1.2.2    Scope of this guidance.
• 1.2.3    Primary audience for EeBGuide.
• 1.2.4    Secondary audience for EeBGuide.
• 1.3    Life cycle analysis in the construction sector
• 1.3.1    Previous European projects on LCA of buildings
• 1.3.2    European standardization works on LCA of buildings
• 1.3.3    LCA studies within research projects of the Energy-Efficient Building European Initiative (E2B EI)
• 1.4    EeBGuide within the European context 

The primary objective of the EeBGuide is to provide consistent calculation rules and operational guidance for LCA studies conducted within the context of research projects within the Energy-Efficient Buildings European Initiative (E2B EI, or Energy-Efficient Buildings Public Private Partnership, EeB PPP). Such research projects use LCA for supporting decisions during the development of technologies, and/or as an assessment method for quantifying the environmental benefits of innovative technologies (see 1.3.3). LCA studies – whether they cover comparative assertions or investigate individual products or buildings – are intended to be comparable in the wider context of the E2B Initiative. This means that they should be based on similar methods, assumptions and mechanisms, and yield credible, comparable results.

To give the full picture of the EeBGuide, it is useful to understand how it is embedded in the European context, and to discuss what its role could be within this context. Figure 3 illustrates the current, potentially confusing situation relating to EPDs, building LCA, building labelling and legislative activities in the European context.

 Figure 3: Current European situation in the context of EPD and building LCAs

LCA is currently used as the basis for product assessments, and especially in providing EPDs, which form an important data source for building assessments used in building labelling schemes. This basis is not consistently defined by the various standards and the ILCD Handbook; definitions may conflict, and different approaches to conducting a study may be chosen. The forthcoming Construction Products Regulation (CPR) [CPR 2011] contains additional Basic (Work) Requirements (BWR), particularly the addition of ‘environment’ to BWR 3 (hygiene and health) and the new BWR 7 (Sustainable use of natural resources), stating that “EPD should be used when available for the assessment of the sustainable use of resources and of the impact of construction works on the environment.”

Both the European standards EN 15804 and EN 15978 and the ILCD Handbook are based on the international standards ISO 14040 and ISO 14044. The European standards define the general framework and general calculation methods for building and product LCAs. The European ECO EPD platform (as the potential umbrella body for national EPD programmes) and national EPD programmes have individual sets of rules, and may refer to EN 15804. Building labelling schemes (such as DGNB, HQE, VERDE or BREEAM) use their own individual sets of calculation rules for building LCA, and may refer to EN 15978. As a consequence, the European landscape of LCA calculation rules is currently not harmonized, and the links between EPD data and building LCAs (which use EPD data for the products used) are not necessarily well established. However, the ongoing efforts of projects such as SBA Common Metrics are contributing to the development of common rules.

In the field of legislation, the revision of the Building Products Directive (CPD) to the Building products Regulation (CPR) has created a demand for building product EPDs as a mechanism to meet the additional requirements (see above). Consequently, building product manufacturers are faced with the need for EPDs for their products, and the subsequent provision of such EPDs will lead to a stock of product-specific environmental information not seen to date. The utilization of such information may well lead to a wide use of LCA for assessing the environmental performance of buildings. One core requirement for such an application is consistency between data supply (product data/EPD) and data use (building LCA). In this context, consistency will be enhanced by this guidance document, which represents an excellent step towards consistent LCA calculation models within the European construction industry.

Figure 4 illustrates the link that the EeBGuide is able to establish between the various standards, building labelling schemes, EPD programmes, legislation and other items within the European context.

Figure 4: EeBGuide within the European context

Altogether, several dimensions of impact and scope can be associated with the EeBGuide. These impacts are explained in more detail in the following paragraphs.

Impact on LCA practitioners and technology development within E2B EI research projects

The EeBGuide enables LCA practitioners, from both private and public organizations, to quantify environmental impacts in a consistent way. The guidance can be applied in assessing the life cycle of whole buildings (existing and new) and of existing building products and technological solutions (existing or under development) within the E2B Initiative. It allows practitioners to perform LCA studies in a clear, predefined and well-structured way by delivering scientifically sound, practically applicable, and quality-assured guidance. In addition, high-quality life cycle inventory (LCI) data on buildings and building products can be obtained by following the EeBGuide, applying time- and cost-saving mechanisms for conducting future LCA studies and providing reporting templates.

By using the guidance document in future studies (beyond the FP7 arena), the EeBGuide will help LCA practitioners to produce more robust, harmonized, and quality-assured LCA results. The ability to quantify the environmental performance of newly developed products consistently, and to compare this performance with that of existing products, may lead both to the reduction of their environmental impacts and to significant promotion of these new products, and thus contribute considerably to technology development in the EU.

Impact on building labelling schemes and national EPD programmes

Labelling schemes for sustainable buildings have received tremendous attention over recent years, and are seen as a major driver for innovation and implementation of sustainable thinking in the European construction sector. This document, and the additional reporting templates for buildings, may quite likely form a basis for integrating LCA into labelling schemes. In this context, building LCA depends strongly on calculation methods that are suitably applicable to such studies, and on reliable data for individual construction products. Such data may be provided by the EPDs of manufacturer-specific products, or by generic LCA data for average construction products. For the purpose of setting up generic databases, and to enable a growing number of LCA experts to contribute to that task, common rules and specifications as well as guidance will be required, and these are provided by the EeBGuide.

For the further consideration of aspects related to building labelling, relevant stakeholders have been invited to participate in the public consultation on the EeBGuide. Special attention has therefore been paid to the expected impacts of the EeBGuide on labelling schemes, and to the potential resulting benefits and opportunities for stakeholders.

This EeBGuide may also have an impact on the various EPD programmes throughout Europe. Although EPD programmes generally provide the required provisions for conducting the LCA study for an EPD, these provisions may differ between different EPD programmes, and operational guidance on how to conduct the product LCA study may be missing. The EeBGuide will be useful in the formulation of Product Category Rules (PCR) as the basis for EPD for ‘new’ product categories, or for EPD programmes that are being newly established. In particular, for innovative solutions that are currently under development, or which will be developed within the Energy-Efficient Buildings Initiative, guidance on how to conduct an adequate study may help the formulation of appropriate PCRs. Here, the EeBGuide may yield useful guidance.

Impact on standards, legislation and political background

In the past, practice in building-related LCA studies has been quite diverse. On the one hand, the building and construction sector appeared to be the most advanced sector in terms of ongoing standardization activities concerning LCA studies. On the other hand, many LCA studies are still conducted without proper (or even any) reference to current standards, because of a lack of either resources or knowledge concerning the existing standards and ongoing standardization activities.

Current and recent activities cover both the definition of LCA calculation rules in detail for building labelling by individual labelling schemes (for example, the German DGNB scheme includes building LCA on the basis of very specific rules) and framework standardization activities such as those developed within CEN TC 350. A general consensus is needed for the future development of LCA methodology, but the resulting standards do not advise the practitioner in sufficient detail on how to conduct a study.

In this context, the EeBGuide fills a current gap, and thereby has the potential to reach beyond the impact originally anticipated within the E2B Initiative. With regard to current and future standardization activities, the EeBGuide may serve as a guideline for the development of directly applicable and highly operational standards for the application of LCA within the building and construction sector, and possibly even within other sectors. This would result in generally improved quality and scientific soundness of LCA studies within the E2B Initiative and beyond. In this way, the EeBGuide will enables legislative bodies to place greater reliance on LCA as a policy instrument. It will increase the usefulness of LCA studies, and foster their use in decision support and policymaking, ensuring that decisions and policies are formed on the basis of integrated environmental assessments.

At the European policy level, the EeBGuide will provide a direct link from the construction industry to the European Platform on LCA and the ILCD data network. In addition, this guide will have an indirect impact on the following European policies:

• The Integrated Product Policy (IPP) Communication (2003), which aims to provide general support, through a series of broad activities and measures, for reducing the environmental impacts of goods and services (products) throughout their life cycle. According to the IPP, LCA is the best framework for assessing the potential environmental impacts of products. Following the IPP, the European Commission has developed the ILCD Handbook, among other activities. This EeBGuide uses the ILCD Handbook to give more pragmatic and specific guidance to LCA practitioners within the construction sector.
• The Thematic Strategy on the Prevention and Recycling of Waste, and the Thematic Strategy on the Sustainable Use of Natural Resources, both from 2005, which tackle the topic from the waste and resource sides respectively. A key development of the Resource Thematic Strategy is the development of decoupling indicators for Europe. Key deliverables of the Waste Thematic Strategy are the development of waste guidelines. LCA in general and the EeBGuide in particular have the potential to address related issues, with the use of appropriate environmental indicators and the assessment of impact categories.
• The new Construction Products Regulation (CPR) has amended the third basic work requirement with the reference to environment and added the seventh basic work requirement, sustainable use of natural resources. The amended and the new basic work requirements will need quantitative assessment on the amount and type of resource consumption related to one product, and the European Parliament suggested the use of EPD for this purpose. As the CPR will have to be broadly implemented in the harmonized European product standards, standardization for such LCA studies in conjunction with intensive guidance is required, and the EeBGuide will contribute to the provision of such guidance, in support of EPD programmes and of both published and forthcoming CEN standards.
• The Lead Market Initiative for Europe on Sustainable Construction, in which LCA is directly mentioned as a means to describe sustainable construction and an integrated life-cycle-oriented approach to construction, which is seen as an approach to the successful promotion of sustainable construction.
• The most important and recent instruments are the Sustainable Consumption and Production Action Plan (SCP) and the Sustainable Industrial Policy (SIP). SCP and SIP will build on, and further develop, among others, the Integrated Product Policy (IPP), the Resource and Waste Thematic Strategies, Green Public Procurement (GPP), the Environmental Technologies Action Plan (ETAP), and the Eco-label and Eco-Management and Audit System (EMAS) Regulations. It will also further develop the Energy-using Products Directive (EuP). The JRC-IES, with its European Platform on LCA project (ILCD data network), is mandated to support the implementation of the SCP with data and methods.

Social impact

The social impacts derived from the development of this EeBGuide can be diverse in nature. Among the most relevant ones are the creation of new, high-technology jobs by improving Europe’s competitiveness, healthy and secure working conditions, and the general well-being offered by a healthy environment. These are the impacts that can be directly linked with technologies, and their contribution to our future lives. The integration of participatory approaches into the development of this guidance document strengthens these aspects of the social impact, contributing to a more democratic and more knowledge-based society.

Impact on European competitiveness

The EeBGuide will enhance the competitiveness of European industry by its contribution to sustainable development. It supports the goal of decoupling growth from resource depletion, which is an economic, environmental, and social necessity for European industry. Assessing and improving the environmental performance of products, technologies and services, EeBGuide delivers the framework for a consistent environmental evaluation.

1 Introduction

• 1.1    Energy-efficient buildings in Europe.
• 1.2    Basic information about this guidance document
• 1.2.1    Goal of this guidance.
• 1.2.2    Scope of this guidance.
• 1.2.3    Primary audience for EeBGuide.
• 1.2.4    Secondary audience for EeBGuide.
• 1.3    Life cycle analysis in the construction sector
• 1.3.1    Previous European projects on LCA of buildings
• 1.3.2    European standardization works on LCA of buildings
• 1.3.3    LCA studies within research projects of the Energy-Efficient Building European Initiative (E2B EI)
• 1.4    EeBGuide within the European context

The EeBGuide benefits from a comprehensive approach to identifying key aspects of the LCA methodology applied to products and buildings that need further clarification. Using the steps of the LCA framework (goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment, interpretation), as well as the life cycle stages of a building from cradle to grave, allowed identification of aspects where provisions and guidance were missing. The need to adapt the guidance to different stakeholders and different stages of a project also led to the definition of different study types: screening, simplified and complete LCA (see below).

The various aspects were defined based on literature searches, analysis of reference documents (see below), and consultation with LCA experts during brainstorming meetings among the EeBGuide partners. For example, aspects such as definition of the functional unit for a product, the use of EPD data in building LCA studies, end-of-life scenarios, the choice of environmental indicators, and the normalization step led to many questions that need to be addressed, and provisions and guidance clearly documented.

2     Methodological approach of the EeBGuide.

• 2.1.    Identification of important aspects for product and building LCA studies
  
• 2.2.    Reference documents for the EeBGuide.
  
• 2.3.    Procedure for choosing provisions from both CEN TC 350 standards and the ILCD Handbook
• 2.3.1.    EeBGuide provisions for different goal definition: strictness vs. flexibility.
• 2.4.    Use of three study types
• 2.4.1.    Screening LCA.
• 2.4.2.    Simplified LCA.
• 2.4.3.    Complete LCA.
• 2.5.    Use of a baseline scenario.