Operational guide for Life Cycle Assessment in the construction sector available

In Europe, building Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies are the foundation of many building certification schemes as well as of Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) for construction products, yet the metrics and standards currently used in Europe can be interpreted and implemented in many different ways leading to inconsistencies and lack of comparability. This situation forms the basis for the EU research project “EeBGuide” (Operational Guidance for Life Cycle Assessment studies of the Energy Efficient Buildings Initiative), which was coordinated by the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP and includes leading LCA experts from PE INTERNATIONAL, CSTB, ESCI, BRE and Prof Ch Sjöström Consultancy.

The goal of the project, which ran November 2011 to October 2012, was to define common rules which will provide a standardized methodology for LCA studies in the construction sector that can be used throughout Europe. 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 final EeB Guidance document is accessible as a web-based interactive document with filter functions to facilitate its use. It also provides links to further detailed information sources, training materials and reporting templates. The guidance draws on the ILCD handbook developed by the IES in the EC JRC and EN 15804 and EN 15978 developed by the CEN/TC 350, and has been separated into two parts: one for products (Part A) and one for buildings (Part B). Both documents are organised by life cycle stages of a building. Important aspects for products and buildings are defined to provide information on how to deal with specific issues (such as how to account for technical building equipment or how to take account of service life).

All the information is also available in the EeB Guide Group on Construction21. You can also use this group to share your experience implementing the guidance on your projects, or to upload case studies.