Final Report Summary - EEBGUIDE (Operational guidance for performing life cycle assessment studies of the energy efficient buildings initiative)
Executive summary:
Lifecycle assessment (LCA) studies are used for the certification of sustainable buildings and the development of Environmental product declarations (EPD)s for building construction products. Increasingly, they are also being increasingly used as a decision-making support tool in building projects. To improve the reliability of LCA studies and make it easier to compare their results, common methodology and a set of rules were developed in 'Operational guidance for LCA studies of the energy efficient buildings' initiative (EEBGUIDE), which is co-financed by the European Commission (EC)'s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) for Research and technological development (RTD) and is part of the 'Energy efficient buildings' European initiative (E2B EI). Based on existing standards and guidelines such as ISO 14040, ISO 14044, EN 15978, EN 15804 and the International reference life cycle data system (ILCD) handbook, the project partners developed a common methodology for conducting LCA studies as part within projects of the E2B EI. The EEBGUIDE project focused in particularly on case study examples, operational experience and guidance provided by LCA experts and practitioners for practical application. Two core elements form the basis for designing the guideline: firstly, providing comprehensive instructions and definitions of relevant applications and recommended solutions in relation to energy-efficient buildings, and, secondly, providing clear examples, training materials and additional support to roll out the guidance. One of the key project objectives is to demonstrate the applicability of the guidance in practice. Ultimately, the two core elements of the guide were compiled into an interactive, web-based reference work document which enables LCA practitioners from industry and the research community to boost their knowledge and conduct consistent LCAs of buildings.
Project context and objectives:
The construction industry is a large contributor to carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, with buildings responsible for 40 % of the total European energy consumption and a third of CO2 emissions. At the same time, the construction industry provides work for over 12.7 million people in the EU7 and generates about one fifth (20.3 %) of the combined industrial and construction sectors value added. These circumstances form the basis for different targets and objectives formulated by the EC.
In this context EEBGUIDE was funded by the EC aiming to produce expert guidance for conducting LCA studies for energy-efficient buildings and building products under the framework of E2B EI. The EEBGUIDE guidance document provides a common methodology supporting reliable assessment and comparison of new efficient buildings and products. It supports LCA practitioners in industry and research.
The core objective of this guidance 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. The overall objectives are:
- a guidance document - based on the ILCD handbook - that is scientifically sound, accepted by practitioners and quality assured (reviewed);
- exemplary LCA case studies, including recommendations on how to implement adequate building LCA tools;
- broad dissemination among LCA practitioners and industry;
- a website, as a central information hub on the operational guidance on LCA within the E2B EI.
The final guidance document includes 173 important LCA aspects that are explained into detail and if possible provision is given based on ILCD Handbook and standards. In addition guidance from LCA experts all over Europe is given in order to even enhance the provision provided. These aspects were chosen in several project internal and external workshops with LCA experts and practitioners from industry, research institutes and universities. For being as user-friendly as possible, the guidance document was generally separated into two parts: one, dealing with buildings and one, dealing with building products. This specific guidance document linked the International, European LCA standards and the general ILCD handbook with applications in energy efficiency technologies for buildings and building products. After a draft version of the guidance document was developed, an almost 2 month public consultation was held and the comments were implemented in the final version of the guidance document. One very important aspect is to ensure the comparability of LCA results generated in accordance with the guidance document. A second important outcome of EEBGUIDE are exemplary reporting templates specifying a report structure for LCA studies to be performed according to the guidance document. These reporting templates were drafted and reviewed in line with the respective parts of the guidance document. In the end a building and building product LCA guide was developed, that support LCA practitioners in various ways. Especially the transparent definition of the different study types enables consistent LCA studies.
The applicability of the developed guidance document was demonstrated by conducting case studies. Wherever possible, for performing the case studies, existing case studies were used and adapted. In total six case studies, two on building products and four on buildings were conducted. In addition the case studies should cover a broad range of applications. Therefore the EEBGUIDE was not only tested by energy-efficient products but also for a regular one. In parallel the building case studies covered a range from new buildings to refurbished buildings and from simple to very complex buildings. These experiences gained by conducting these case studies were implemented in the guidance document. These case studies also provided requirements for building LCA tool designers in order to be in line with the guidance. All in all by conducting a case study, the guidance document was additionally reviewed in terms of appropriateness, user-friendliness, and consistency with regard to the appropriate LCA and ILCD methodologies in practice.
Due to the fact that the guidance document should be accepted by industry and research, high priority also was paid to dissemination. As it is also stated in explanations of the dissemination activities EEBGUIDE was using various channels to attract attention to EEBGUIDE. Apart from the official homepage EEBGUIDE.eu also social media like Facebook and LinkedIn in were used to spread news. Furthermore news and interesting LCA topics were gathered via the construction platform construction21 and a construction21 group was founded were people could rise questions and take part in the project. All in all numerous newsletters were sent to organisations, companies, universities and research institutes that are related to LCA in order to attract people to participate in the workshops and in the public consultation. Furthermore EEBGUIDE was introduced in some of the most important LCA conferences and also EEBGUIDE was presented at the German Sustainability fair Consense 2012. Also different press releases and policy briefs had EEBGUIDE as a topic. Also two training courses were held in order to directly get feedback from industry and a tutorial video was developed for EEBGUIDE to additionally attract attention.
All of the previously mentioned documents, newsletters, templates, videos, etc. are publically available at the official EEBGUIDE webpage. The EEBGUIDE guidance document is not only accessible as a pdf version, but also as an online document. Within this interactive document it is possible to filter according to the fields of interest and also links to additional information are provided.
Project results:
The EEBGUIDE enables LCA practitioners, both from private and public organisations, to quantify environmental impacts in a consistent way. The guidance document can be applied to assess the life cycle of whole buildings (existing and new), and existing building products and technological solutions (existing or under development) within the E2B EI. It allows practitioners to perform LCA studies in a clear, pre-defined and well-structured way by delivering scientifically sound, practically applicable, and quality assured guidance. In addition, high quality Lifecycle 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, the EEBGUIDE will help LCA practitioners to produce more robust, harmonised, and quality assured LCA results. Being able to consistently quantify the environmental performance of newly developed products and to compare this performance with existing products may lead to the reduction of their environmental impacts as well as to a significant promotion of these new products and thus considerably contribute to technology development in the EU.
Potential impact:
The primary objective of the EEBGUIDE is to provide consistent calculation rules and operational guidance for LCA studies that are conducted within the context of research projects within the 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 the quantification of environmental benefits of innovative technologies. The LCA studies - whether they cover comparative assertions or investigate individual products or buildings - are intended to be comparable in the greater context of the E2B EI. This means, they should contain LCA studies that are based on similar methods, assumptions and mechanisms and can yield credible, comparable results.
Impact
Altogether, several dimensions of impacts 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, both from private and public organisations, to quantify environmental impacts in a consistent way. The guidance document can be applied to assess the life cycle of whole buildings (existing and new), and existing building products and technological solutions (existing or under development) within the E2B EI. It allows practitioners to perform LCA studies in a clear, pre-defined and well-structured way by delivering scientifically sound, practically applicable, and quality assured guidance. In addition, high quality 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, harmonised, and quality assured LCA results. Being able to consistently quantify the environmental performance of newly developed products and to compare this performance with existing products may lead to the reduction of their environmental impacts as well as to a significant promotion of these new products and thus considerably contribute to technology development in the European Union (EU).
Impact on building labelling schemes and 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 strongly depends on calculation methods that are generally well applicable to building LCA studies and on reliable data for individual construction products. Such data may be provided by EPD 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 is provided by the EEBGUIDE.
For the further consideration of building labelling related aspects, 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 the stakeholders. This EEBGUIDE may also have an impact on the various EPD programmes throughout Europe. While EPD programmes generally provide the required provisions to conduct 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. Especially for innovative solutions that are currently under development or that will be developed within the E2B EI, 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 on-going standardisation activities concerning LCA studies. On the other hand, many LCA studies are still conducted without a proper (or even with a non-existent) reference to current standards, either due to a lack of need resources or knowledge concerning the existing standards and the ongoing standardisation activities.
Current and recent activities cover both, the definition of LCA calculation rules in detail for building labelling by individual labelling schemes (e.g. the German DGNB scheme includes building LCA on the basis of very specific rules), and framework standardisation activities such as the ones developed within European Committee for Standardisation technical committee (CEN TC) 350. General consensus is needed for the future development of the LCA methodology, yet the resulting standards do not sufficiently advise the practitioner on how to conduct a study in detail.
In this context, the EEBGUIDE fills a current gap and thereby has the potential to reach beyond the originally anticipated impact within the E2B EI. Concerning currently ongoing and future standardisation 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, possibly even to other sectors. This results in a generally improved quality and scientific soundness of LCA studies within the E2B EI and beyond. In this way, the EEBGUIDE enables legislative bodies to better rely on LCA as a policy instrument. It increases the usefulness of LCA studies and fosters their use in decision-support and policy making, assuring decisions and policies on the basis of integrated environmental assessments.
At the European policy level, the EEBGUIDE provides a direct link from the construction industry to the European Platform on LCA and the ILCD data network. In addition, this guide has 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 EC 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, 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, the European Parliament suggested the use of EPD for this purpose. As the CPR will have to be broadly implemented in the harmonised European product standards, standardisation for such LCA studies in conjunction with intensive guidance is required and EEBGUIDE contributes to the provision of such guidance, in support of EPD programmes and both the already published and upcoming CEN standards.
- The 'Lead market' initiative for Europe on sustainable construction, where LCA is directly mentioned as a means to describe sustainable construction and an integrated lifecycle oriented approach to construction, which is seen as an approach to successfully promote 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 IPP, the resource and waste thematic strategies, Green public procurement (GPP), the Environmental technologies action plan (ETAP), as well as the Eco-label and the eco-management and audit system (EMAS) regulations. It will also further develop the Energy-using products directive (EuP). The Joint research cetre (JRC) Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES) and its European platform on LCA project (ILCD data network) is mandated to support the implementation of the SCP with data and methods.
Social impact
Social impacts derived from the development of this EEBGUIDE can be diverse in nature: creation of new high technology jobs by improving European competitiveness; healthy and secure working conditions, as well as the general well-being offered by a healthy environment are among the most relevant ones. Also, these are the ones that can be directly linked with technologies and their contribution to our future lives. The integration of participatory approaches into the guidance document development strengthens this side of social aspects, contributing to a more democratic and more knowledge based society.
Impact on European competitiveness
The EEBGUIDE enhances 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.
Dissemination activities
For EEBGUIDE dissemination was a core issue from the very beginning, due to the needed and desired input from industry and research. Therefore very early in the project not only a website was developed, but also first newsletters and press articles were sent. Especially the newsletter sent to over 850 people working in the field of LCA both in private and public sector. Especially the feedback from LCA practitioners from companies, organisations, research institutes and universities formed the basis for the first list of important LCA aspects. Needless to say in addition to the newsletters and press releases social media like Facebook and LinkedIn were used to attract LCA interested to participate in EEBGUIDE.
Furthermore, a project group was created at the construction platform construction21. There LCA practitioners and EEBGUIDE interested could get informed about EEBGUIDE and the latest progresses but also to use the discussion forum to raise interesting LCA questions. For the second workshop companies and other research institutes as well as participants of other European research projects related to LCA and buildings were invited to share their thoughts and ideas about the draft guidance document. For the later public consultation of this improved guidance document various companies and universities were asked to participate and over 227 external comments in addition to various internal comments were implemented in the final guidance document. Supplementary to the invitations per email to the public consultation, construction experts and companies at the fair Consense 2012 were asked to take part in EEBGUIDE. Also EEBGUIDE information material and newsletters were available at the Fraunhofer exhibition stand. Moreover LCA practitioners from industry and research had the opportunity to take part in two training courses, one in Paris and one in Barcelona, and over 21 attendees got informed about EEBGUIDE. Furthermore several LCA conferences were used as a platform to rise the knowledge about EEBGUIDE. Therefore presentations were held for Ökobilanzwerkstatt, LCA XII, SETAC and EcoBalance. All in all multitudes of different channels and media was used to make different stakeholders, LCA practitioners and researchers aware of EEBGUIDE.
Communication with the JRC EIS
Being aware of the fact that the ILCD handbook had been defined as major basis for the projects work, intensive cooperation with the LCA-working group at the JRC IES has been sought.
Initially, the JRC-IES had been invited to join the consortium as a member. With the remark that a cooperation with the grant-executing consortium were intended, the participation as a member of one consortium had been rejected. The JRC-IES had shown interest in the progress of the project, had provided the consortium with comments on the findings of the first of two expert workshops, but was unfortunately unable to participate in the expert workshops or further activities. In this context, it should be noted that one obstacle in the exchange was the fast pace that the project consortium had to take in order to fulfil the projects objectives in the given time.
In the course of the project, communication had been in place between the JRC IES and the project consortium:
August 2010: Invitation to join the consortium
January 2012: Invitation to participate in first expert workshop - due to availability and budget constraints, a participation was not possible
April 2012: Report on the first expert workshop sent to JRC-IES and responses received
May 2012: Invitation to participate in a second expert workshop
June 2012: Invitation to participate in public consultation
During the project
All project newsletters disseminated also to JRC IES.
With regard to the EEBGUIDE documents, it may be noted that chapter 2 ('Methodological approach of the EEBGUIDE') outlines the project's approach, including the way of considering the ILCD handbook, as well as existing CEN standards.
After the end of the project, a further discussion with the JRC-IES on the content of the project's outcome is intended and is currently - as of Apr. 2013 - being initiated. The objective of this discussion is to find a common understanding of the relation between the ILCD handbook and the EEBGUIDE documents. This includes the intention to identify that both documents are aligned, or, to identify individual items that may require further alignments. It is the project consortium's understanding that no major discrepancies between the documents exist and that no or possibly minor revisions of the projects documents would lead to fully aligned documents. The project consortium intends to release the EEBGUIDE documents as a joint monograph and that this publication should include any possible revisions that refer to the discussions with the JRC IES. Ms Adèle Lydon, responsible project officer will be informed on the findings of future discussions with the JRC IES.
Exploitation activities
As the project has been funded as a coordination and support action, no research that would lead to e.g. product developments had been undertaken. Hence, exploitation activities are limited to the exploitation of the guidance documents and other project results, typically as indirect exploitation.
One major item of exploitation was the intensive dissemination and communication, which focused on different target groups, including end users (e.g. architects), Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME)s (e.g. those who conduct LCA studies), associations and research organisations / academia. The dissemination and communication activities lead to increased visibility and stakeholder-awareness for all project partners. Such awareness and visibility may - and currently does - lead to invitations to draft research proposals both for publicly and for privately funded research projects. This is also the case for the training sessions that had been part of the project work.
In addition, the preparation of future exploitation had been undertaken, which will eventually lead to further exploitation. This includes:
- Guidance document: the project consortium intends to release the guidance document as a monograph in the Fraunhofer publishing company.
- Guidance for tool developers: one project outcome is the description of how EEBGUIDE provisions and guidance may be included in specific LCA tools. As several of the members of the consortium host such LCA software, the developed document can directly be used to include EEBGUIDE rules into LCA software. This in turn will lead to increasing use of such software by third parties.
- Training materials: the compilation of extensive training materials empowers the members of the consortium to either establish individual training sessions on the EEBGUIDE guidance or to incorporate EEBGUIDE in existing training and lectures. In terms of exploitation, this means that extensive and very up-to-date training materials exist and do not need to be compiled individually.
- Guidance documents: these documents may have a positive effect on future harmonisation of LCA rules for EPD programmes and for building certification systems. In terms of exploitation, in the case of such harmonisation based on EEBGUIDE, the members of the consortium have a market advantage to conduct LCA studies.
In general, the promotion of uniform LCA rules increases the acceptance of LCA studies in the construction sector, which is expected to have positive effects of various kinds (e.g. more invitations to contribute to research proposals, LCA contractual work for industry and stakeholders of the construction sector, increase of activities in building certification) on all members of the consortium.
Lifecycle assessment (LCA) studies are used for the certification of sustainable buildings and the development of Environmental product declarations (EPD)s for building construction products. Increasingly, they are also being increasingly used as a decision-making support tool in building projects. To improve the reliability of LCA studies and make it easier to compare their results, common methodology and a set of rules were developed in 'Operational guidance for LCA studies of the energy efficient buildings' initiative (EEBGUIDE), which is co-financed by the European Commission (EC)'s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) for Research and technological development (RTD) and is part of the 'Energy efficient buildings' European initiative (E2B EI). Based on existing standards and guidelines such as ISO 14040, ISO 14044, EN 15978, EN 15804 and the International reference life cycle data system (ILCD) handbook, the project partners developed a common methodology for conducting LCA studies as part within projects of the E2B EI. The EEBGUIDE project focused in particularly on case study examples, operational experience and guidance provided by LCA experts and practitioners for practical application. Two core elements form the basis for designing the guideline: firstly, providing comprehensive instructions and definitions of relevant applications and recommended solutions in relation to energy-efficient buildings, and, secondly, providing clear examples, training materials and additional support to roll out the guidance. One of the key project objectives is to demonstrate the applicability of the guidance in practice. Ultimately, the two core elements of the guide were compiled into an interactive, web-based reference work document which enables LCA practitioners from industry and the research community to boost their knowledge and conduct consistent LCAs of buildings.
Project context and objectives:
The construction industry is a large contributor to carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, with buildings responsible for 40 % of the total European energy consumption and a third of CO2 emissions. At the same time, the construction industry provides work for over 12.7 million people in the EU7 and generates about one fifth (20.3 %) of the combined industrial and construction sectors value added. These circumstances form the basis for different targets and objectives formulated by the EC.
In this context EEBGUIDE was funded by the EC aiming to produce expert guidance for conducting LCA studies for energy-efficient buildings and building products under the framework of E2B EI. The EEBGUIDE guidance document provides a common methodology supporting reliable assessment and comparison of new efficient buildings and products. It supports LCA practitioners in industry and research.
The core objective of this guidance 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. The overall objectives are:
- a guidance document - based on the ILCD handbook - that is scientifically sound, accepted by practitioners and quality assured (reviewed);
- exemplary LCA case studies, including recommendations on how to implement adequate building LCA tools;
- broad dissemination among LCA practitioners and industry;
- a website, as a central information hub on the operational guidance on LCA within the E2B EI.
The final guidance document includes 173 important LCA aspects that are explained into detail and if possible provision is given based on ILCD Handbook and standards. In addition guidance from LCA experts all over Europe is given in order to even enhance the provision provided. These aspects were chosen in several project internal and external workshops with LCA experts and practitioners from industry, research institutes and universities. For being as user-friendly as possible, the guidance document was generally separated into two parts: one, dealing with buildings and one, dealing with building products. This specific guidance document linked the International, European LCA standards and the general ILCD handbook with applications in energy efficiency technologies for buildings and building products. After a draft version of the guidance document was developed, an almost 2 month public consultation was held and the comments were implemented in the final version of the guidance document. One very important aspect is to ensure the comparability of LCA results generated in accordance with the guidance document. A second important outcome of EEBGUIDE are exemplary reporting templates specifying a report structure for LCA studies to be performed according to the guidance document. These reporting templates were drafted and reviewed in line with the respective parts of the guidance document. In the end a building and building product LCA guide was developed, that support LCA practitioners in various ways. Especially the transparent definition of the different study types enables consistent LCA studies.
The applicability of the developed guidance document was demonstrated by conducting case studies. Wherever possible, for performing the case studies, existing case studies were used and adapted. In total six case studies, two on building products and four on buildings were conducted. In addition the case studies should cover a broad range of applications. Therefore the EEBGUIDE was not only tested by energy-efficient products but also for a regular one. In parallel the building case studies covered a range from new buildings to refurbished buildings and from simple to very complex buildings. These experiences gained by conducting these case studies were implemented in the guidance document. These case studies also provided requirements for building LCA tool designers in order to be in line with the guidance. All in all by conducting a case study, the guidance document was additionally reviewed in terms of appropriateness, user-friendliness, and consistency with regard to the appropriate LCA and ILCD methodologies in practice.
Due to the fact that the guidance document should be accepted by industry and research, high priority also was paid to dissemination. As it is also stated in explanations of the dissemination activities EEBGUIDE was using various channels to attract attention to EEBGUIDE. Apart from the official homepage EEBGUIDE.eu also social media like Facebook and LinkedIn in were used to spread news. Furthermore news and interesting LCA topics were gathered via the construction platform construction21 and a construction21 group was founded were people could rise questions and take part in the project. All in all numerous newsletters were sent to organisations, companies, universities and research institutes that are related to LCA in order to attract people to participate in the workshops and in the public consultation. Furthermore EEBGUIDE was introduced in some of the most important LCA conferences and also EEBGUIDE was presented at the German Sustainability fair Consense 2012. Also different press releases and policy briefs had EEBGUIDE as a topic. Also two training courses were held in order to directly get feedback from industry and a tutorial video was developed for EEBGUIDE to additionally attract attention.
All of the previously mentioned documents, newsletters, templates, videos, etc. are publically available at the official EEBGUIDE webpage. The EEBGUIDE guidance document is not only accessible as a pdf version, but also as an online document. Within this interactive document it is possible to filter according to the fields of interest and also links to additional information are provided.
Project results:
The EEBGUIDE enables LCA practitioners, both from private and public organisations, to quantify environmental impacts in a consistent way. The guidance document can be applied to assess the life cycle of whole buildings (existing and new), and existing building products and technological solutions (existing or under development) within the E2B EI. It allows practitioners to perform LCA studies in a clear, pre-defined and well-structured way by delivering scientifically sound, practically applicable, and quality assured guidance. In addition, high quality Lifecycle 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, the EEBGUIDE will help LCA practitioners to produce more robust, harmonised, and quality assured LCA results. Being able to consistently quantify the environmental performance of newly developed products and to compare this performance with existing products may lead to the reduction of their environmental impacts as well as to a significant promotion of these new products and thus considerably contribute to technology development in the EU.
Potential impact:
The primary objective of the EEBGUIDE is to provide consistent calculation rules and operational guidance for LCA studies that are conducted within the context of research projects within the 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 the quantification of environmental benefits of innovative technologies. The LCA studies - whether they cover comparative assertions or investigate individual products or buildings - are intended to be comparable in the greater context of the E2B EI. This means, they should contain LCA studies that are based on similar methods, assumptions and mechanisms and can yield credible, comparable results.
Impact
Altogether, several dimensions of impacts 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, both from private and public organisations, to quantify environmental impacts in a consistent way. The guidance document can be applied to assess the life cycle of whole buildings (existing and new), and existing building products and technological solutions (existing or under development) within the E2B EI. It allows practitioners to perform LCA studies in a clear, pre-defined and well-structured way by delivering scientifically sound, practically applicable, and quality assured guidance. In addition, high quality 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, harmonised, and quality assured LCA results. Being able to consistently quantify the environmental performance of newly developed products and to compare this performance with existing products may lead to the reduction of their environmental impacts as well as to a significant promotion of these new products and thus considerably contribute to technology development in the European Union (EU).
Impact on building labelling schemes and 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 strongly depends on calculation methods that are generally well applicable to building LCA studies and on reliable data for individual construction products. Such data may be provided by EPD 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 is provided by the EEBGUIDE.
For the further consideration of building labelling related aspects, 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 the stakeholders. This EEBGUIDE may also have an impact on the various EPD programmes throughout Europe. While EPD programmes generally provide the required provisions to conduct 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. Especially for innovative solutions that are currently under development or that will be developed within the E2B EI, 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 on-going standardisation activities concerning LCA studies. On the other hand, many LCA studies are still conducted without a proper (or even with a non-existent) reference to current standards, either due to a lack of need resources or knowledge concerning the existing standards and the ongoing standardisation activities.
Current and recent activities cover both, the definition of LCA calculation rules in detail for building labelling by individual labelling schemes (e.g. the German DGNB scheme includes building LCA on the basis of very specific rules), and framework standardisation activities such as the ones developed within European Committee for Standardisation technical committee (CEN TC) 350. General consensus is needed for the future development of the LCA methodology, yet the resulting standards do not sufficiently advise the practitioner on how to conduct a study in detail.
In this context, the EEBGUIDE fills a current gap and thereby has the potential to reach beyond the originally anticipated impact within the E2B EI. Concerning currently ongoing and future standardisation 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, possibly even to other sectors. This results in a generally improved quality and scientific soundness of LCA studies within the E2B EI and beyond. In this way, the EEBGUIDE enables legislative bodies to better rely on LCA as a policy instrument. It increases the usefulness of LCA studies and fosters their use in decision-support and policy making, assuring decisions and policies on the basis of integrated environmental assessments.
At the European policy level, the EEBGUIDE provides a direct link from the construction industry to the European Platform on LCA and the ILCD data network. In addition, this guide has 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 EC 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, 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, the European Parliament suggested the use of EPD for this purpose. As the CPR will have to be broadly implemented in the harmonised European product standards, standardisation for such LCA studies in conjunction with intensive guidance is required and EEBGUIDE contributes to the provision of such guidance, in support of EPD programmes and both the already published and upcoming CEN standards.
- The 'Lead market' initiative for Europe on sustainable construction, where LCA is directly mentioned as a means to describe sustainable construction and an integrated lifecycle oriented approach to construction, which is seen as an approach to successfully promote 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 IPP, the resource and waste thematic strategies, Green public procurement (GPP), the Environmental technologies action plan (ETAP), as well as the Eco-label and the eco-management and audit system (EMAS) regulations. It will also further develop the Energy-using products directive (EuP). The Joint research cetre (JRC) Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES) and its European platform on LCA project (ILCD data network) is mandated to support the implementation of the SCP with data and methods.
Social impact
Social impacts derived from the development of this EEBGUIDE can be diverse in nature: creation of new high technology jobs by improving European competitiveness; healthy and secure working conditions, as well as the general well-being offered by a healthy environment are among the most relevant ones. Also, these are the ones that can be directly linked with technologies and their contribution to our future lives. The integration of participatory approaches into the guidance document development strengthens this side of social aspects, contributing to a more democratic and more knowledge based society.
Impact on European competitiveness
The EEBGUIDE enhances 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.
Dissemination activities
For EEBGUIDE dissemination was a core issue from the very beginning, due to the needed and desired input from industry and research. Therefore very early in the project not only a website was developed, but also first newsletters and press articles were sent. Especially the newsletter sent to over 850 people working in the field of LCA both in private and public sector. Especially the feedback from LCA practitioners from companies, organisations, research institutes and universities formed the basis for the first list of important LCA aspects. Needless to say in addition to the newsletters and press releases social media like Facebook and LinkedIn were used to attract LCA interested to participate in EEBGUIDE.
Furthermore, a project group was created at the construction platform construction21. There LCA practitioners and EEBGUIDE interested could get informed about EEBGUIDE and the latest progresses but also to use the discussion forum to raise interesting LCA questions. For the second workshop companies and other research institutes as well as participants of other European research projects related to LCA and buildings were invited to share their thoughts and ideas about the draft guidance document. For the later public consultation of this improved guidance document various companies and universities were asked to participate and over 227 external comments in addition to various internal comments were implemented in the final guidance document. Supplementary to the invitations per email to the public consultation, construction experts and companies at the fair Consense 2012 were asked to take part in EEBGUIDE. Also EEBGUIDE information material and newsletters were available at the Fraunhofer exhibition stand. Moreover LCA practitioners from industry and research had the opportunity to take part in two training courses, one in Paris and one in Barcelona, and over 21 attendees got informed about EEBGUIDE. Furthermore several LCA conferences were used as a platform to rise the knowledge about EEBGUIDE. Therefore presentations were held for Ökobilanzwerkstatt, LCA XII, SETAC and EcoBalance. All in all multitudes of different channels and media was used to make different stakeholders, LCA practitioners and researchers aware of EEBGUIDE.
Communication with the JRC EIS
Being aware of the fact that the ILCD handbook had been defined as major basis for the projects work, intensive cooperation with the LCA-working group at the JRC IES has been sought.
Initially, the JRC-IES had been invited to join the consortium as a member. With the remark that a cooperation with the grant-executing consortium were intended, the participation as a member of one consortium had been rejected. The JRC-IES had shown interest in the progress of the project, had provided the consortium with comments on the findings of the first of two expert workshops, but was unfortunately unable to participate in the expert workshops or further activities. In this context, it should be noted that one obstacle in the exchange was the fast pace that the project consortium had to take in order to fulfil the projects objectives in the given time.
In the course of the project, communication had been in place between the JRC IES and the project consortium:
August 2010: Invitation to join the consortium
January 2012: Invitation to participate in first expert workshop - due to availability and budget constraints, a participation was not possible
April 2012: Report on the first expert workshop sent to JRC-IES and responses received
May 2012: Invitation to participate in a second expert workshop
June 2012: Invitation to participate in public consultation
During the project
All project newsletters disseminated also to JRC IES.
With regard to the EEBGUIDE documents, it may be noted that chapter 2 ('Methodological approach of the EEBGUIDE') outlines the project's approach, including the way of considering the ILCD handbook, as well as existing CEN standards.
After the end of the project, a further discussion with the JRC-IES on the content of the project's outcome is intended and is currently - as of Apr. 2013 - being initiated. The objective of this discussion is to find a common understanding of the relation between the ILCD handbook and the EEBGUIDE documents. This includes the intention to identify that both documents are aligned, or, to identify individual items that may require further alignments. It is the project consortium's understanding that no major discrepancies between the documents exist and that no or possibly minor revisions of the projects documents would lead to fully aligned documents. The project consortium intends to release the EEBGUIDE documents as a joint monograph and that this publication should include any possible revisions that refer to the discussions with the JRC IES. Ms Adèle Lydon, responsible project officer will be informed on the findings of future discussions with the JRC IES.
Exploitation activities
As the project has been funded as a coordination and support action, no research that would lead to e.g. product developments had been undertaken. Hence, exploitation activities are limited to the exploitation of the guidance documents and other project results, typically as indirect exploitation.
One major item of exploitation was the intensive dissemination and communication, which focused on different target groups, including end users (e.g. architects), Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME)s (e.g. those who conduct LCA studies), associations and research organisations / academia. The dissemination and communication activities lead to increased visibility and stakeholder-awareness for all project partners. Such awareness and visibility may - and currently does - lead to invitations to draft research proposals both for publicly and for privately funded research projects. This is also the case for the training sessions that had been part of the project work.
In addition, the preparation of future exploitation had been undertaken, which will eventually lead to further exploitation. This includes:
- Guidance document: the project consortium intends to release the guidance document as a monograph in the Fraunhofer publishing company.
- Guidance for tool developers: one project outcome is the description of how EEBGUIDE provisions and guidance may be included in specific LCA tools. As several of the members of the consortium host such LCA software, the developed document can directly be used to include EEBGUIDE rules into LCA software. This in turn will lead to increasing use of such software by third parties.
- Training materials: the compilation of extensive training materials empowers the members of the consortium to either establish individual training sessions on the EEBGUIDE guidance or to incorporate EEBGUIDE in existing training and lectures. In terms of exploitation, this means that extensive and very up-to-date training materials exist and do not need to be compiled individually.
- Guidance documents: these documents may have a positive effect on future harmonisation of LCA rules for EPD programmes and for building certification systems. In terms of exploitation, in the case of such harmonisation based on EEBGUIDE, the members of the consortium have a market advantage to conduct LCA studies.
In general, the promotion of uniform LCA rules increases the acceptance of LCA studies in the construction sector, which is expected to have positive effects of various kinds (e.g. more invitations to contribute to research proposals, LCA contractual work for industry and stakeholders of the construction sector, increase of activities in building certification) on all members of the consortium.