Mainstream Use of EPDs in Buildings: Lessons Learned from Europe

*Naeem Adibi, Marjan Mousavi, Ricardo Méndez Escobar, Manon Glachant and Aliasghar Adibi* 

#### **Abstract**

Life cycle assessment (LCA) has been used widely by building sector to assess the environmental impacts of products, new buildings, and renovations. Environmental product declarations (EPDs) based on LCA are developed for products in different EU countries. In addition, product environmental footprint (PEF) initiated by European Commission aims to provides benchmarking for products based on LCA. Although EPDs are well developed in the Europe, their use is challenging. First challenge for mainstream implementation is lack of knowledge of different key actors to use EPDs. Awareness rising, training, and simplification is needed for the key actors. The second issue is lack of equal opportunity for companies to develop their EPDs. The cost of EPDs for small and medium-sized companies is a real barrier. Finally, EPDs are developed as information for building assessment to be used at building level for B2B and B2C communication. Therefore, EPDs require new mechanisms in a decision-making and benchmarking context at product or at application level. At building level, simplified approaches are needed to converge EPDs to the buildings. The aim of this contribution is to highlight the use of EPD in European context and discuss challenges for a wider application of the EPD worldwide.

**Keywords:** mainstream, building, EPD, LCA, decision-making

#### **1. Introduction**

Buildings account for 40% of primary energy consumption and 36% of Greenhouse Gas emissions across Europe. Decreasing the environmental impacts of buildings is key to realize EU 2020 objectives of 20% reduction of GHG and energy consumption while using 20% renewable energy [1].

Sustainable buildings are the fabric of sustainable lifestyle. While building sector understands the importance of energy efficiency, the environmental impacts of the building products and elements remained less known. For an energy-efficient house, embodied energy in the construction represents approximately 75 years of heating in equivalent energy. To assess environmental impacts of a building, it is necessary to consider the overall building lifecycle [2].

Buildings have also influence on the vision of sustainability of a region. Energy efficiency in a sector is well understood by the industry and the public sector,

but impact of product and materials are less known. The goal of sustainbility can only be achieved if the entire life cycle of the building is considered. All construction stakeholders should be involved to improve buildings overall environmental performance.

 Building sector has already developed some intitatives based on life cycle approaches to improve and harmonize the communication of the environmental performance of products. The notion of life cycle thinking depends on the region and the size of the company. While large enterprises can invest resources in implementing life cycle thinking tools, smaller organizations find more problems. Lack of awareness about life cycle aproaches avoid actors to obtain the benefits by creation of shared value and reinforcement of links between stakeholders [2].

#### **2. Life cycle approaches for building**

#### **2.1 Life cycle thinking**

 In selecting the most environment friendly product, some questions are frequently asked: Is there a proper approach to select the best product? How to find the product with the best ecological performance? What are the impacts of different products in terms of global warming potential (greenhouse gases), human health effects, ecosystem biodiversity losses, and depletion of resources? What is the best approach to make an intelligent choice? Given the importance of products and materials in context of sustainable buildings, it is important to make a wise choice among available solutions. Decision-making needs to be based on objective information and approaches.

The following two main issues are important for selecting the most environment friendly products:


Life cycle assessment (LCA) is used by sustainability experts in many different fields which includes the two previous points in the basis of the study. LCA is based on the principles of sustainable development and it has already been demonstrated its efficiency in providing a systematic environmental assessment approach of products, product system, and processes.

The effectiveness of LCA methods depend on the very fact that they contemplate all life cycle stages of a product, from the extraction of raw materials to the end-of-life (recycling, etc.) through an assessment covering completely different impact categories climate change, human health, ecosystems, and resources. Using life cycle approaches also give economic value to companies, who are adopting life cycle thinking practices to optimize their activities [4].

*Mainstream Use of EPDs in Buildings: Lessons Learned from Europe DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.87836* 

 As an example, environmental performance of insulation products can be easily misunderstood if the study is focused only on the use phase, where the energy savings are highlighted. The material used and the manufacturing processes, as well as the location of the manufacturing plant and the recyclability of the product must be considered to make a holistic overview of the impacts of an isolation product. The assessment can be used to identify hotspots of a product or to compare different products in a decision-making context.

Along the different life cycle stages, resources from the environment are used and transformed to develop a product, causing some impacts on the environment. Using LCA is possible to assess the environmental performance of a product and compare different products. Comparison is only representative when the study has been made under certain conditions. International and national standards have been implemented to make the comparison possible, providing general requirements and guidelines to carry out and structure the document of the study (see **Figure 2**).

The first step to do an LCA is defining the goal and scope of the LCA. The product system understudy and system boundary are determined to define processes, materials, emissions, products, and by-products included in the study. Subsequently, the data requirements, assumptions, and limitations are explained. This first step will shape the study. In the life cycle inventory (LCI), all the data used in the study

**Figure 2.**  *Phase of an LCA, from the international standard ISO 14040 [5].* 

are gathered and shown, such as inputs (material and energy resources and products) and outputs (emissions to the environment, products and by-products). These data are used in the life cycle impact assessment to provide the impacts classified in different impact categories (climate change, acidification, eutrophication, etc.). At the end of the study, the results are interpreted considering the scope, the data used and the calculation method for the assessment previously described.

LCA can be applied to all types of products. Building sector has already implemented to study the environmental impacts of different products used in the construction of buildings. The construction industry is one of leading sectors in the use of LCA. LCA has been used to assess the environmental impacts of construction products and buildings. Life cycle approaches have been adopted by different building actors involved aware of the benefits of minimizing the environmental impacts. Different standards have been developed to facilitate environmental assessment based on LCA (ISO 14040 and ISO 14044) and more specifically for Type III environmental declarations [ISO 14025: 2006 the LCAbased mechanism, more commonly known as environmental product declarations (EPD)]. The first European leading national standards regarding EPDs of building products were the French NF P01–010 and the Dutch Standard NEN 8006 both established in 2004 for the environmental declaration of building products.

 Third-party verified environmental product declarations (EPDs) based on LCA are developed in the European context. EPDs are available for a wide range of products and product systems in different EU countries. The environmental declarations can be used in the context of decision-making and they are also used nowadays in the study of potential impacts of new buildings and renovation. In some countries, EPDs are related to benchmarking approach at product or building level (e.g., shadow cost approach in Netherlands permitting monetarization of impacts). The standardization of the method allows the comparison between products or systems with the same function. EPDs are standardized internationally by ISO 14025 and, at European level, by the norm EN-15804:2012. They serve as reference for national standards.

The building sector is currently implementing CEN/TC 350: EN 15804 [6] and EN 15978 [7]. One of the outcomes of the work of CEN/TC350 "Sustainability of construction works" is the development of voluntary horizontal standardized methods for the assessment of the sustainability aspects of new and existing construction works, and for the environmental product declaration of construction products.

The most relevant elements in this context are:


The work of CEN TC350 focuses on construction products (in EN 15804) and buildings (in EN 15978). EN 15804 provides a structure to ensure that all EPDs of construction products are derived, verified, and presented in a harmonized way. EPDs are organized in modules covering different life cycle stages. Some modules are mandatory (depending on the scope of the study—cradle to gate/cradle to gate with option/cradle to grave); others are optional (such as module D). An important methodological aspect is that indicators are declared in the individual modules to

*Mainstream Use of EPDs in Buildings: Lessons Learned from Europe DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.87836* 

**Figure 3.** 

*Pathway to develop an environmental product declarations and use them in the building assessment [3].* 

enable the user of the EPD to aggregate information from different EPDs at the building level as illustrated in **Figure 3**.

#### **3. Use of EPD for building products in Europe**

More than 5000 verified EN 15804 EPDs are published and available in different European countries in 2019. The EPDs are published in different national databases in different EU countries. Some of these national databases are illustrated in **Figure 4**.

Different national bodies provide all the requirements and the platform to realize and register an EPD in their respective national databases. All the products found in a building are classified in different categories with specific rules to carry out an environmental assessment, compiled in product category rules (PCRs). The procedure to obtain an EPD includes contact the national body, carry out an LCA following the PCRs, redaction of the EPD following the PCRs, verification by an authorized verification, and submitting all the documents requested to the national body. Once the EPD is available, the product environmental impact assessment is valid for 5 years and the impacts must be recalculated after that period in order to preserve the certificate.

EPDs are used inside building assessment softwares, enabling the assessment, and Eco design of the buildings. The adoption of EPDs depends on various factors and actors. Project owners, project managers, building products manufacturers, and end-of-life collectors have more influence on the building value-chain than the rest of the stakeholders in the building industry. The planning and design phase of the building are the most influencing hotspots in the environmental performance of the building. The impacts from manufacturing, construction, use, and end-of-life depend directly on the design of the building.

**Figure 4.**  *Example of European EPD databases [3].* 

They can use LCA methods to select more environment friendly products and force the adoption of life cycle thinking in the rest of the supply chain.

#### **4. Mainstream use of EPDs in buildings**

 EPDs are one of the main examples of how to use LCA in buildings. These initiatives amplify the development of strategies aligned with the objectives of reducing the carbon emissions in Europe. At the same time, LCM is not yet an established approach for the majority of building stakeholders. A studied carried out in France, Portugal, and Belgium showed that life cycle approaches are only implemented by half of building sector companies in their environmental strategy [7]. Only 21% of the participants in the study were using tools or systems to manage the environmental impacts. It is stated that building companies in Northern France use life cycle management tools and resources more than in other regions.

 The difficulty to understand LCA and EPDs, their content, and value have avoided the mainstream use of EPDs. Lack of homogenization of EPD in different countries has been also an issue for companies to invest on EPDs given that the certificate is only valid for one country for 5 years. There are also initiatives to homogenize and simplify EPDs among European countries. Also several efforts have been made in order to implement life cycle thinking in the building sector at region level, such as LCiP Project [8] or the creation of platforms where different stakeholders have access to training or LCM tools. In this way, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with a lack of financial capacity or human resources to implement life cycle approaches in the business, can receive help from regional or national platforms who gather key actors and base the strategy in some key LCM concepts [9]. Although EPDs are well developed in the European context, their use is limited and challenging. Several challenges are identified in the use of EPDs.

#### **4.1 Lack of knowledge and training of key actors**

First major issue is the complexity of EPDs and lack of knowledge of different key actors involved in the supply chain of the building to use EPDs. Although LCA and EPDs are used in building and construction sectors, there is a need to raise awareness regarding the applications of EPDs to public authorities and project owners and providing training of EPDs for those who are involved in design and manufacturing. For example, in France, our major challenge is to train real estate owners: public and private on the use of EPDs. Missing regulation is another barrier to use EPDs in wider context.

#### **4.2 Missing EPDs for products**

Tools and actions to support LCM integration need to be adapted to different sectors to make them as relevant as possible to SMEs and reduce the cost of EPDs. The second major issue is the lack of equal opportunity for different companies and products to use EPDs. Availability of EPDs is still very limited. As a consequence of the cost, small and medium-sized companies are developing less EPDs. The missing EPDs for the companies with limited resources are a discriminatory aspect. Therefore, it is required to financially support small companies to create EPDs to avoid discrimination in accessing data.

#### **4.3 Difficulty in use of EPD for decision-making context**

 No CEN standards are provided for benchmark systems that aim to inform consumers and businesses about the environmental performance of construction products and assemblies in the consumer market. The benchmarking is based on the use of a functional unit with a cradle-to-grave scope and the use of environmental product declarations (EPD) drawn up in accordance with EN 15804. Intended users are stakeholders setting up benchmark systems to make benchmarking possible for their product group.

Based on EN 15804 and EN 15978, EPDs are developed as information for building assessment to be used only at building level for B2B and B2C communication. Therefore, the information provided at a product level (or even at an application level) cannot be used in a context of decision-making and benchmarking. Therefore, it is required to facilitate the decision-making process for B2B and B2C. For instance, at a product level (or application level), development of tools or a proper method for normalizing and weighting of environmental impacts would help facilitating the decision-making process.

At building level, the mechanism to converge EPDs to the building needs to be further assessed. Simplified tools are crucial to mainstream the use of EPDs at this level. At a building level, the ongoing integration of BIM with EPDs would facilitate the decision-making process for B2B.

#### **5. Conclusion**

The building and construction industry in Europe are one of the leading sectors in developing and implementing EPDs based on LCA. LCA has been used to assess the environmental impacts of construction products and buildings. Meanwhile, use of EPDs in decision-making context to reduce the environmental impacts in building sector is limited. The challenges and barriers for mainstream use of EPDs in the context of decision-making in construction sector is highlighted in this chapter.

The adoption of these methods by SME and non-organized group of building materials and products is less frequent and rely on the development of the region in terms of life cycle management. The lack of awareness in the public procurement and the main actors of the building supply chain (like project owners) slow down the implementation and mainstream use of EPDs. More investment for easier and more adapted tools and methods for both consumers and businesses are needed to facilitate the sustainability decision-making context.

In this context, the efforts and actions are ongoing at European level (both by institutions and businesses) to mainstream the use of LCM in building sector. As an example, ongoing initiatives like level(s) [10] project are an example of implementation of EPDs in construction decision-making. Level(s) aims to increase the understanding of how buildings impact the environment. Level(s) shows how to reduce environmental impact and can prepare users for more challenging performance assessment schemes and tools [10].

Regions and regional authorities in Europe are playing a significant role in this direction. North of France is one of these regions [2]. A variety of actors from supply and demand sides of the building sector are engaged in the implementation of the action plan to mainstream the use of LCM in North of France. Life cycle management is now systematically adopted in most regional development projects in this region. The work has shown that active participation by regional

government and by various authorities and institutions in the region is a key success factor in fostering a life cycle management approach. Active participation and support by industry federations and trade associations is also vital as smaller companies—a strong feature of the building sector—rely heavily on their advice and guidance.

### **Author details**

 Naeem Adibi1 \*, Marjan Mousavi<sup>2</sup> , Ricardo Méndez Escobar1 , Manon Glachant1 and Aliasghar Adibi3


\*Address all correspondence to: n.adibi@weloop.org

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

*Mainstream Use of EPDs in Buildings: Lessons Learned from Europe DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.87836* 

#### **References**

[1] European Commission. The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. Context. 2010

[2] Adibi N, Darul M, Pasquet VD, Christelle Traisnel C. Life cycle management for regional development in France: Example of building sector. In: Life Cycle Approaches to Sustainable Regional Development. New York: Routledge; 2016. p. 362. ISBN: 9781315674223. DOI: https://doi. org/10.4324/9781315674223

[3] WeLOOP—Life Cycle Assessment [Internet]. 2019. Available from: http:// weloop.org/fr/ [Accessed: April 17, 2019]

 [4] UNEPLife cycle management. How business uses it to decrease footprint, create opportunities and make value chains more sustainable. Life Cycle Assessment: Theory and Practice. 2009;**1**:519-544. Available from: http:// hdl.handle.net/20.500.11822/7921

[5] ISO. ISO 14040: Environmental management—Life cycle assessment— Principles and framework. Environmental Management. 2006;**3**:28. Available from: http://www.iso.org/iso/ catalogue\_detail?csnumber=37456

[6] CEN/TC350. EN 15804+A1. Sustainability of Construction Works— Environmental Product Declarations— Core Rules for the Product Category of Construction Products. Brussels, Belgium: European Committee for Standardization; 2014

[7] CEN/TC350. EN 15978: Sustainability of Construction Works—Assessment of Environmental Performance of Buildings—Calculation Method. Brussels, Belgium: European Committee for Standardization; 2012. p. 61

[8] Pasquet V, Roy A, Adibi N, Coppée S, Echard P, Rocha C, et al. Life Cycle in Practice—Capacity building aiming European SME's. Conference Proceedings of the 17th European Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production - ERSCP 2014, Portorož, Slovenia; 2015. p. 11

[9] Adibi N, Pasquet V, Roy A, Salamon A, Bricout J, Darul M, et al. Mainstreaming the use of life cycle management in small and medium sized enterprises using a sector based and regional approach. In: Sonnemann G, Margni M, editors. Life Cycle Management. LCA Compendium – The Complete World of Life Cycle Assessment. Dordrecht: Springer; 2015. pp. 79-90. Print ISBN: 978-94-017-7220-4. Online ISBN: 978-94-017-7221-1. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-94-017-7221-1\_7

[10] Level(s) Building Sustainability Performance [Internet]. 2019. Available from: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/ eussd/buildings.htm [Accessed: March 10, 2019]

**147**

**Chapter 12**

**Abstract**

Proposals

that would eliminate architectural problems.

architectural arrangements, sustainability

**1. Introduction**

**Keywords:** wheelchair sporters, sports halls, disabled people, disability,

It is quite difficult to make a common definition of disability that can be adopted

by everyone. In the Declaration of Rights of Disabled People being accepted by General Council of United Nations, disabled people have been defined as: "Those who cannot realize the works, which a normal person is required to do in his personal or social life, due to a lack in their physical or spiritual skills originating as a result of deficiencies being hereditary or occurring later on in their lives" [1]. If we would like to generalize disability, we could define it as deficiency or incapability in the skills or movements that would be had by a healthy individual. Depending on the situation of deficiency in these skills or movements, disability can be divided

Problems Experienced by

Wheelchair Sporters in Sports

Halls and Sustainable Solution

*Eylem Çelik, Zekeriya Çelik, Hüseyin Yılmaz Aruntaş,* 

*Şefik Taş, Kübra Altunkaynak and Arzuhan Burcu Gültekin*

Purpose of this chapter is to attract attention to the problems faced by wheelchair sporters in sports halls and to present some proposals for the elimination of these problems. Regularly made sports create positive development and changes in a person regardless of whether the individual has disability or not. Many of the limited number of sports options for physically disabled individuals can be made in sports halls. Here it is focused on sports halls where sports such as volleyball, basketball, and handball a field football, being among the sports that can be played by wheelchair sporters are being done. Features of sports halls have been tried to be explained in order for these sports to be done in a comfortable and easy way by disabled individuals. Arrangements that will be made in sports halls for wheelchair sporters will both increase participation in sports and improve the life quality of sporters as well. While these arrangements are planned, primary criterion should enable the sporter to realize all his activities in sports hall without requiring the help of anyone. Architectural problems constitute the biggest obstacle in front of wheelchair sporters. In the notification, certain solution proposals have been made

 

#### **Chapter 12**
