Adopting The EU Sustainable Performance Scheme Level(s) In The Danish Building Sector

Kai Kanafani,Harpa Birgisdottir,Freja Nygaard Rasmussen,Regitze Kjaer Zimmermann

doi:10.1088/1757-899x/471/9/092070

Kai Kanafani, Harpa Birgisdottir + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/471/9/092070

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Abstract

This paper investigates how the EU Level(s) can be adopted in Denmark. The study is limited to life cycle assessment (LCA) requirements within the Level(s) scheme. As a measure for the Danish building sector’s LCA practice, the specifications for LCAbyg, the official Danish building LCA tool, is used. In 2017, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre has launched Level(s) as a voluntary programme of sustainable building indicators based on existing EU standards and initiatives. Level(s)’ original value, beyond the mere aggregation of existing standards, is the selection of the most relevant indicators according to EU and national policies, the graduation of indicators into three levels of comprehensiveness as well as providing original definitions and guidance for their practical application. In the absence of mandatory EU regulation for sustainable buildings, Level(s) is representing a new EU reference for sustainable building performance. The paper presents requirements and criteria given by all LCA-related indicators including building component’s environmental impacts, resource use and waste. In general, these definitions are based on international standardisation. In a next step, Level(s) original definitions for procedures, for which no standard definitions exist, are isolated and presented. These extra definitions might conflict with existing schemes and tools such as LCAbyg, which are based on the more broad technical standards. Level(s) extra definitions are isolated and presented I order to get an overview on the difference between Level(s) and standardisation in order to develop existing or future initiatives to comply with Level(s). Regarding LCAbyg, it shows that the tool may be used for complying with Level(s) LCA criteria. However, if LCAbyg and Level(s) shall contribute to a broader use of building LCA in the building sector, a greater integration of guidance and calculation tool might increase feasibility and ease of method. Proposals for deeper Level(s) support in LCAbyg are given.

Highlights

The life cycle assessment methodology constitutes the assessment backbone of the integrated product policy of the European Union [1] and plays a vital role in recent policies on resource efficiency in the building sector [2]
This is leading to a situation, where many EU-member states are establishing environmental funding programmes, guidelines or sustainable building certifications using their individually tailored life cycle assessment (LCA) requirements, which may vary between programmes and countries [4]
Even though Level(s) does not have the status of a technical standard, it is a step towards greater European harmonisation, especially when national policies and certification schemes are going to align to its common definitions

Summary

Introduction

The life cycle assessment methodology constitutes the assessment backbone of the integrated product policy of the European Union [1] and plays a vital role in recent policies on resource efficiency in the building sector [2]. EN 15978, the EU standard for conducting life cycle assessments on buildings, provide a wide degree of freedom of definitions when applied in practice [3]. This is leading to a situation, where many EU-member states are establishing environmental funding programmes, guidelines or sustainable building certifications using their individually tailored LCA requirements, which may vary between programmes and countries [4].

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