Digitalization of building LCA and international activities – in the context of German assessment system for sustainable building

Abstract

In this paper it is shown how digitalization and the establishment of an online infrastructure for life cycle assessment (LCA) in the context of the assessment system for sustainable building (BNB) by the German government forms starting point for an open international data network, as brought forward by the activities of InData (“International Open Data Network for Sustainable Building”). The establishment of the ILCD+EPD data format for EPD, the provision of interfaces, the development of workflow structures, guidelines and rules, which are openly published, internationally allow to access data from several databases. All these aspects are subject of the InData activities, and are decisive for a harmonization of LCA for sustainable building. With this concept of digitalization the propagation of the use of environmental product declarations (EPD) in building LCA was enhanced, and also new applications for using EPD data are offered, e.g. in BIM or other context.