What is a LCA?

What are EN15804 and PEF?

What are EPD and PEF Declaration?

Content

1. What is a Life Cycle Assessment?

2. Why performing LCA?

3. LCA standards

4. EN 15804

5. EN 15804 Impact categories

6. What is an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)?

7. PEF – Product Environmental Footprint

8. Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCRs)

9. PEF Impact categories

10.Example of product system life cycle

What is a Life Cycle Assessment?

A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a standardized tool that reviews the environmental impact of products throughout their entire life cycle.

It is a global analysis of the environmental burdens, directly or indirectly caused by a product, a material, a process, or even more in general, by a system.

To date, it is the most recognized method to quantify environmental impacts over the entire life cycle.

LCA from cradle to grave

Why performing LCA?

Closing cycles

Save virgin

raw materials

Avoid

emissions

and waste

INTEGRAL CHAIN MANAGEMENT

LCA shows:

where to reduce environmental burdens

where to save costs

LCA standards

European and International standards dealing with LCA in construction products:

ISO 14040 Environmental management - Life cycle assessment - Principles and framework

ISO 14044 Environmental management - Life cycle assessment - Requirements and guidelines

ISO 14020 Environmental labels and declarations - General principles for labels and declarations of products, systems and services

ISO 14025 Type III – Environmental Product Declarations

ISO 21930 is based on the ISO 14025 norm, but is more specifically related to building products

EN 15804 Sustainability of construction works - Environmental product declarations - Core rules for the product category of construction products

EN 15942 Communication format (EPD)

PEF Method 2013

PEF Guidance 2013

EN 15804

Provides core product category rules for all construction products and services.

It provides a structure to ensure that all EPD are derived, verified and presented in a harmonized way.

It is organized in modules (mandatory/optional) covering different life cycle stages.

The indicators declared in the individual information modules of a product life cycle shall not be added up in any combination of the individual information modules into a total or sub-total of the life cycle stages.

Declarations based on EN 15804 are not comparative assertions per se.

7 environment impact categories.

EN 15804 Impact categories

The Life Cycle Impact on the environment is divided into categories

What is an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)?

The EPD provides LCA-based information to assess the environmental performance of products over their entire life cycle, from cradle to grave

EPD is a standard way of communicating the output of a life cycle assessment

Simply said, EPD is an harmonised communication format of your LCA

Can be used for different LCA standards (ISO 14040 series and EN 15804*)

* Construction products standards

PEF – Product Environmental Footprint 1

In 2013 the European Commission launched a major new initiative called:

“The Single Market for Green Products”

The rationale for this initiative was summarised by the Commission as :

PEF – Product Environmental Footprint 2

Legislative package, ‘Boosting the Single Market for Green Products’ (April 2013) Communication & Recommendation addressed to Member States and private sector to

perform LCA based analysis using PEF Method

Harmonized methodology

Applicable to all products (PEF) and Organizations (OEF – Organization Environmental Footprint)

To ensure better understanding of consumer behavior & provide better information on the environmental footprints of products, including preventing the use of misleading claims, and refining eco-labelling schemes.

Still ongoing process

Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCRs)

Provide specific rules to calculate the environmental footprint for a certain product group, including benchmark and, if appropriate, performance grades.

Each PEFCR focuses on the most relevant life cycle stages, processes and impact categories for the product group in scope.

A declaration compliant with a PEFCR can be used to make comparisons and comparative assertions.

15 impact categories (8 more than EN 15804 ones).

PEF Impact categories

Eutrophication of freshwater: ecosystem's response to the addition of artificial or natural

substances to an aquatic system

Eutrophication marine

Freshwater ecotoxicity: how chemicals affects environment and the organisms living in it

Human toxicity - cancer effects

Human toxicity – non-cancer effects

Particulate matter/Respiratory inorganics: a.k.a. particle pollution is a complex mixture of

extremely small particles and liquid droplets

Ionising radiation – human health effects

Resource depletion: depletion of water

Land transformation

In addition to EN 15804

Example of product system life cycle

The entire cycle that goes from “cradle to grave”:

Product stage: manufacturing of all system components including transport and all processes upstream of the manufacturing stage, e.g. raw material supply or energy provision

Construction process stage: transport of the complete system to the building site/trench and installation of system (building/trench)

Use stage: operation (installed pipe

system), maintenance, repair and

replacement, including all transport

End of life stage: de-construction,

reuse, demolition, recycling and disposal

of the complete pipe system, including all

transport

Recycling /

Reuse /

Disposal

Resource

Extraction

Manufacturing

On-site

Construction

Occupancy /

Maintenance

Demolition

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