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Formation of an Austrian EPD-Platform for building products

The objective of the project at hand was to create the general program guidelines for the "Austrian EPD-platform for building products": basic guidelines, general guidelines for LCA, general guideline for determination of emissions to indoor air and environment during operation phase.

ResearchLifecycle assessments and lifecycle costs

Starting point/Motivation

Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) are also gaining importance in the building sector, last but not least due to the standardization activities of CEN TC 350 "Sustainability of construction works". Therefore, the project partners initiated the "Austrian EPD-platform for construction products", which is supported by ÖGNB (Austrian Association for Sustainable Building) and ÖGNI (Austrian Association for Sustainable Real Estate).

In spite of comprehensive standardization, a large number of variables still remain undefined and have to be determined in the general program guidelines and product category rules. This concerns in particular all qualitative parameters (additional environmental information) that were not included in CEN TC 350 and requirements for indoor air emissions. But even in the methodology of life cycle analysis (LCA), requirements have been left unregulated (e.g.: which background data should be used).

Contents and Objectives

The objective of the project at hand was to create the general program guidelines for the Austrian EPD platform. The research project was divided into 4 work packages: WP1 "Project management and network", WP2 "Basic guidelines", WP3 "General guidelines for LCA", WP4 "General guidelines for determination of emissions from building materials". The main responsibility for each work package lay with one project partner. All documents were created in close collaboration with the members of the EPD advisory board.

Project team

IBO – Österreichisches Institut für Bauen und Ökologie GmbH (Projektleitung)

Österreichische Gesellschaft für Holzforschung

MA 39 - Versuchs- und Forschungsanstalt der Stadt Wien

Research period

August 2011 – March 2013

Funding Institutions

Funded by the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology in the programme Building of Tomorrow

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