The construction sector contributes significantly to global environmental pollution, accounting for 40% of resource consumption, 40% of energy consumption and 12% of water consumption. Construction activities contribute to 30% of waste production and 33% of CO₂ emissions in the EU. To address these challenges and achieve sustainable development goals, it is essential to have access to transparent and measurable data. Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) play a crucial role in this context, as they form the basis for ecological product assessments throughout the entire life cycle of construction products and buildings. Only with a solid data basis can realistic sustainability goals be set and successfully implemented. These EPD data must be verified by notified (in many countries accredited) bodies. To this end, it is necessary to communicate the job profile of ‘ecological balance sheet preparer for (construction) products’ or ‘verifier of ecological balance sheets’ and the necessary skills and background knowledge to a wider audience of interested parties.

A pioneering training project is being launched in cooperation between the Department of Building and Design, the Department of Applied Life Sciences at the University of Applied Sciences Campus Vienna (FHCW), the IBO (Austrian Institute for Building and Ecology), BAU-EPD GmbH and Makersite GmbH. The main objective is to meet the growing demand for qualified life cycle assessors in the construction sector. To this end, the know-how generated in this project will be made available free of charge to all participating degree programmes at the University of Applied Sciences Campus Vienna and passed on to students in appropriate courses. This initiative not only contributes to meeting the growing demand for skilled workers in the field of life cycle assessment, but also strengthens the position of the University of Applied Sciences Campus Vienna as a pioneer in sustainable education in the construction industry.

Project objectives:

• Awareness
• Analysis of the Austrian educational landscape with regard to LCA content for (construction) products
• Development of standardised training for qualified life cycle assessors for EPDs:
• Scalability