Therefore it induced the promotion of EPDs on the market: the manufacturers
are encouraged to certify their products in order to compete in public tenders, while
the practitioners are stimulated toward environmental strategies choosing certified
products. Increasing the use of EPDs in the construction sector could lead to a
growth of available transparent LCA data on market and to a possible introduction
of LCA benchmarks in CAMs criteria. Moreover, with the LCA benchmarks
insertion in CAMs, the EPDs could become simple verification instruments for
public administrations.
3 LCA Benchmarks for Construction Products
This section aims at demonstrating how LCA-based benchmark values for construction products can be defined, and how could EPDs be integrated into CAMs
criteria in order to facilitate the verification process by the public administrations in
charge of analysing different options.
The benchmark values for construction materials developed in this study are
fixed for different LCA impact categories and they could be integrated in GPP
criteria, in order to set environmental sustainable levels for building products. The
benchmarking methodology has been developed after a detailed literature review of
five recent studies in which existing environmental benchmarks practices in the
construction sector have been applied. The benchmarking methods were all based
on the statistical analysis and interpretation of LCA data. In the analysed
case-studies, LCA-based benchmarks were related to healthcare buildings in
Portugal [8], for school buildings in South Korea [9] and for residential buildings in
Italy [12], France [11] and Germany. In order to set LCA-based benchmarks for
construction products, a reference sample composed by eight construction product
categories was processed, categories are also contained in CAMs criteria (cement,
bricks, wood-based materials, steel, gypsum plasterboards, glass wool panels, stone
wool panels and ceramic tiles). The sample was made by building materials
manufactured and sold in Europe in recent times (after the year of 2010) and it was
considered representative of the European production/construction practices. The
related LCA data were collected through EPDs, reporting transparent environmental
impacts results for each product life cycle phase. The LCA system boundaries
considered in this study are the one related to the product stage (LCA modules A1,
A2 A3). Thirty-two EPDs were analysed for cement, eight for bricks, eleven for
wooden-based materials, forty-five for steel, thirty-one for gypsum plasterboard,
fifty for glass-wool panels, fifteen for stone-wool panels and twenty-five for ceramic tiles.
The EPDs collected were taken from European EPD Program Operators:
BAU EPD (Austria), IBU (Germany), International EPD
® System (Sweden),
GlobalEPD (Spain), EPD Denmark (Denmark), DAPHabitat System (Portugal),
FDES INIES (France), EPD Italy (Italy) and EPDNorge (Norway). In order to
guarantee the comparability and the homogeneity between LCA data from different
Green Public Procurement and Construction Sector: EPD and LCA …
507
are encouraged to certify their products in order to compete in public tenders, while
the practitioners are stimulated toward environmental strategies choosing certified
products. Increasing the use of EPDs in the construction sector could lead to a
growth of available transparent LCA data on market and to a possible introduction
of LCA benchmarks in CAMs criteria. Moreover, with the LCA benchmarks
insertion in CAMs, the EPDs could become simple verification instruments for
public administrations.
3 LCA Benchmarks for Construction Products
This section aims at demonstrating how LCA-based benchmark values for construction products can be defined, and how could EPDs be integrated into CAMs
criteria in order to facilitate the verification process by the public administrations in
charge of analysing different options.
The benchmark values for construction materials developed in this study are
fixed for different LCA impact categories and they could be integrated in GPP
criteria, in order to set environmental sustainable levels for building products. The
benchmarking methodology has been developed after a detailed literature review of
five recent studies in which existing environmental benchmarks practices in the
construction sector have been applied. The benchmarking methods were all based
on the statistical analysis and interpretation of LCA data. In the analysed
case-studies, LCA-based benchmarks were related to healthcare buildings in
Portugal [8], for school buildings in South Korea [9] and for residential buildings in
Italy [12], France [11] and Germany. In order to set LCA-based benchmarks for
construction products, a reference sample composed by eight construction product
categories was processed, categories are also contained in CAMs criteria (cement,
bricks, wood-based materials, steel, gypsum plasterboards, glass wool panels, stone
wool panels and ceramic tiles). The sample was made by building materials
manufactured and sold in Europe in recent times (after the year of 2010) and it was
considered representative of the European production/construction practices. The
related LCA data were collected through EPDs, reporting transparent environmental
impacts results for each product life cycle phase. The LCA system boundaries
considered in this study are the one related to the product stage (LCA modules A1,
A2 A3). Thirty-two EPDs were analysed for cement, eight for bricks, eleven for
wooden-based materials, forty-five for steel, thirty-one for gypsum plasterboard,
fifty for glass-wool panels, fifteen for stone-wool panels and twenty-five for ceramic tiles.
The EPDs collected were taken from European EPD Program Operators:
BAU EPD (Austria), IBU (Germany), International EPD
® System (Sweden),
GlobalEPD (Spain), EPD Denmark (Denmark), DAPHabitat System (Portugal),
FDES INIES (France), EPD Italy (Italy) and EPDNorge (Norway). In order to
guarantee the comparability and the homogeneity between LCA data from different
Green Public Procurement and Construction Sector: EPD and LCA …
507