Edge Environment will be presenting at the [avniR] 2012 LCA Conference (6 to 7 November 2012) in Lille, France.
The [avniR] 2012 LCA Conference comprises two days of co-learning between business, local authorities, researchers and experts around life cycle assessment in order to learn the latest in LCA trends, anticipate future evolutions and regulation, and establish partnerships.
Edge Environment’s participation during the “LCA of construction : From buildings to neighborhoods” workshop session focuses on the “Establishment and Recognition of Type I Ecolabelling Categories and Standards for Building Products and Materials in Australia”. The abstract of the paper is presented below:
Abstract
Ecolabelling and Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) standards need to be appropriate for the stakeholders, markets and locations/climates for which they are applied and consistent between products. Arguably, standards for ecolabelling should be underpinned by regionally appropriateLCA-based data and impact assessments with thresholds (defining the certified performance levels) acceptable to key stakeholder interests.
In Australia, National Standards has developed an overarching standard (NS11000) for the development of both Type I (ISO14024) and Type III (ISO14025) standards for building products and materials. NS11000 sets the broad principles, governance framework and methodology for the writing of Product Criteria Reports (PCRs) as the basis for Type III EPD’s and Type I Ecolabels. The PCRs reflect functional performance, and NS11000 establishes a basis for adding, removing or modifying the product categories covered.
NS11000 is based on the methodology and protocol resulting from the Australian Building Products Life Cycle Inventory (BP LCI) project completed between 2007 – 2011. This project achieved a consensus “level playing field”LCA methodology for the Australian building sector and compiled Australian average generic data for 121 building products, providing baseline performance thresholds for the assessment of specific proprietary products.
Four product committees have been established to-date for roofing systems, windows, masonry, and pipework systems. LCA’s have been conducted and product category reports and standards are being written for each of these product classes. National Standards envisage a full suite of these being developed to underpin EPD’s and ecolabels inAustralia.
The complete paper will be published after the conference.