Introduction

Research to support establishment of a whole building whole of life framework using life cycle assessment and environmental profiling
BRANZ has developed a Plan for development of a whole building whole of life assessment framework for New Zealand, in order to provide a level playing field for assessment of the environmental performance of buildings (with an initial focus on offices).

The Plan is based on BRANZ research initiated in 2010 and industry feedback received during a consultation towards the end of 2012. A summary version (SR276) and full version (SR275) of the Plan are available here:

The work to develop the Plan has been informed by supporting research available here:

Please use the following links for more information:

• Background to this research programme
• Needs identified by the New Zealand construction sector
• Why now?
• Introduction to whole building whole of life assessment
• EPD overview
• Seven reasons why manufacturers should consider developing EPD

Background to this research programme

BRANZ began researching environmental profiling in 2010 to help answer questions raised by the construction industry. The first stage of research sought to better understand the opportunities that exist for environmental profiling of materials in New Zealand. It piloted the development of draft New Zealand Environmental Product Declarations (EPD), recognising that EPD are increasingly being used and valued internationally to communicate environmental product information that is robust, credible and transparent, and set out a Roadmap for further research and development.

The second stage of research commenced in December 2011 and was informed by the Roadmap. It has focused on how EPD underpinned by Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) can provide an optimal approach to a more robust and consistent evaluation of the environmental performance of New Zealand buildings across the life cycle - an LCA-based whole building whole of life assessment framework. These are the benefits of such a framework:

• The sector wants an internationally aligned basis for declaring the environmental performance of products that facilitates a robust evaluation mechanism for the delivery of a sustainable built environment in New Zealand.
• Exporters of New Zealand construction materials and products need to be able to compete with product manufacturers in other countries that already have programmes in place for declaring environmental performance of products and evaluating buildings. Similarly, manufacturers who supply domestically should have the tools and capability to demonstrate how their products, instead of imported products, can contribute to achievement of higher-performing buildings.
• EPD are increasingly being used (within and outside the construction sector) internationally as the basis for declaring the environmental performance of materials and products.
• Designers and their clients want robust data and information on environmental performance of products that can be used to inform design decisions.
• Manufacturers want a fair basis for comparison of the environmental performance of their products with competitor products.
• There is recognition in the sector that product performance needs to be considered across the building life cycle in order to provide a level playing field for assessment and comparison.
• Increasing use of tools such as BIM provide further opportunities for rapid, iterative, quantitative assessment of building environmental performance during the design process.

Needs identified by the New Zealand construction sector

BRANZ and Arup International conducted workshops in 2010 with New Zealand designers and materials and product manufacturers in order to better understand their needs. During the designers' workshops, participants were asked to list key sustainability issues relating to materials when designing buildings on behalf of clients. These issues were grouped under four themes - resource efficiency, embodied impact, healthy and safe, and responsibly sourced. In total, 36 issues were identified under these four headings by workshop participants, of which nearly 80% could be measured and reported using LCA.

Of primary concern to designers was the need to more easily consider materials sustainability as part of the design process. Authoritative sources of locally relevant robust information and data about environmental impacts of building products are increasingly needed.

Information derived from LCA was supported as a means to address this issue, respecting that the practicalities of implementing an LCA step in the design cycle would need to be considered. Whilst NZGBC's Green Star is primarily a rating tool rather than a design tool, its development to incorporate LCA was recommended as a basis for driving industry participation, defining building performance thresholds and encouraging consistency.

Amongst manufacturers, there was a concern about the perceived cost implications and a lack of understanding about environmental profiling and therefore buy-in from executive management. The limited availability of New Zealand LCA-based data was also seen as an issue.

To address these issues, workshop participants made the following recommendations:

The Plan seeks to address these recommendations made by the industry during the 2010 workshops and provide a pathway for establishment of a credible, robust system for assessing materials and products as part of a building level assessment in New Zealand based on international experience. This pathway uses data declared in EPD and is called whole building whole of life assessment.

Why now?

The greatest environmental impact of buildings is typically incurred during their occupation, through use of energy and water, generation of wastes, maintenance and replacement of products. This has led to a necessary focus on improving measurement and understanding of utility use in buildings through, for example, BRANZ's HEEP and BEES programmes and incentivising energy efficiency as set out in MED's New Zealand Energy Strategy 2011-2021 (2011).

The environmental impact of building materials and products (or embodied impact) typically contributes 10-20% (Edwards and Bennett, 2003) of a building's overall environmental impacts.  However, there are five reasons why this contribution is likely to rise, leading to an increased focus on materials in New Zealand and overseas.

It is therefore prudent to begin preparing now as is already occurring in other regions such as Australia, USA, Europe and Asia. We can do this by raising our understanding, knowledge and skills and developing our LCA data, EPD and whole building whole of life assessment method.

Introduction to whole building whole of life assessment

Whole building whole of life assessment is an LCA-based approach that calculates the environmental impacts of a building across its life cycle, taking into account the:

• obtaining of primary materials through extraction or use of secondary materials recycled from previous uses
• manufacture of products
• transport of materials and products to the site where a building will be located
• construction
• use of the building, including requirements for energy and water
• maintenance of the building during its life
• replacement of products during the life of the building
• deconstruction, including transport and end of life routes.

Data supporting this assessment may come from a variety of sources including EPD, bills of materials and building thermal performance models.

The assessment calculates a number of potential environmental impacts, which, for offices, are usually normalised to an "impact/m² floor area/year". These calculated impact measures for a building design may then be compared to impacts for a benchmark building. In this way, building designs, incorporating the materials and products of which they comprise, are evaluated based on calculated environmental impacts across the building life cycle, rather than proxy measures of performance such as recycled content and transport distance.

EPD overview

EPD (or environmental profiles) are an independently verified public declaration of environmental performance of products for all or parts of the life cycle.

EPD are generally voluntary (with some exceptions) and may be produced for specific materials and products or an average of the same or similar products within a sector (e.g. at a trade association level). EPD for the same or similar products must be developed in accordance with specific rules for the product category (called Product Category Rules or PCRs) to ensure that there is consistency and comparability when calculating potential impacts of materials or products within a product category. Examples PCRs from the IBU EPD scheme based in Germany are shown.

The overall goal of EPD, according to the international standard ISO 21930 (2007) on environmental declaration of building products, "is to encourage the demand for, and supply of, building products that cause less stress on the environment through communication of verifiable and accurate information on environmental aspects of those building products that is not misleading, thereby stimulating the potential for market-driven, continuous environmental improvement".

There are several EPD schemes globally including, for example, the IBU scheme (http://bau-umwelt.de/hp481/Environmental-Product-Declarations-EPD.htm) based in Germany and the International EPD System (http://www.environdec.com/) based in Sweden. They operate in compliance with the international standard on EPD - ISO 14025 (2006). An Australasian EPD scheme is currently being planned by the Australian Life Cycle Assessment Society (ALCAS) and Life Cycle Association of New Zealand (LCANZ).

An EPD by itself does not provide an indication that a product is environmentally preferable but does when compared, for example:

• A product specific EPD is compared with a sector average EPD for the same or similar products (demonstrating better environmental performance compared to the sector).
• An updated product specific EPD (or average product EPD) is compared with an older version (demonstrating continuous improvement at a manufacturer or sector level).
• A product specific EPD from a manufacturer within a sector compared to another manufacturer with a competing product in the sector (demonstrating better environmental performance of one product over another meeting the same function(s) within a sector).
• A product specific EPD in a sector compared with an alternative product in another sector provided the EPD are on a life cycle basis (demonstrating environmental performance between products from different sectors). Where the EPD is not full life cycle, this assessment is carried out at the building level in the whole building whole of life assessment so each product can be considered in the context of the building in which both are proposed for use.

EPD typically provide the following information:

• Robust data and information about the environmental impact of a product or material across part or all of its life cycle.
• Transparency of reporting on issues such as environment, health and safety, durability, requirements for use and appropriate recycling or disposal methods.
• Third party verification that the data have been produced following appropriate rules and international standards. Similarly, EPD content should be based on the international standards ISO 14025 (2006) and ISO 21930 (2007) and the European standard EN 15804 (2012).
• A basis for measuring continuous improvement. Manufacturers publishing EPD can demonstrate product integrity with respect to environmental performance and are likely to be more motivated towards continuous improvement.
• An opportunity for the companies that develop them to inform the development of PCRs (where these do not already exist).
• An important building block towards whole building whole of life assessment.

Seven reasons why manufacturers should consider developing EPD

1. Identification of cost savings: With forecasts for rising and more volatile energy and resource costs, manufacturers using tools such as LCA that quantify resource and energy use across the value chain of their products will be better positioned to investigate alternative strategies and options that can lead to cost savings and reduced exposure to these trends.
2. Meeting customer needs: As corporate clients increasingly develop their corporate social responsibility and sustainability objectives and targets, manufacturers who use LCA and publish EPD demonstrate their own commitment to reporting and continuous improvement, providing a basis for communication with specifiers, architects and clients.
3. Ensuring products are assessed on a level playing field: Materials and products can only really be assessed on a level playing field if their functionality and use is considered at the building level. It is this recognition that has led to the development of whole building whole of life assessment, underpinned by LCA, in other rating schemes globally. Manufacturers using LCA and publishing EPD can ensure their products are properly represented in schemes recognising environmental performance in building level assessment.
4. Avoiding greenwash: EPD, and the LCAs behind them, are developed using consistent rules and are independently verified, providing a robust basis for declaration of environmental performance.
5. Preparing for changing market needs: There is an increasingly strong case for building more sustainable offices and other buildings. This does not just equate to a premium on value and lower operating costs, but also in increased occupant productivity and reduced days when staff are ill. Corporate tenants and owners are becoming more discerning and want to realise these benefits. Similarly, better transparency of information about the environmental performance of products is increasingly required or desired in design and/or procurement. Manufacturers who understand the environmental impacts of their products and have EPD to demonstrate this can more easily meet these changing needs and take advantage of the opportunities they present.
6. Benefitting from standards and guidance: There are now international standards for assessing the environmental performance of construction products and buildings, as well as guidance and examples of schemes that have been operating internationally. The development of an internationally aligned Australasian EPD scheme together with a whole building whole of life assessment approach based on international standards provides the security sought by the sector that materials and products will be fairly assessed for environmental performance.
7. Building Information Modelling (BIM): Greater use of BIM in the future, driven by clients and the Government's GeoBuild initiative, as well as the integrated design approach that use of BIM can facilitate, provides further opportunities for whole building whole of life assessment. Manufacturers who develop LCAs and EPD for their products will have the quantitative data to make available in BIM in the future, leading to opportunities for more rapid, cheaper assessment of building environmental performance due to the greater interoperability that BIM facilitates.