Environmental Product Declarations – a key component of sustainable building

Sustainable building is the order of the day, not only because it becomes mandatory when the new Construction Products regulation will be obligatory for each producer in 2013. The quality and sustainability of buildings is largely dependent on the components used and their individual integration situation. 

The appropriate classification of building materials and components is a fundamental element of the sustainable building idea. Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) convey informative, neutral and comprehensive details regarding the environmental performance of building materials. The following key environmental information is agreed internationally and will be determined by the EPDs:

Primary energy, non-renewable,Primary energy, renewable,Global warming potential,Ozone depletion potential,Acidification potential,Eutrophication potential,Summer smog potential.

While the buildings are assessed over their entire life cycle, for locks and construction hardware products only production and distribution and – at the end of the life cycle – recycling is of interest. On the European level it is of major importance to keep things comparable. Thus the “ECO-platform” had been founded by several European institutions. Their major target is to create unitary “European Core EPDs” on the basis of EN15804, which will be accepted by all of the member states and which have the flexibility to adapt national amendments in addition. As special subgroup of Working Group C, ARGE will undertake the task to create core EPDs for our products as branch solution, applicable for all its members.