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Achieving consistency in life cycle assessment practice within the European construction sector: the role of the EeBGuide InfoHub

  • COMMENTARY AND DISCUSSION ARTICLE
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Abstract

Purpose

The objective of the paper is to discuss the role of a new guidance document for life cycle assessment (LCA) in the construction sector available as an online InfoHub.

Methods

This InfoHub derives from the EeBGuide European project that aimed at developing a guidance document for energy-efficient building LCA studies. The InfoHub is built on reference documents such as the ISO 14040-44 standards, the EN 15804 and EN 15978 standards as well as the ILCD Handbook. The guidance document was filled with expertise and knowledge of several experts. The focus was put on providing scientifically sound, yet practical guidance.

Results

The EeBGuide InfoHub is an online guidance document, setting rules for conducting LCA studies and giving instructions on how to do this. The document has a section on buildings—new and existing—and a section on construction products. It is structured according to the life cycle stages of the European standards EN 15804 and EN 15978, covering all aspects of LCA studies by applying provisions from these standards and the ILCD handbook, wherever applicable. The guidance is presented for different scopes of studies by means of three study types. For the same system boundaries, default values are proposed in early or quick assessment (screening and simplified LCA) while detailed calculation rules correspond to a complete LCA. Such approach is intended to better match the user needs in the building sector.

Conclusions and recommendations

This paper can be viewed as a contribution to the ongoing efforts to improve the consistency and harmonisation in LCA studies for building products and buildings. Further contributions are now needed to improve building LCA guidance and to strengthen links between research, standardisation and implementation of LCA in the construction practice.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the European Commission for funding this study. The views expressed by the authors in this article do not necessarily reflect those of the European Commission. The authors also would like to thank the Energy-efficient Buildings European Initiative (E2B EI) for the support during the EeBGuide project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environment and Life Cycle Engineering Division, Scientific and Technical Centre for Buildings (CSTB), University Paris-East, 24, Rue Joseph Fourier, 38400, Saint Martin d’Hères, France

    Sébastien Lasvaux, Manuel Bazzana, Nicoleta Schiopu, Julien Hans & Jacques Chevalier

  2. Department Life Cycle Engineering, Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics, Stuttgart, Germany

    Johannes Gantner & Katrin Lenz

  3. PE International, Leinfelden-Echterdingen, Germany

    Bastian Wittstock, Tom Saunders, Anna Braune, Jane Anderson & Zsoka Takacs

  4. UNESCO Chair in Life Cycle and Climate Change (ESCI-UPF), Barcelona, Spain

    Cristina Gazulla & Pere Fullana-i-Palmer

  5. BRE Global Ltd., Watford, UK

    Jo Ann Mundy & Tim Barrow-Williams

  6. Prof Ch Sjöström Consultancy, Gävle, Sweden

    Christer Sjöström

Authors
  1. Sébastien Lasvaux
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  2. Johannes Gantner
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  3. Bastian Wittstock
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  4. Manuel Bazzana
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  5. Nicoleta Schiopu
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  6. Tom Saunders
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  7. Cristina Gazulla
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  8. Jo Ann Mundy
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  9. Christer Sjöström
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  10. Pere Fullana-i-Palmer
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  11. Tim Barrow-Williams
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  12. Anna Braune
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  13. Jane Anderson
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  14. Katrin Lenz
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  15. Zsoka Takacs
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  16. Julien Hans
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  17. Jacques Chevalier
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sébastien Lasvaux.

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Responsible editor: Mary Ann Curran

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Lasvaux, S., Gantner, J., Wittstock, B. et al. Achieving consistency in life cycle assessment practice within the European construction sector: the role of the EeBGuide InfoHub. Int J Life Cycle Assess 19, 1783–1793 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-014-0786-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-014-0786-2

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