Making it easier to comply with standards: online tool for life cycle assessment and EPD

For BRE, an independent certification organization, PRé developed BRE LINA, an online tool for life cycle assessment and environmental product declarations in the construction sector. With BRE LINA, construction companies can meet requests for EPDs more easily.

About

In many industries, the demand for objective metrics about product sustainability is on the rise, resulting in requests for delivering life cycle assessment (LCA) results that have to comply with official reporting standards, such as environmental product declarations (EPDs). But many companies have no resources or desire to specialize in LCA. Even with the help of external consultants, the effort and investment required to create EPDs can become a burden. What can be done to help?

BRE is a significant and well-respected player in the environmental assessment of construction products. They have developed widely recognized product category rules (PCR) for construction products, compliant with the EN 15804 standards. BRE also helps trade organizations and companies with creating and verifying environmental product declarations that meet the EN 15804 standards, through BRE’s EPD Verification Scheme. Now BRE asked PRé to develop a robust online tool to make it easier to do compliant EPDs.

Challenge

Companies in the building sector are experiencing an increasing demand for EPDs for a growing number of their products. Most building companies using BRE’s EPD Verification Scheme have limited experience with EPDs and life cycle assessment, and often outsource the process to a consultant. Due to the increased demand, these companies increasingly view the EPD process as too time-consuming and labor-intensive. As a result, many members of the EPD Verification Scheme are looking for a quick, reliable and simple solution, a trustworthy system for carrying out their EPDs. BRE asked PRé to develop an automated online tool to meet this demand. The result is BRE LINA. BRE LINA was officially launched and presented to the industry in June 2016.

Solution

In collaboration with software company CODE, PRé developed the online life cycle assessment tool BRE LINA. It is quick and easy to use and has an attractive interface. The tool generates life cycle assessment results for construction products in the format prescribed by EN 15804, which can then be used to create EPDs and do product evaluation and internal benchmarking. BRE LINA guides businesses through all the steps of the EN 15804. Businesses can enter the data for different manufacturing sites and life cycle stages and upload relevant information such as a schematic of the production process. BRE LINA automatically checks the mass balance and calculates all of the impacts required by EN 15804. Additionally, it enables online in-tool support from a consultant. BRE LINA is flexible in its architecture and design, allowing easy data upload and format changes for BRE. This helps ensures its longevity and usefulness to BRE and its clients.

Benefits

  • A robust online tool, which enables BRE’s clients to easily calculate the LCA results for their EPDs; the tool is pre-verified according to EN 15804.
  • A new and attractive industry-specific solution for BRE’s clients, opening a new way for BRE to strengthen the relationship with their clients.
  • A tool that enables construction companies to work more independently and efficiently while still being ensured of support from BRE and reliable LCA results.

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