{"id":4557,"date":"2022-03-25T15:58:12","date_gmt":"2022-03-25T14:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.inies.fr\/inies-for-building\/product-lca\/"},"modified":"2023-03-02T10:17:45","modified_gmt":"2023-03-02T09:17:45","slug":"product-lca","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/inies-dev.armstrong.space\/en\/inies-for-building\/product-lca\/","title":{"rendered":"Product LCA"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe results from the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of a construction product or equipment allow to produce an environmental declaration (FDES or PEP) in order to calculate the environmental performance of a building.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

Home<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

What is a construction product or equipment?<\/h2>

A construction product or equipment (CPE) is a product intended to be incorporated into a construction work. Some products are produced in situ (on site) and others come from artisanal or industrial processes. They correspond to construction and decoration products and electrical, electronic and HVAC equipment products.<\/span><\/p>

What is a specific Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)?<\/h2>

Products may have an environmental declaration (French FDES and PEP), also internationally called EPD (Environmental Product Declaration). This EPD is a declaration containing environmental information of the product, based on the results of a LCA, in order to calculate the environmental performance of a building. This declaration can be realized on initiative of the manufacturer, the trade union\/association of manufacturers or a representative of a sector, for example a professional federation. According to the decree of December 23, 2013 and the order of July 9, 2014 on environmental labelling of construction and decoration products of the French Consumer Code, to communicate on the environmental performance of a product or equipment, manufacturers must produce a type III environmental declaration, resulting from a LCA as it is considered as an environmental claim. The manufacturers can carry out this LCA internally or call a service provider, generally a design office.<\/p>

In France, for construction and decoration products, an EPD corresponds to an FDES<\/strong> (Fiche de D\u00e9claration Environnementale Produit) or EHPD (Environmental and Health Declaration Sheet), and for electrical, electronic and HVAC building equipment to a PEP<\/strong> (Profil Environnemental Produit \/ Profile Environmental Product).<\/p>

International standards govern drawing up of these declarations, such as the ISO 14025 standard published in 2006 which details the principles and procedures for drawing up type III environmental declarations and the ISO 21930 standard published in 2017 which specifies the main rules for drawing up environmental declarations of construction products (EPD).<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

What are the 4 phases to carry out the LCA of a product?<\/h2>
\"Les
Les 4 phases d’une ACV issues de la norme ISO 14 040<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Phase 1: Definition of the objectives and scope of the study<\/h3>

Firstly, the intended application of this assessment, the targeted audience and the sought level of precision are detailed. During this step the Functional Unit (FU) is defined. It corresponds to the reference and comparison unit used to quantify the performance of the service rendered by a product to the user. It includes the identification of the studied function(s) of the product, the level of performance achieved by the function(s) and the Reference Service Life (RSL). The service life allows determining the number of renewals and therefore the impacts during the building’s use phase. The boundaries of the study are then defined, they correspond to the considered stages of the life cycle, to the quality criteria of the study, to the cut-off rules used allowing elements to be neglected provided that they have negligible mass and impacts.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Phase 2: Life Cycle Inventory<\/h3>

It corresponds to the balance of all incoming and outgoing flows of the studied system. The service provider, who carries out the LCA, supports the manufacturer in collecting the data, and then quantifies them in the appropriate units. These data are specific for the production and correspond to generic scenarios for the use and end-of-life phases. These data are then brought back to the reference flow, allowing matching the FU.<\/p>

Phase 3: Life cycle impact assessment<\/h3>

It allows getting from about one hundred flows to the 28 environmental indicators of EN 15804+A1 standard. These indicators allow measuring the environmental impacts caused by the product, thanks to a characterisation of emission flows and of resource consumption. This step is done automatically by the product LCA software.<\/p>

Phase 4: Interpretation<\/h3>

Finally, the results obtained are interpreted in order to draw conclusions from the study or to improve part of this study. The analysis of the impact profiles is carried out, as well as a sensitivity assessment, a control of the completeness and coherence of the study. The LCA specialist then accompanies his client to suggest which environmental actions to prioritise.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

What stages of the product life cycle are taken into account?<\/h2>\r\nThe NF EN 15804+A1 2014 standard details the four main stages of the product or equipment life cycle. These stages correspond to the production of materials, the construction, the use and the end of life of the building, namely from “cradle to grave”. Each of the main steps is divided into sub-steps.\r\n\r\n
\"Les
The stages in the life cycle of an ECP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

<\/h2>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

What environmental indicators are assessed?<\/h2>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

The global warming indicator\"Indicateur<\/h3>\r\nTo know the impact on climate change called “carbon” impact of a product, use the global warming potential (GWP). It counts gas emissions contributing to the greenhouse effect throughout the product’s life cycle. Its unit is the CO2 equivalent kg, which means that it includes all emitting gases: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), chlorofluorocarbons (CFC), nitrous oxide (N2O), etc.\r\n\r\nAll these values (products and equipment) are necessary for the carbon calculation at the building scale for E+C- and RE2020.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Energy indicators\"Indicateur<\/h3>\r\nThe nine LCA indicators directly related to energy consumption and recovery are described below and are expressed in megajoules (MJ), knowing that one megajoule is equal to 0.278kWh. These indicators do not only calculate the consumption during the use phase of the product or building, but also quantify the energy required for production, transport and end of life.\r\nThe use of renewable primary energy (wind, solar, geothermal, hydrothermal, hydroelectric, biomass, landfill gas, sewage treatment plants gas and biogas, etc.) or non-renewable (oil, coal, gas, nuclear, etc.) are indicators that express the amount of energy that is consumed at the different stages of the product’s life cycle in order to operate systems, equipment and processes.\r\n\r\nThen, the use of renewable (wood, etc.) or non-renewable (plastics, etc.) primary energy resources as raw materials, corresponds to the quantity of primary energy contained in the raw materials consumed to manufacture a product.\r\n\r\nThe total amount of renewable energy consumed is calculated, as well as the total amount of non-renewable energy.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tList of energy indicators<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t
Total use of renewable primary energy resources in MJ<\/strong>\r\n