Search Spotlight: EN Standards

Data & Construction Materials
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Let’s start with a question I have for you:

  • How have you found the industry switch from EN15804+A1 to EN15804+A2? Either in regards to using the data for building assessments, or creating EPDs according to the updated standard?

In my experience, in the beginning, the situation was very confusing for those working with the data. Certifications and regulations were slow to adapt to the changes in data (some still haven’t!) which led to countless situations where people wanted to work with data they could not use. As we are now 2 years further I feel we are at the point where most LCA professionals now understand the difference clearly and have overcome the temporary limitations the change of data standards brought.

To understand the changes there are for the sake of undertaking any construction LCA assessments, three EN standards are relevant. (there are many more, especially for product LCA but let’s not complicate things)

EN15978

  • Governs the methodology for the assessment of the performance of buildings. Most LCA tools (in the EU) are designed around this standard. The equivalent standards in North America would be the ISO 14040/14044, ISO 21931-1, and ISO 21929-1.
  • For Infrastructure LCA one would look into the EN17472 standard although infrastructure assessment is not as regulated as building LCA assessments as of today (yet).

EN15804+A1

  • The ‘old’ EN15804 standard for the format of EPDs. Required a fixed number of impact categories to be reported on. This form of data is still required for several methodologies and calculation tools, although this standard has been since 2022 superseded by the EN15804+A2 standard.

EN15804+A2

  • The ‘current’ EN15804 standard which followed a few years after the EN15804+A1 amendment. Required to be reported on since June 2022. Is significantly different from the EN15804+A1, and its data is not compatible between the amendments and cannon the converted. The only point of compatibility (partially) is how Global Warming Potential is reported.

Some useful sources to check further if you would like:

How the market got ready for EN15804+A2

The adaption of the +A2 amendment after one year

How you can see and understand the differences between the EN15804 A1 and A2 requirements