Identifying the status quo of the life cycle assessment infrastructure of sustainable construction for federal buildings (BNB) and elaboration of suitable actions for further development of building life cycle assessment for the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR).
The evaluation of the ecological quality of a building is an essential aspect of the BMI's Sustainable Building Assessment System for Federal Buildings (BNB) (Zukunft Bau, a research programme of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, for Building and the Home Affairs). For the calculation of global environmental impacts and indicators of resource consumption, life cycle assessment at the building level is required. For this purpose, the BMI offers the online building material database ÖKOBAUDAT, the building life cycle assessment tool eLCA and the electronic evaluation system for sustainable building. Since building products are not only used in Germany, but also in Europe and internationally, it is important to offer and apply standardised European/international data for LCA.
Objective / Service applied
Brands & values examined and evaluated the status quo of the life cycle assessment infrastructure established within the framework of the BNB with regard to defined working fields. The objective of the evaluation was to provide recommendations for action based on the status quo, with the aim of preserving, strengthening and further developing the federal government's role as a pioneer in the field of building life cycle assessment, both nationally and internationally.
A mixed-method approach was applied to ensure a scientifically sound, comprehensive and valid evaluation. The results were developed with extensive literature and internet analyses, user surveys, expert interviews and workshops.
Solution / Project results
The analysis of the status quo has shown that in the area of public relations, presentations, publications and flyers are at a good quality level. Nevertheless, it was possible to identify a large number of further development measures to continue to expand the federal government's pioneering role.
The BBSR is well positioned with regard to international networking, including standardisation and committee work. However, one recommendation for action is to cooperate with another consortium in the national field in order to boost the harmonisation of LCA data and to promote an application-friendly and methodologically consistent solution. In the international context, the BBSR should monitor international standardisation in the area of Circular Economy.
The analysis of the ÖKOBAUDAT database showed that it belongs to the pioneer group in an international comparison with the other EPD databases in the aspects of data format, data consistency and data quality. Suggestions for improvement relate primarily to the inclusion of additional data sets. For the LCA tool eLCA, recommendations were provided for the expansion of training offers.
With regard to the digitisation of ÖKOBAUDAT, recommendations include a modular infrastructure of the LCA database, tools (especially for building LCA) and an evaluation system for buildings, since the individual components are used by different groups and because the structure and the open interface of ÖKOBAUDAT allow the connection and use of a large number of tools.
Further results of the status quo evaluation as well as the detailed recommendations regarding the opportunities for further development of ÖKOBAUDAT as well as eLCA will be presented in the final project report and its annex.
Further information
The contact person is Tobias Brinkmann. Further information: https://www.oekobaudat.de/