Final EU approval for building products regulation revision

Background

The European Union is committed to the goal of making Europe climate neutral by 2050, as set out in the "Green Deal" presented on December 11, 2019. As a concretization of this Green Deal, the European Commission has presented several policy proposals, one of which relates to the CPR.

The current Construction Products Regulation has been in force since July 1, 2013 and requires manufacturers to demonstrate that their products meet European standards in terms of technical specifications, performance, health, safety and environment, often referred to as CE marking (Conformité Européenne). The entry into force of the CPR (by 2025) will mean, among other things, that manufacturers will have to uniformly disclose the environmental impact of construction products in Europe, including for reused building materials.

Objectives

The objectives of the revised CPR see:

• accelerating and improving efficiency;
  • Harmonization of standards makes the process faster and more efficient.
• promoting transparency;
  • all product information will be available through a Digital Product Passport.
• encouraging reuse and remanufacturing:
  • reused building products also receive CE marking.
• More harmonization within the EU;
  • innovative construction products can be brought to market faster and cheaper through harmonized standards and simplified procedures.

Digital Product Passport

The CPR promotes sustainability by requiring manufacturers to state specific environmental requirements in their declarations of performance and conformity. Information about the origin of raw materials and the degree of circularity must be available in a digital product passport that can be accessed through, for example, a QR code.

In addition, access to crucial information on construction products, such as safety details, instructions for use, and declarations of performance and conformity, will be easier. The new regulation will (should) streamline procedures, ease administrative burdens and reduce trade barriers.

European standard for environmental impact

Manufacturers must report the environmental impact of construction products in the declaration of performance that accompanies CE marking. This is done according to standard EN150804, which applies in all European countries. This unified reporting simplifies the comparison and use of environmental impact data.

Reuse and remanufacturing

The CPR encourages the use of recycled building materials by enabling CE marking for these materials as well. At present, few European agreements have been reached on this.

Future challenges

Of course, there are still some challenges regarding the CPR. For example, there are currently several databases regarding the preparation of an LCA analysis. The two largest databases are Ecoinvent and GaBi. The results of calculations differ when using these two databases. It is obviously important that in the future (also) harmonization of these databases is chosen. Only then can good comparisons be made between different building products.

Finally, it can be said that circularity has not been adequately considered in the EN15804 standard. At the moment, it looks at environmental impacts and not at material use. If there were more attention to (re)use of materials, this could only promote circular material use.

Conclusion

All in all, the revised CPR is a step toward a more sustainable and digitized construction sector. The revised CPR also addresses the construction industry's need to make it more interesting and beneficial to reuse building materials.