SVR Deci­sions from Octo­ber 2018

The IBU Advi­so­ry Board (SVR) decid­ed in its last meet­ing in Octo­ber 2018 on these topics.

Sup­ple­ments to the PCR, Part B: Floor coverings 

  • The PCR on floor cov­er­ings does not require the AgBB scheme in sec­tion 7.1 although the AgBB scheme was devel­oped for this appli­ca­tion. Even if the ECA report com­pris­es the AgBB scheme, the AgBB table must be list­ed here.

  • ERFMI asked IBU in Jan­u­ary whether addi­tion­al indi­ca­tors can be declared in the EPD, in par­tic­u­lar tox­i­c­i­ty indi­ca­tors. Dr Schmincke report­ed that owing to the cur­rent lev­el of dis­cus­sion in the CEN/TC 350 on the new EN 15804+A2, it is very like­ly that there will be new indi­ca­tors as of 2019. Accord­ing­ly, there is no rea­son not to declare them in an IBU EPD.

  • The declared addi­tion­al indi­ca­tors would need to com­ply with those in the EN 15804+A2 and they would also have to be based on the same methods.

  • The indi­ca­tors may not yet be declared in core EPDs.

  • A dec­la­ra­tion of fur­ther indi­ca­tors from the list of addi­tion­al indi­ca­tors in EN 15804+A2 is pos­si­ble in an annex to the EPD if it is clear­ly indi­cat­ed as such, where­by the “dis­claimers” spec­i­fied in EN 15804+A2 on method­i­cal or data-based restric­tions of the addi­tion­al declared indi­ca­tors must be used.

Deci­sion no. 20181019‑f:

The PCR, Part B: Floor cov­er­ings are sup­ple­ment­ed in sec­tion 7.1. to include the AgBB scheme table.

No pro­vi­sion­al dec­la­ra­tion of new indi­ca­tors from the EN 15084+A2

Deci­sion no. 20181019‑g: New indi­ca­tors from the EN 15804+A2 may not yet be declared in a core EPD. In an IBU EPD or in an annex to a core EPD, fol­low­ing co-ordi­na­tion with the SVR only the indi­ca­tors from EN 15804 +A2 may be declared if it is clear that they involve addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion and not the core indi­ca­tors, where­by the “dis­claimers” spec­i­fied in EN 15804+A2 on method­i­cal or data-based restric­tions of the addi­tion­al declared indi­ca­tors must be used. This reg­u­la­tion only applies pro­vi­sion­al­ly; it is not a prece­dent for future inte­gra­tion of the addi­tion­al indi­ca­tors of EN 15804+A2 in the IBU range.

Allo­ca­tion reg­u­la­tion for fly ash

  • Cur­rent­ly, the allo­ca­tion reg­u­la­tions for han­dling blast fur­nace slag and fly ash are not con­sis­tent­ly spec­i­fied in the PCRs.

  • Fly ash can be regard­ed as less crit­i­cal than slag.

  • Com­par­i­son of var­i­ous pos­si­ble allo­ca­tion approach­es by Dr Werner:

- No allo­ca­tion (“0” allocation)

- Eco­nom­ic allo­ca­tion (range 28–388 kg CO2/t)

- Phys­i­cal allo­ca­tion (484 kg CO2/t)

- Mass allo­ca­tion (1373 kg CO2/t)

  • It is clear how the LCA results can vary and a “0” allo­ca­tion by default is not agreed to as planned in the c‑PCR.

  • The spec­i­fi­ca­tion in PCR, Part B: Cement should also be exam­ined for con­for­mi­ty with stan­dards dur­ing fur­ther pro­cess­ing of this topic.

Deci­sion no. 20181019‑h:

A “0” allo­ca­tion by default is not pos­si­ble for blast fur­nace and elec­tric fur­nace slag. An eco­nom­ic allo­ca­tion is spec­i­fied in the PCRs, where­by a “0” allo­ca­tion can in fact be select­ed and jus­ti­fied for a very low con­tri­bu­tion by these by-products.

Revis­ing the PCR, Part A

Dr Hauer has sup­ple­ment­ed the annex to PCR, Part A “Expla­na­tions and cal­cu­la­tion rules on the result indi­ca­tors and sec­tion 7.1.3.” to include an exam­ple for the future declaration:

 Pri­ma­ry energy

 SM — Use of Sec­ondary Mate­ri­als (in MJ and kg)

 FR — Mate­ri­als for Recy­cling (in MJ and kg)

 MER — Mate­ri­als for Ener­gy Recov­ery (in MJ and kg).

  • The annex is pub­lished fol­low­ing edi­to­r­i­al revi­sion, pre­sent­ed to the oth­er pro­gramme own­ers via the ECO Plat­form, and also pre­sent­ed to the Ökobau­dat group of users.

  • Pub­li­ca­tion will be fol­lowed by a tran­si­tion peri­od of 6 months for imple­men­ta­tion. Atten­tion is drawn to the fact that some EPDs are cur­rent­ly pub­lished which indi­cate the con­sump­tion of pri­ma­ry ener­gy in accor­dance with PCR, Part A (last revised in 2017).

Deci­sion no. 20181019‑k:

The annex to PCR, Part A is pub­lished fol­low­ing edi­to­r­i­al revi­sion, pre­sent­ed to the oth­er pro­gramme own­ers via the ECO Plat­form, and also pre­sent­ed to the Ökobau­dat group of users. Pub­li­ca­tion will be fol­lowed by a tran­si­tion peri­od of 6 months for implementation.

Inclu­sion of the AgBB scheme in PCRs

Deci­sion no. 20181019‑l: The table in accor­dance with the AgBB scheme 2018 is to be includ­ed in the PCRs.