In this edition, Josefina Lindblom interviews Fulvia Raffaelli, Head of the Construction Unit at the European Commission Directorate-General for the Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) about her team’s work, the implications of proposed changes to the Construction Product Regulation for manufacturers, a new transition pathway for construction and the role of Level(s).

The name of your unit is ‘construction’, which covers a large and complex field in this industry sector. Which parts of your work contribute to sustainable buildings?

In a Directorate-General that is aiming at providing supportive and complementary instruments for the private industry sectors, we are in general not directly affecting requirements for buildings. Setting these are the responsibilities of Member States or national regions, which have the competences and means to define and to enforce them – in particular in their building codes.

Therefore, the approach in the construction unit is twofold: Intensifying networking and the exchange of skills, expertise and technical solutions – and creating a common technical language, which can be used in all phases of the life cycle of buildings and construction products.

By initiating the development of technical European standards, we create a technical language that allows professionals and the general public to read the declaration of performance of CE marked products under the framework of the Construction Products Regulation. Some aspects of sustainability are already covered in the current version of the CPR, like consumer protection against dangerous substances, or the sustainable use of natural resources. However, this is a fast-changing field and updating – and even extending the scope of the CPR – is now essential to support the current push for more sustainability in the construction sector.

You have mentioned the role of a common technical language for the construction sector. Recently, the Commission adopted its proposal for a revision of the Construction Products Regulation. What can we expect as improvements for professionals but also for other stakeholders in the field of sustainability?

The most important step forward was the extension of scope of ‘sustainability’ covered by the CPR. Previously, it was limited to the sustainable use of natural resources. In the meantime, both private and public schemes started to cover more aspects and gained experience in which elements would provide useful data to improve the performance of buildings. Building on this expertise, Annex I of our proposal for the CPR is now covering a wide and, in our opinion, useful range of characteristics. In addition, we made sure that we are as compatible as possible with other Commission instruments and initiatives, like the building logbook, Level(s) and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. The aim is to use the same data for all these different instruments.

The second improvement is the shift to harmonised European product standards that are covering all relevant information for users, might they be professionals or private citizens using construction products. This now includes the whole life cycle. While in the past the CPR was only harmonising information formats for the ‘in use’ phase, it now also covers production, maintenance and deconstruction.

I am also proud that we have introduced an obligation to declare ‘climate change effects’ as product performance. This term – while aiming at Greenhouse Gas emissions – is intentionally general in its wording to allow the European Parliament and the Council the possibility to discuss how far reaching this obligation should be.

We hear a lot about the life cycle emissions of construction. How is this being addressed in a coherent way across EU policies?

In order to meet Europe’s goal of climate neutrality, we need construction to play its part. The starting point for measuring life cycle emissions in buildings is the Level(s) indicator on Global Warming Potential. Expressed in CO2 equivalent per square metre per year, this indicator measures emissions associated with the building across its life cycle, and it is aligned with relevant European standards. The Commission has proposed, as part of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive revision, that new buildings shall declare their life cycle emissions. The construction product data required for this life cycle analysis should be derived from the Construction Products Regulation. This will help ensure consistency in such calculations. Using the same Level(s) indicator, the Global Warming Potential of buildings is also being addressed in other initiatives such as the EU Finance Taxonomy and the Energy Efficiency Directive review proposal. Looking further ahead, the Commission is working on a roadmap to reduce whole life cycle emissions of buildings by 2050.

Your team has been developing a ‘transition pathway’ for construction. Can you explain what this is, and what it will achieve?

The updated EU Industrial Strategy of May 2021 set out a new industrial path for Europe. Construction is one of the 14 industrial ecosystems that feature in it. The strategy will modernise the industry to improve productivity and provide new job opportunities, while at the same time reducing the environmental impact. Construction was chosen as one of the first ecosystems to develop a transition pathway to be more green, digital and resilient. We are doing this in partnership with business and industry, and also with public authorities, and other stakeholders. In December 2021, the Commission proposed scenarios for the transition pathway, in a document that was open for public consultation. The work to develop the transition pathway continues during 2022. Working within the High Level Construction Forum, a series of working groups will discuss specific topics chosen by the stakeholders.

In the past years, we have been working together to profit from setting macro objectives in Level(s) with the role of European standards as instruments to set the reporting format. From your point of view, has this cooperation been successful?

We were definitely successful! During the revision of the CPR, we have used the macro objectives of Level(s) to identify characteristics for the ‘basic requirements for construction works’ and for specific product requirements in Annex I of the Regulation. Therefore, these characteristics will be part of the declaration of performance for CE marked products. At the same time, our experience in developing reporting formats has helped with the creation of the Calculation Assessment Tool (CAT) which is supporting users of Level(s).

Independent from the work on the revision of the CPR, in 2021, the construction unit started to improve the current standardisation work. This includes addressing sustainability in standards for construction products but also the constant upgrade of the standards providing the framework for the calculation of products and buildings. By setting macro objectives, Level(s) has provided a good basis to help all stakeholders to focus on specific objectives. Nevertheless, we have to ensure that providing data on sustainable products and buildings will improve knowledge on how to improve sustainability performance, while making it possible to measure the success of EU policies and laws.