CRD

The standards currently used to assess the environmental sustainability of new buildings and deconstruction activities include indicators on the use of energetic resources and the use of secondary raw materials. Raw material indicators, which include the global environmental impact that arises in connection with the extraction of raw materials, have so far been lacking in the aforementioned sets of standards.

For the assessment and certification of sustainability in the building sector, the introduction of a resource efficiency or raw material indicator is therefore fundamental, which also adequately considers biotic raw materials in terms of their environmental impact.

This is possible with suitable indicators for the material footprint, whose calculation follows the methodology of life cycle assessment (LCA). A content-related adaptation with simultaneous attention to system-wide applicability is a decisive factor for the success of a life cycle wide analysis as well as the economy-wide material flow analysis of building products and buildings.

Objective

Within the framework of the research, the comparison of raw material indicator systems already available in practice and the drafting of a BNB plug-in certificate as well as the building requirements for the Sustainable Building Quality Label will be carried out.

In the first phase of the study, existing raw material indicator systems will be compared with each other at the building component level with regard to concept, calculation rules, collection effort, usability and integration possibilities (ÖKOBAUDAT) in a strengths and weaknesses analysis. The aim is to select suitable indicators for further use.

In the subsequent second study phase, the transfer to the building level will take place. For this purpose, methods will be investigated and proxy models (building types) will be developed in order to develop an evaluation catalogue for the building-specific "raw material input". From this, a draft profile for the BNB and a QNG building requirement will be derived.