Civil Engineering Association

BS ISO 21930:2007 Sustainability in building construction. Environmental declaration of building products

Designers of buildings, manufacturers of building products, users of buildings, owners of buildings and others active in the building and construction sector are increasingly demanding information that enables them to make decisions to address environmental impacts of buildings and other construction works. These demands are currently being addressed only through various national initiatives applying a variety of approaches.

It is essential that there be uniformity in the means of expressing environmental product declarations. This includes having a consistent way of arriving at the declaration that is based on basic life-cycle inventory data and additional information not based on life-cycle assessment (LCA). The user expects non-biased information, which is expected be consistent with the best current practice and understanding over the lifetime of the standard.

According to the set of four international standards dealing with environmental labelling, (BS ISO 14020, BS ISO 14021, IBS SO 14024 and BS ISO 14025), environmental labels and declarations are divided into three principal types:

General principles: ISO 14020

Self-declared environmental claims, type II environmental labelling (ISO 14021)

Principles and procedures of environmental labels and declarations, types I and III environmental
labelling (ISO 14024 and ISO 14025).

This International Standard is one in a suite of International Standards dealing with sustainability in building construction that includes the following:

BS ISO 15392 Sustainability in building construction. General principles
BS ISO 21932 Buildings and constructed assets. Sustainability in building construction. Terminology
ISO/TS 21929-1 Sustainability in building construction. Sustainability indicators. Framework
for development of indicators for buildings;
BS ISO 21930 Sustainability in building construction. Environmental declaration of building products
BS ISO/TS 21931-1 Sustainability in building construction. Framework for methods of assessment for environmental performance of construction works. Buildings.
BS ISO 21930 is the international standard that provides the principles and requirements for type III environmental declarations (EPD) of building products.

BS ISO 21930:2007 contains specifications and requirements for the EPD of building products. Where standard contains more specific requirements, it complements BS ISO 14025 for the EPD of building products.

BS ISO 21930 provides a framework for and the basic requirements for product category rules as defined in BS ISO 14025 for type III environmental declarations of building products. Type III environmental declarations for building products, as described in BS ISO 21930, are primarily intended for use in business-to-business communication, but their use in business-to-consumer communication under certain conditions is not precluded.

BS ISO 21930 does not define requirements for developing type III environmental declaration programmes. Requirements for type III environmental declaration programmes are found in BS ISO 14025.

The working environment is not included in BS ISO 21930:2007 because it is normally a subject for national legislation.

Contents of BS ISO 21930 include

Foreword
Introduction
Scope
Normative references
Terms and definitions
Units and abbreviated terms
Abbreviated terms
General aspects of type III environmental product declarations (EPD) of building products
Objectives of EPD of building products
Involvement of interested parties
Responsibility for the EPD
Use of EPD of building products
Building products information modules
Comparability of EPD of building products
Methodological framework
General requirements
Product category rules (PCR)
Reporting
Project report and documentation
Rules for data confidentiality
Content of the EPD
Declaration of general information
Declaration of environmental aspects
Verification
Review and verification procedures
Product chain of a building and information modules — Practical examples
Bibliography