Nordic Harmonisation of Life Cycle Assessment

This work package works towards harmonising normative methods for building life cycle assessments (LCAs) in the Nordic countries so that design and construction companies will be able to offer low carbon solutions in all the Nordic countries.

The work package is lead by Maria Tiainen from the Ministry of Environment Finland.

Analysis of Nordic LCA-practices

In the first project period, this work package has focused on analysis of Nordic LCA-practices, including a feasibility study and facilitation for harmonisation.

This work has lead up to the publishing of a harmonisation roadmap elaborating each Nordic country's status and setting the strategic aims for the harmonisation.

Read the roadmap for harmonising Nordic LCA regulation here

Data for LCA

Another part of this work package is the project on data for LCA. This project revolves around data collection for building LCA. This is importnat as aata is essential to follow the climate impact of our buildings, and databases that provide typical emission and other environmental data have an important role in the processes that should enable the assessment of buildings with the help of unified, or at least comparable, methods and practices. The project is run by SYKE, IVL and LUKE. 

The project will result in a report covering: Process for gathering typical data, data for old buildings, bio based products and vegetation

Read more about the project on data for LCA here

Webinar

Did you miss our webinar on LCA databases and management? 

Watch the recording of the webinar or download the presentation here

Knowledge Centre

Visit our knowledge centre for more material on life cycle assessment

BIM for LCA - Calculating the Climate Impact of Buildings through Digitalisation

In this project, the BIM4LCA consortium works on digitalising LCA including guidance for BIM and development of online learning material for BIM-based LCA. 

The consortium consists of VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd (coordinator), Granlund Ltd, Gravicon Ltd and Insinööritoimisto Kallinen Ltd (ARKCON).

Read more about the project on BIM for LCA here

Read the report: The Operating Environment of Building LCA and BIM in the Nordics and Estonia here

Webinar

Did you miss our webinar on BIM-Based Building LCA? 

Watch the recording and presentation from the webinar here

Limit values and monitoring the decarbonisation of the Nordic building stock

This work package also includes a project on how to raise comparability of methods for calculating limit values and climate impact of buildings across the Nordics and how to monitor the decarbonisation of the Nordic building stock.

To do this, the project will map the different Nordic calculation methods and legislation for setting limit values for LCA of buildings.

By identifying differences and similarities, the projects will suggest potential areas for higher Nordic comparability of limit values and LCA. The goal is to make it easier for the Nordic construction sector to compare limit values and LCA calculation across countries despite differences.

An important part of the project is also to contribute with Nordic experiences to the European climate initiatives regarding construction. 

The project is lead by SWECO Denmark with BUILD AAU, EFLA and LCA support as subcontractors. 

Read our new report on harmonising limit values for building across the Nordics here

Webinar

Did you miss our webinar on harmonisedCO2-eq Limit Values for Buildings and Monitoring Decarbonisation of the Building Stock?

You can watch the recording and slides from the webinar here

Read more about the project on more comparable methods for calculating limit values across the Nordics here

Tender for new acceleration programme: Knowledge sharing clinics and best practice catalogues

A part work package 1 is a tender for a new acceleration programme. The acceleration programme aims to speed up the decarbonisation of the building and construction sector through knowledge sharing carbon clinics and a best practice catalogue.

Read the detailed description and apply here

All the Nordic countries have ambitions about mitigating the climate changes by reducing the total amount of carbon emissions. Reductions in the building sector are a key element in achieving these targets.

Since 2018, the Nordic building authorities have been discussing future regulation on climate emissions, sharing experiences and working together towards harmonised Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methods for buildings.

LCA of buildings is quickly gaining ground in the Nordic countries as the method assesses the whole life climate emissions of buildings, and all the Nordic countries are developing methods and investigating how to include this in the national building regulations. Sweden, Norway and Denmark have already implemented their first set of regulation, Finland will follow in 2025 and Iceland and Estonia are currently considering the same.

However, working with normative climate declarations for buildings is relatively new in all countries, and practices are not yet well established. At this stage, the Nordic countries have a unique window to align approaches, exchange knowledge and research how to create and specify the regulation concerning climate emissions together.

This work package works towards harmonising normative methods for building LCAs in the Nordic countries so that design and construction companies will be able to offer low carbon solutions in all the Nordic countries.

Furthermore, similar approaches will benefit policy-makers on national and municipal levels so that we can support each other’s climate ambitions in regulation and in green public procurement, but also in the European policy development.

Finally, in order to digitalise the Nordic building design, construction and management processes, it is of high importance that we set joint criteria for digital LCA as well.