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076C - CAPEM - Cycle Assessment Procedure for Eco-Materials
Project priority: Innovation
Strategic Initiatives: unspecified
Start date: 01-01-2008
End date: 30-06-2012
Website: www.cd2e.com
ERDF Grant: 4,000,287.85
Total eligible cost: 8,000,575.69
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Lead Partner contact person
Name: Christian Traisnel
Organisation: Création et Développement des Eco-Entreprises (CD2E)
Address: Base 11/19 - B.P. 64 62750 Loos-en-Gohelle ,
Tel: 33 321130680
Email: c.traisnel@cd2e.com
Country: France
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Project partners
1. Création et Développement des Eco-Entreprises (CD2E) [FR]
2. Association of Community Rail Partnerships (ACORP) [UK]
3. Business Support Kent (BSK) [UK]
4. De Groene Stee (DGS) [NL]
5. Cluster Eco-Construction [BE]
6. Globe 21 [FR]
7. Handwerkskammer - Münster (HWK) [DE]
8. Stichting Viba Expo (SVE) [NL]
9. Vlaams Insituut voor Bio-Ecologisch bouwen en wonen (VIBE) [BE]
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Summary description
The aim of the CAP'EM project is to contribute to increase the manufacture, distribution and use of eco-materials in the building industry of North West Europe (NWE), by allowing better demonstration of their benefits. The definition of "eco-materials" is directly linked to eco-designed materials which lead to improve economic and technical performance as well as environmental and health impacts. Through an international investigation, made by Ernst & Young for Cd2e in 2006 to identify why eco-materials were more developed in Northern Countries, and what were in these countries the barriers and the ways to create, develop and promote their specific markets, it appeared that different characteristics and approaches were used. Each approach has interests or specific regional / national characteristics. developing these products and ways of use them will gain from being benchmarked and more commonly promoted and tested through identical ways.
Since eco-materials are widely recognized in many others major sectors of production as electronics, the use of eco-materials terminology to verify low environmental impacts is not well developed in the building sector in Europe. CAP'EM project will begin working on the dissemination of a common definition for eco-material, shared by the major actors involved in eco and low energy building sector in NWE, both for new and renovation buildings.The project will capitalize on those materials presumed as "eco-materials" available in the areas covered by the partners involved in the project ; these materials will be analysed through a common methodology which will allow assessment of their real impacts. In order to foster their business in NWE construction public and private building sector, broad information and demonstration of the performances of the most relevant eco-materials will then be achieved.
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Detailed description
Partners will naturally cooperate as they allready did during the genesis of the project, taking advantage of complementary skills and experiences of each other. The general idea to manage the project is to use the governancy model of sustainable developpement : every Work Package leader will report its work progress to the lead partner, all partners of the project will be involved in each work package, to give their point of view, all important decisions will have to be validated at the transnational level. The WP working cessions will be organized as possible in different sites to allow a better knowledge of each other and to work with efficiency. Other times, internet tools will be used, to minimise the carbon impact of the project. The idea of measuring the carbon impact related to the CAPEM project has been proposed by all the partners ; the promotion of eco-materials and the increase of their markets shares will be evaluated at the end of the project as a carbon compensation.
Several partners have the official accreditation to lead carbon evaluations. The cooperation will be then extended after the duration of the project : all the buildings (new construction or renovation) and showrooms that will represent the NWE network for eco-construction/eco-materials will represent contact and counselling places for all existing (or in development process) SME's that want to propose on the market greener products. All the centers will be linked together to facilitate the understanding of the construction sector, its evolution towards new priorities (energy consumption, neutral carbon materials...) and the choice of proven strategies that perform well (environmental assesments, bests labels, certification schemes, networks for distribution, best targets etc..).
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Objectives description
Nowadays, there is a growing interest for eco-materials for construction, but as every new product recently put on the market, their cost is considered too high in comparison with the cost of conventional materials (e.g. mineral wool vs. wood fiber insulation). However,, eco-materials present real benefits that can be proved by a good understanding of their characteristics.
The aim of the project is to contribute to the increase in the manufacture, distribution and the use of eco-materials within the construction sector, specifically for SME's, through transnational cooperation of the identified partners in five major countries of NWE.
The project will impact directly both on the supply and the demand through :
- the development of methodologies and tools dedicated to SME's,
- the implementation of communication strategies that will be led towards all professionals and
- the network of demonstration buildings and resource centers dedicated to eco-construction and energy efficiency.
The objectives of the project are :
1. To set up a commonly agreed and harmonized assessment procedure for building construction eco-materials based on LCA (WP1)
2. To evaluate a selection of at least 100 materials identified as the "best" eco-materials available in NWE (WP2)
3. To disseminate multi-criteria information on the methodology, tools and evaluated eco-materials towards all professional audiences in the construction industry (WP3)
4. To demonstrate the use of the evaluated eco-materials in new building or renovation and to show the evaluation tool developped to target audiences (WP4)
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Activities description
Main actions :
In WP 1 and 2, CAPEM project partners will produce together a methodology and a tool that can be proposed to professional and non professional mid and end-users, in order to help them qualifying materials as “eco-materials”.
WP3 is dedicated to the dissemination of WP 1 and 2 findings to mid and end users, especially to professionals but also to final users (non professionals, “final customers”). WP3 is specifically dedicated to the development and implementation of a communication strategy, both at the project level and at the level of each partner.
WP 4 is the “key part” of the CAPEM project. Each partner will propose a demonstration building that can be easily identified as a resource center dedicated to the promotion and the understanding of the eco-materials for the construction sector.
Main outputs :
WP1- Simplified LCA based methodology as a webbased free software tool
WP2- LCA results for at least 100 materials verified as "eco-materials", complying with the major European construction systems
WP3- Website (eco-material.eu) as a CAP'EM intranet delivering information and evaluation opportunities for eco-designed materials and eco-construction strategies, exhibition events, design training sessions and media coverage
WP4- Network of demonstration buildings and resource centers for eco-materials in five represented member states, with the same identification "label" : it means using eco-materials in real conditions (new or renovated buildings) and showing, informing, teaching, demonstrating advantages of eco-materials. Demonstration centers where eco-materials have been used will be created to make them accessible to mid and final users. In this way, more demand on the eco-materials demonstrated can be generated.
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Innovation
Innovation in the project appears at different levels, for each WP :
WP 1 : The reduction on the essentials and nevertheless is the innovation in this field. Existing methodologies are too complex for a widespread use; a software for an easy use does not exist yet. The simplicity guarantees real use and must be developed in the project.
The idea to work on a harmonised definition then to propose a common methodology and tool, can be considered as an “upgrade” of all the partners on the following topics:environmental management, eco-materials, sustainable criterias, markets data, strategies for developing a more sustainable market.
WP2 : No institution or project dealing with eco-material assessment ever focused on such wide area in Europe as CAPEM project does. The shared methodology is the only way of making a NWE-market comparable and manageable and of getting large potentialities for the materials. This goes beyond what single producers could and would do on their own.
WP3 :The communication with all these actors is very important for the acceptance and the dissemination of the outcomes of the assessment of the eco-materials. Involving all the experts of the value creation chain and developing a common marketing strategy is a way to success. It will increase the credibility and the perceptibility of eco-materials on the market when customers are confronted with repeated and recognizable arguments and information.
WP4 : only few exhibitions of eco-materials do exist and they have never been interlinked. The network adds importance to every single centre. Each showroom design is shared by two partners at least.
Innovation will also come from CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA) at European level (CWA CEN). This document will reflect the consensus of individuals and organizations on a specific topic. It offers market players a flexible and timely tool for achieving a technical agreement where there is no support for standard development.
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Project specifics
Directly linked to the topic of eco-materials considered as "central" for the whole project, the first topic on which partners will cooperate is Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). LCA is a method consisting in the compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs and the potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle" (ISO 14040: 1997). LCA is known as the reference method by the scientific community for eco-design development. In the construction sector, a simplified LCA based methodology which can be applied more specifically to eco-materials is the first key to help SME'S manufacturer's developing the market of "green products". Environmental declarations exist at the European level but not directly linked to eco-construction : they are not simplified for business developers like SMEs and too expensive. A simplified low cost tool, based on LCA standards can be seen as the key issue for "unlocking" the market of eco-materials for the construction sector.
The second topic of cooperation will be the eco-construction sector and its organization into clusters within each member state. Indeed, this cooperation at a transnational level will be essential in order to implement the best communication strategy, towards four different targets considered : manufacturers, retailers, users and advisers, which are mostly composed of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Eco-construction means for all the partners involved in the project, low energy design (e.g solar passive design), use of eco-materials (e.g bio-sourced insulation products such as cellulose batts) and renewable energies (e.g solar panels for hot water). As all the energy performance regulations in EU Members States propose ambitious targets in terms of energy consumption (in Kwh/m²/year), for new and existing constructions, the use of eco-materials is compulsory to reach these levels.
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Previous EU projects involvement
The project is relevant to the European framework concerning construction materials with regards the Construction Products Directive (CPD) and the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD). In particular, the project will bring a good added value to EPD because it will be able to process the standard data provided. It will also take into consideration the methodologies and tools developed within several EU-funded projects, specifically projects funded by Intelligent Energy Europe Programe : GreenBuilding (2004), ETOOL (energy performance assessment for existing non residential buildings, 2005), LCC Data (running costs of energy efficien buidlings, 2006), GREEN IT (green initiative for energy efficient eco-products in the construction industry, 2005) and Passivhouse Retrofit Kit. Added value will be given by the transnational cooperation, the topic dedicated to eco-materials for construction and the innovation of the common shared methodology.
CD2E has recently participated to two projects within the Interreg III A programme with Business Support Kent as Lead Partner that were focused on the cross-border development of eco-enterprises - among them eco-materials manufacturers. One of the outputs of the project was the revelation of the needs relevant to unlock the business of eco-materials in Europe. CAPEM will go further and identify the need for the development of SME producers of eco-materials.
The CAPEM project takes into account the recently approved interreg-funded initiatives : REGAIN and "livinggreen.eu" projects. Both projects are more downstream by eco-construction and likely to take advantage of the information on eco-materials highlighted by the CAPEM project (WP2) and to take advantage of aditionnal eco-materials (WP4). Contacts have been established between lead partners to validate the interest of collaboration.
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