The European Directive on Construction Products (CPD) establishes a set of essential requirements on construction products to be fulfilled throughout the "working life" of the construction works. The demands expressed in the directive is one significant driver, international attention another. Both CEN through a "task force on durability" and ISO through TC59/SC14 "Design Life" are addressing the subject. The work of ISO has led to the establishment of a suite of procedural standards on service life planning, including service life declaration and service life assessment methodologies, useful to be applied in the declaration and the application of service life information. The political agendas related to sustainable development and the understanding that building and construction is a key industrial sector to implement sustainability principles have led to the establishment of ISO TC59/SC17 "Sustainability in building construction". Being the first ISO subcommittee expressly dealing with sustainability in relation to an industrial sector, the work focuses on economic, environmental and social aspects of sustainability relative to buildings and construction works. Together with the established standards on service life and the concept of performance-based building, all the three provide a procedural reference point for the consideration of sustainability aspects. They all benefit when applied in common context, and can provide each other with necessary information. On a European scale this common context is elaborated with the work of CEN TC350. The status of development, key drivers and key success factors are elaborated in this paper.
Service life planning comprises a model for the determination of a reasonable expected service life for buildings and components, and it establishes a routine for the assessment of design alternatives. A design option is considered reasonable when it meets or exceeds performance requirements over time that have been drawn up specifically for the specific project. Due to this assessment reference, there is a very evident link to the concept of performance-based building. Any stakeholder involved in the value chain or in the design process of the building, as well as regulators and building users, can express performance requirements. Identified requirements, both in relevance and in quality, will vary with the stakeholder and his/her perspective of interest. As building sector manufacturers develop most products with reference to standards rather than with reference to specific requirements, there is no direct link from user requirements to the product design. Instead, the building designer has the responsibility to ensure performance requirements are met by the performance of products integrated into the design. As these design decisions also have to be made at the material and component level, a performance-based building would benefit from an established rationale that enables the communication of performance requirements across the relevant system levels in the relevant design processes. A path for the connection of the established concepts of service life planning and performance-based building is presented. The aim is to identify key elements that need to be developed for the successful linkage of performance-based building with service life planning.
The development of ISO 15392 on general principles of sustainability in building construction took more time than expected. The most significant reason for this was the need to identify a common basis for the conceptual content of the document. With this basis now being identified, the work has taken up momentum and the general principles document presents principles to be considered when addressing the thematic field of sustainable development in relation to building and civil engineering. A key problem to be tackled in international standardization is finding the balance between the necessary level of detail to actually provide something to the user of the standard, and at the same time not to be too specific in order to allow different nations and their specific perspectives to still agree to the standard. While the challenge of sustainable development is global, the strategies for addressing sustainability in building construction are local and differ in context and content from region to region. Such strategies will reflect the context not only in the building environment, but also very much the social environment. This social environment includes cultural issues, legislation and regulation, as well as the needs and concerns of all the users and interested parties involved. Applying the concept of sustainability to specific buildings or other construction works includes a holistic approach, bringing together the global concerns and goals of sustainable development and the demands and requirements in terms of product functionality, efficiency, and economy. Different target audiences will have a different perspective on these challenges and the preferred solutions. The standards must hence put the topic onto a common playing field, still allowing different perspectives to be applied and priorities to be set, as well as recognizing that many aspects of sustainable development lie without the possible content of international technical standardization. ISO 15392 is related to and set into the context of other international standards and widely applied concepts, such as the performance-based building concept and the ISO 15686 series. This paper illustrates the set of related international standards and discusses the modular application. We want to discuss key factors needing consideration in order to bring the set of standards to successful application.
PeBBu domain 1 on life performance of construction materials and components is part of the EU financed thematic network on Performance based Building. Domain 1 addresses issues in a thematic field, where performance based building, service life, life performance and environmental declaration of products draw attention to each other. As can be seen in the recent development of international standards, service life and performance requirements gain a significant position as part of sustainability assertions of buildings and building products. Domain 1 aims to identify aspects of practical application of the ISO standards series 15686 on service life planning, as these standards provide the methodological basis to identify service life, and to provide the market with service life information. As service life per se relates to performance requirements and performance over time, and as sustainability in building construction related to fitness for purpose, performance based building fulfils a central hotspot of concern in relation to building sustainability. D1 addresses stakeholders' concerns when involving service life - both concerning the provision of information as the adaptation of information to a specific building design. Hence, concerns of manufacturers as well as designers and other relevant stakeholders are dealt with. Issues of concern for further R a. D as well as feedback and input to ongoing international standardisation, are identified by D1. With the direct link to the durability and service life research community and the involved standardisation bodies, the thematic network can play an important role in promoting performance based building.