There are quite a number of aspects and impacts used in an environmental, social and economic sustainability assessment. For the sustainability assessment of buildings and construction products quite a lot indicators for these aspects and impacts are defined now in the CEN TC350 standards. In EN15804 defines 22 environmental indicators for quantifying on the environmental aspects and impacts from± emissions to air, ground and water, on the use of resources, use of secondary resources, use of energy as fuel, as a resource and broken down into renewable and non-renewable use of fresh water on the flow of waste, and the energy and secondary products resulting form the product and/or building life cycle The standard prEN16309 - "Sustainability of construction works – Assessment of the social performance of buildings – Methodology" defined indicators for measuring social performance aspects of the building on the following aspect-categories: 1. Accessibility 2. Adaptability 3. Health and Comfort 4. Impact on the neighbourhood 5. Maintenance 6. Safety / Security The standard for the economic performance assessment of buildings (LCC) defined: Net Present Value / Net Present Costs Annual Cost Annual Equivalent Value as indicators for measuring the economic performance in sustainability.

1. Info status d.d.: 12-12-2012
Summary of aspects, impacts and indicators
defined in the CEN TC350 standards for the sustainability assessment of buildings and construction
products.
General information for a better understanding
The CEN TC350 standards deal with the
 environmental,
 social, and
 economic
assessment of BUILDINGS.
The building assessment requires data on CONSTRUCTION PRODUCTS and processes. The
assessment of the building defines the need for data from construction products. This means that
the aspects and indicators that are standardised and defined for the building assessment, correspond
with the aspects and indicators that are standardised for the construction products.
Overview of the CEN TC350 standards:
For all the 3 dimensions of the sustainability assessment of buildings - environmental, social and
economic - the standards define aspects, impacts and indicators, the methodology how to assess the
performance on those parameters per indicators.
Sustainability can be taken in a very wide context, but
the CEN TC350 standards ( as specified here above)
have limited their scope to the assessment of the
BUILDING. It does not include assessing e.g. the
spatial planning that could describe the sustainability
performance of building for the location, or for its
access to public traffic, or to the infra structure , etc. It
does not assess the Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR) of processes for designing or constructing, or
doing activities within the building using it.
see: buildings-and-other-sustainability-assessments
see: youtube video Buildings and other sustainability assessments
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2. Info status d.d.: 12-12-2012
What is the difference between "aspects" and "impacts" ?
An "ASPECT" in the standards of CEN TC350 is an environmental, social or economic theme that
describes the "impact" of the use construction product or the "impact" of the building related to the
environment, society and economy.
Example - seen through "environmental glasses" we use aspects like: emissions, resources,
energy (as part of resources), waste.
Example - seen through "societal glasses" we use aspects like: thermal comfort, accessibility,
safety and security, etc.
Sometimes it is impossible to quantify or to describe the "IMPACT" or that there is not yet a
methodology available for measuring or describing such an impact. (environmental impact, social
impact , economic impact) In that case the standard limits the assessment to the level of quantifying or
describing the "aspect" without going into depth in what is (environmentally, socially, or economically)
caused by this aspect. Example: Waste - hazardous waste: hazardous waste (disposed to landfill) as
such may cause damage to the environment if not handled and stored properly, but what impact it
could have on groundwater, flora and fauna, etc. depends on so many conditions that it does not allow
to go into more details for quantifying an impact and thus it stops in listing the kg. of waste that is to be
qualified as "hazardous waste".
Furthermore it is important to realise that the standards deal with "impacts" and not with "avoided
impacts". The assessment wants to quantify what the effect is if a material or a product is used or or
process is applied. It does not quantify what would have been the effect if you had not applied the
product or process or had used another product.
To each aspect and/or impact the standard defines one or more "INDICATORS" for describing or
measuring the impact. Of course then it requires that the standard specifies the METHODOLOGY for
measuring but also specifies the UNIT to express the result of this measurement.
The CEN TC350 standards, as said before here, have their scope on the building and the construction
products. There are much more aspects, indicators and methodologies used in sustainability than
defined here in the CEN TC350 standards. There are many tools and schemes that use other and
more indicators and that use other conditions and methodologies. In research scientist constantly are
developing other methodologies and new indicators. But the CEN TC350 suit of standards is a set of
EUROPEAN standards that harmonise what could be agreed on a European consensus. It is also
based on the availability of data on the chosen indicators. Implying however also that the indicators
and the number of indicators may change in future. Standardisation is a living process: a request for
revision of the standards not seldom include a proposal for replacing or extending the list of indicators.
see: http://www.slideshare.net/chrishamans-esc/cen-tc350-who-standardised-what
see: YouTube - Who standardised what?
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3. Info status d.d.: 12-12-2012
The list of indicators
per methodology standard as of 1-12-2012
for the environmental assessment
EN15978 and EN15804 defined:
Nr. Aspect-Indicator Symbol Unit
1. Global warming potential GWP kg CO2 equiv
2. Depletion potential of the stratospheric ozone layer ODP kg CFC11 equiv
3. Acidification potential of land and water sources AP kg SO2 equiv
4. Eutrophication potential EP kg (PO4)3- equiv
5. Formation potential of tropospheric ozone photochemical POCP kg Ethene equiv
oxidants
6. A-biotic Resource Depletion Potential for elements ADP_e kg Sb equiv
7. A-biotic Resource Depletion Potential of fossil fuels ADP_f MJ, net calorific value
(including feedstock)
1
8. Use of renewable primary energy (PERE) MJ, net calorific value
excluding energy resources used as raw material
9. Use of renewable primary energy resources (PERM) MJ, net calorific value
used as raw material
Total use of non-renewable energy primary energy resources 2 (PERT) MJ, net calorific value
10. Use of non-renewable primary energy (PENRE) MJ, net calorific value
excluding primary energy resources used as raw material
11. Use of non-renewable primary energy resources (PENRM) MJ, net calorific value
used as raw material
Total use of non-renewable energy primary energy resources3 (PENRT) MJ, net calorific value
12. Use of secondary material (SM) kg
13. Use of renewable secondary fuels (RSF) MJ, net calorific value
14. Use of non-renewable secondary fuels (NRSF) MJ, net calorific value
(FW) 3
15. Net use of fresh water m
16. Hazardous waste disposed (HWD) kg
17. Non-hazardous waste disposed (NHWD) kg
18. Radioactive waste disposed (RWD) kg
19. Components for re-use (CRU) kg
20. Materials for recycling (MFR) kg
21. Materials for energy recovery (MER) kg
22. Exported energy (EE) MJ (per energy carrier)
The aspects of Land-use and of Human-toxicity and Eco-toxicity are used in some European
assessment schemes, but no agreement could be found to include them in the first set of the
standards EN15978 and EN15804. Most probably (status Dec. 2012) these aspects will be discussed
st
in the 1 . revision of these standards.
The parameters 1-7 concern parameters that describe environmental impacts.
The following 8 parameters (8-15) describe resource input into the object of assessment.
Three (16,17 and 18) additional environmental parameters describe the waste categories, and
another 4 additional environmental parameters (19-22) describe environmental output flows from
the assessed system.
For the discussion on how to quantify the EU policy aspect of RESOURCE EFFICIENCY the
parameters on resource input (8-15) and the parameters on environmental output flows (19-22)
should provide sufficient information if the regulators want to measure the resource efficiency of works.
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(Basic Requirement for Construction Works)
1
the acronyms between brackets are used in some European EPD schemes, but not defined in the standards.
2
summation of indicator 8) and 9); only in listed EN15804 for construction products
3
summation of indicator 10) and 11); only in listed EN15804 for construction products
4
CPR- Construction Product Regulation - 305/2011
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32011R0305:en:NOT
th
(Annex 1;7 BRCW: Sustainable Use of Natural Resources)
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4. Info status d.d.: 12-12-2012
for the social assessment of buildings
prEN16309 5 defined:
The aspect categories of social performance assessment for the users of a building deal with:
1. Accessibility
2. Adaptability
3. Health and Comfort
4. Impact on the neighbourhood
5. Maintenance
6. Safety / Security
7. Sourcing of materials and services
8. Stakeholder involvement
The aspect 7 (Sourcing of materials and services) and 8 (Stakeholder involvement) are not fully
developed and are given as an informative Annex.
However as there are so many aspects to each of these categories, the standard has defined these 8
aspect categories in subcategories:
Building life cycle – Use Stage
Building-related characteristics Control and user interactions related
in prEN16309 characteristics in prEN16309
Accessibility Health and comfort
1) Accessibility for people with additional 18) Thermal comfort
needs 19) Indoor air quality
2) Access to building services 20) Visual comfort
Adaptability Impacts on neighbourhood
3) ease of potential for adapting to other 21) Emissions
use
Safety and security
Health and comfort
22) Security against intruders and
4) Thermal characteristics vandalism
5) Characteristics of indoor air quality
6) Acoustic characteristics
7) Characteristics of visual comfort
8) Spatial characteristics
Impacts on neighbourhood
9) Noise
10) Emissions
11) Glare/ overshadowing
12) Shocks/vibrations
Maintenance
13) Maintenance Operations
Safety and security
14) Resistance to climate change
15) Accidental actions (earthquake,
explosions, fire and traffic impacts)
16) Personal safety and security against
intruders and vandalism
17) Security against interruptions of utility
supply
For each of 22 sub-category aspects indicators are defined: approx. 140 (!) assessment lines are
specified and in discussion now with the standardisation committee members.
see: http://www.slideshare.net/chrishamans-esc/pren16309-steps-in-assessment
see: http://www.slideshare.net/chrishamans-esc/16309-methodology-social-performance-assessment
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prEN16309 is (per 1-12-2012) in its final standardisation stage. Early 2013 the standard will go for Formal Vote
and, if approved, it will become available autumn 2013.
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5. Info status d.d.: 12-12-2012
Social performance is very difficult to quantify. You can not quantify or calculate on an aspect like you
do in an environmental life cycle assessment with an environmental indicator. Therefore for each of
these assessment lines (social performance indicators) the assessment of the social performance
should describe the on the above mentioned (140) indicators per indicator by means of a checklist.
Not all of the aspects expressed on one or more indicators are relevant for the object of assessment,
but by means of this checklist a detailed analyses of the building's social performance can be made:
A b c d e f
Is the aspect Is there a Specify the Have measures Give value for Give reference
relevant for the national- minimum been taken for indicator or to relevant
design of the regional or requirement exceeding the briefly specify documentation
object of European according the requirements measures taken to support e)
assessment ? requirement prevailing regulation (given in c) to achieve the
applicable ? or if not regulated, stated
(yes/no) give details of a (yes/no) performance ?
(yes/no) requirement
concerned made in
If yes - give the clients brief
reference to
the relevant
regulation.
It should be noticed that the scope of the assessment of the social performance of the building only
covers the use stage of the building.
Like in the environmental and in the economic assessment the assessment is carried out per
information module.
For the social performance assessment this results in the assessment of the information modules B1
to B6. (in principle 140 indicator lines per checklist and per information module). The use stage B1 is
the first and leading assessment
step. However providing and
securing the building
performance in the use stage B1
requires maintaining (information
module B2), repairing(B3),
replacement(B4), refurbishment
(B5), energy use for heating-
cooling-conditioning (B6) and
water use (B7) related to this use.
The aspects (and impacts)
however are always reported in
the information module where the
aspects (impacts) occur.
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6. Info status d.d.: 12-12-2012
for the economic performance assessment:
Assessment of Economic performance of buildings - Calculation
Work item:
Methodology 6
defined:
 Net Present Value
 Net Present Costs
 Annual Cost
 Annual Equivalent Value
as indicators for measuring the economic performance in sustainability.
The assessment of the economic performance of buildings in a sustainability context buildings is
based on costs and value:
• Cost
– Economic performance expressed in cost terms
• Financial value
– Economic performance expressed in financial terms
A FINANCIAL or INVESTMENT analysis serves a different purpose than a sustainability analysis on
the LIFE CYCLE COSTING defined with the CEN TC350 standards. A financial or investment analysis
will uses other indicators and use a much shorter reference study period than used for a sustainability
analysis. The results of a financial or investment analysis are not comparable with the outcome of the
LCC (life cycle costing) analysis with the above listed indicators.
The economic assessment also includes cost in the pre-construction stage . See information-module
A0 in the graph above.
Example:
 Site costs - Costs include purchase or rental costs
 Professional fees – fees paid to the project team for work on the project, including feasibility,
planning and design
The framework standard EN15643-part 4 is listing per information-module the type and category of
costs.
Chris Hamans
European Sustainability Consulting
tel: +31433 02 02 63 mob: +31 648 60 63 63
URL: www.hamans.com email: esc@hamans.com
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There is not yet assigned a EN-number to this standard in development.
Like prEN16309 this standard (per 1-12-2012) is in its final standardisation stage having passed successfully the
enquiry. Early 2013 the standard will go for Formal Vote and, if approved, it will become available early 2014.
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JHRO