About the viewer

Purpose of the viewer

The purpose of the viewer is to increase transparency in the NMD, while maintaining confidentiality regarding the data. The guideline for this is the document 'Terms of use for data input and use'. In addition, it is possible to provide feedback on the data, which can improve data quality.

For whom

The viewer can be used by anyone interested in the environmental declarations published in the NMD. The viewer is therefore freely accessible on our website.  During the development of the viewer we specifically took into account the wishes of a number of potential user groups, such as data owners, clients, LCA preparers and consultants. From these wishes we formed a picture of search behavior and desired information.

Not suitable for comparing environmental declarations

The starting point of the NMD is a good design of a structure. Based on that design, an environmental performance calculation is made. There are many aspects that influence the design choices that (in)directly affect the level of environmental performance. The viewer is therefore not suitable for comparing environmental declarations. Seemingly similar products will, depending on how the product is applied in the construction work, have a different contribution to the environmental performance. With the viewer we therefore discourage making 1-to-1 comparisons between environmental declarations.

Primarily for imaging purposes

The environmental declarations and environmental data displayed in the viewer are not for downloading; the information serves primarily to form a picture of how the data is in our system. The data is therefore not suitable for making environmental performance calculations. This is due to the complex structure of the database and the importance of the correct interpretation of the calculation rules. To calculate with the data, the calculation instruments validated by the NMD Foundation are available.

Why not just look at the total ECI score

The ECI score indicates the environmental impact over the life cycle of a product by adding up weighted scores for different impact categories and life stages. For more information on this weighting, see Section 3.6 of the Determination Methodology.

A negative ECI score may result from one impact category or life stage, and thus does not automatically mean a favorable environmental impact in all impact categories or during all life stages. It is therefore important to consider the environmental impact by category and phase in addition to the overall ECI score to identify unfavorable environmental impacts.

For Category 3 environmental declarations, the underlying environmental burdens by impact category and life stage can be analyzed to gain a better understanding of where and how the environmental burden arises. This provides a deeper understanding of the overall environmental burden.

Please note that for category 1 and 2 environmental declarations, this analysis cannot be performed due to the confidentiality of the underlying data. In these cases, only the total ECI score is displayed.

Information in the viewer

So the viewer displays all the environmental declarations that are in the NMD. New updates are made daily, so you always get to see the most recent data.

For category 1, 2 and 3 environmental declarations, generic data are displayed, such as the explanation of the product, the functional unit, the lifespan, the owner of the environmental declaration and the application of the product (B&U or GWW).

For the product structure of the environmental statement, the product components are made transparent, including the element components they cover. For all environmental statements, the product ECI is shown. The ECI is shown by functional unit and by functional unit.Many Category 3 environmental statements include a downloadable LCA report. This describes the assumptions and choices made during the preparation of the LCA. Category 3 environmental declarations also contain the environmental data per product component. You can choose to view the environmental data over the entire life cycle, but it is also possible to display the data per phase or module. Since 1-1-2021 a new set of environmental impact categories is being used. Because not all environmental declarations contain the new set yet, a distinction has been made between the display of 'Set 1' (according to EN15804) and 'Set 2' (according to En15804+A2)

Why some data is not available

The viewer is not intended for making environmental performance calculations or comparing products. Comparison of different material choices only makes sense at the building level, because only then the correct ratios and quantities are calculated. For this we refer you to our validated calculation tools.

The NMD contains different categories of environmental declarations; category 1 data is proprietary data owned by manufacturers and suppliers; category 2 data is proprietary data (unbranded) owned by groups of manufacturers and/or suppliers and industries; and category 3 data is proprietary data owned by the Dutch Environmental Database.  One difference between category 3 data and category 1 and 2 data is that for category 3 data, environmental data is always shown. For the data of category 1 and 2 environmental declarations this does not apply because these data are owned by the producer of the product.

In addition, the environmental declarations whose environmental data is available will not always contain the data on circularity indicators. Also the new impact categories ('Set 2') will not be completed for all maps.  This is because this information is only mandatory to enter since January 1, 2021.

Own tool?

Are you interested in using the data from the NMD in an application other than the validated calculation tools? We are currently doing research into this future possibility. We would like to hear how the use of the NMD within your work could be of added value. You can let us know via our question form with the subject if you would like to contribute to this research.

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