From 11 to 19 environmental impact categories

At the end of July, it happened; July 31, 2024, marked the final date of the project "Acceleration Action from 11 to 19 Environmental Impact Categories." How did this project progress, and did the foundation achieve the intended goal with this project?

In 2020, the Assessment Method underwent significant changes. The SBK Assessment Method for Environmental Performance of Buildings and Civil Engineering Works was replaced that year by the first version of the Assessment Method for Environmental Performance of Construction Works (we are now working with version 1.1). This method underwent several key revisions due to changes in the EN15804, the European standard that forms the basis for the Dutch Assessment Method. One of these changes involved expanding from 11 to 19 environmental impact categories.

Click here for more information about the environmental impact categories.

Two sets at the same time

The new set of environmental impact categories affects both the environmental declaration (formerly: product card) and the environmental profile of the assessed construction products and materials. With changes to the environmental profile, the environmental performance of the building material or product also changes.

Read an introduction about environmental performance (MPG and MKI) here

The environmental profile and key information from the EPD, which is a summary of a detailed LCA calculation, are stored in the National Environmental Database in the form of an environmental declaration. Following EN15804, the data is valid for 5 years.

Updating set A2 also requires effort from the owners of environmental declarations. For a smooth transition, it has been mandatory since January 1, 2021, to provide two sets of environmental data: one based on EN 15804+A1 (set 1) and one based on EN 15804+A2 (set 2).

Tabel: Set 1, milieu-impactcategorieën op basis van EN-15804+A1

Tabel: Set 2, milieu-impactcategorieën op basis van EN-15804+A2

Acceleration campaign

To encourage the owners of environmental declarations and basic profiles to submit their set A2 data, the foundation launched a compensation program called the "acceleration campaign." Companies and industry organizations with environmental data in the NMD (National Environmental Database) that fell within the five-year validity period were eligible to participate in the initiative.

The acceleration campaignwas carried out in two rounds. The first round targeted organizations that published their environmental declarations between August 1, 2017, and December 31, 2017. The second round specifically focused on organizations that published their environmental declarations between January 1, 2018, and December 31, 2020. The acceleration campaignhas now ended.

Data owners with environmental declarations from 2017 (round 1) were given until December 31, 2022, to update their declarations to set A2. However, it became apparent that the time available for completing the update was insufficient. Therefore, the NMD Foundation decided to extend the deadline, giving owners of environmental declarations and basic profiles until April 30, 2023, at midnight to submit their updated data to the NMD. Until that time, the old environmental declarations would remain active in the NMD.

The ultimate goal of the acceleration campaign was for set A2 to be applied to all environmental declarations and basic profiles in the NMD. In the first quarter of 2023, the NMD Foundation planned to conduct an analysis to determine whether it was feasible to perform the environmental performance calculations using data based on set A2.

Read here what project leader John has to say about the progress of the acceleration campaign.

Group 1 - cards from 2017

The first group consists of organizations that published their product cards between August 1, 2017, and December 31, 2017. In total, these are 93 product cards.

Group 2 (2018-2019-2020)

The second group specifically targets organizations that published their product cards between January 1, 2018, and December 31, 2020. In total, 177 product cards will be updated in the second group.

Group 3 Basic Profiles

The third group consists of the so-called basic profiles. This is an environmental profile that is part of an EPD (Environmental Product Declaration) and is submitted to the NMD along with the product card, and optionally to the process database. This group includes 62 environmental declarations.