New amendment sheet (2) to Assessment method Environmental performance of structures

From 1 January 2025, a second amendment sheet will take effect as Amendment 5 to the Assessment Method Environmental Performance of Building Works. From 24 April to 8 July 2024, the amendments were available for consultation.  

Environmental declarations published from 1 January 2025 must comply with the new rules described in this amendment sheet.    

The amendment sheet contains six changes that apply to various parts of Environmental Performance of Buildings version 1.0 (July 2020).  

Below is a summary with explanations for each change:

A. extual changes and references  

To update and textually improve the texts of the Assement Method, minor changes are made.

These include textual adjustments due to changes in terms, clarifications and adjustments of references.

Changes concerning readability and/or linguistic nature are not included in this amendment sheet. These will be included in version 1.2 of the Assessment Method.

B. Amendment EcoInvent

To ensure that up-to-date data are used when calculating the environmental performance of buildings, a recent version of Ecoinvent will be designated in the Assessment Method for preparing the A2 data, version 3.9.1. This new version will apply to A2 dates from 1-1-2025 (effective date of the amendment sheet). A transition period of 6 months will apply, meaning that A2 data based on Ecoinvent 3.6 will still be accepted until 1-7-2025. For the delivery of A1 data, Ecoinvent 3.6 will continue to be used.

C. Change Transport calculation [page 5] 

Section 2.6.3.7 ‘Selection of data’ describes a rule for converting transport with empty return transport to full return transport and vice versa. This description does not match the data available in Ecoinvent. Therefore, an adjustment has been made to ensure correct application of this rule. 

D. Calculation rules and scaling rules product and building level [page 6] 

To clarify and update the calculation rules, changes at both product and building level have been worked out for inclusion in the Assessment Method. When the rules come into force, the documents ‘Calculation rules and guidelines determination Environmental Performance of Buildings. Part 1' and ’Calculation rules and guidelines determination Environmental Performance of Buildings. Part 2'. (both downloadable at https://milieudatabase.nl/ml/downloads-nmd/downloads-milieuprestatieberekening/ - not available in English)

E. Amendment Annex II [page 60]

Appendix II of the Assessment Method describes the agreements and procedures for category 3 environmental declarations. For the sake of completeness and readability, it was decided to remove this appendix and instead make a reference to the environment on NMD's website.

F. Module D [page 60]

EN 15804 is the European standard for environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) based environmental performance of construction products. The Assessment Method complements EN15804 in several respects, so that the environmental impact of construction products can always be calculated according to the same method. In 2019, EN15804 was revised to EN15804/A2:2019 (hereafter EN15804). In this revision, module D mapping is mandatory.

With regard to module D, EN15804 can be interpreted in different ways. Therefore, in 2022, the Assessment Method was adapted in chapter 2 (page 26/27). It has been found that despite these adjustments, there is an undesirable difference between the EN15804 and the Assessment Method with regard to offsetting charges for the loss of secondary resources in Module D.

This amendment is intended to rectify this difference.