Sustainability requirements for building products in the Sustainable Buildings (BNB) rating system
All questions about BNB compliance answered at a glance.
The PROCA BNB Declaration provides all actors involved in construction with a statement of how the product contributes to achieving BNB building certification.
A simple, structured and BIM-compatible presentation of the required product data provides clear orientation and planning security.
With ProCA, you can ensure that your products meet all relevant requirements, which saves time and creates credibility.
All of this as a 100% intelligent and automated service
Versions of the BNB system
The BNB system is currently only available in the 2015 version. It should be used as a tool for planning and evaluating sustainable and, as a rule, public construction projects. Depending on the type of building to be assessed, the BNB system offers different guidelines.
Guidelines are available for all buildings that are used as office and administration buildings, buildings that are used as schools, universities and, if applicable, kindergartens and day care centers, research and laboratory buildings as well as for all outdoor facilities related to buildings. The aim of the system is a holistic optimization of buildings and outdoor facilities in terms of ecological, economic, technical, socio-cultural, functional and process quality.
BNB system criteria relating to construction products
In order to further integrate sustainability into companies, more and more initiatives and regulations have been developed at European and national level in recent years to promote a sustainable economy. On the basis of these, the sustainability performance of companies, buildings and construction products is to be assessed. To provide an overview, the most important regulations are listed and explained below:
Criterion 1.1.6: Risks to the local environment
The aim of the criterion is to reduce or avoid the use of construction products, which, due to their pollutant content or release of pollutants, represent a risk potential for the environmental media groundwater, surface water, soil and air and can cause health problems through enrichment in the food chains or contamination of indoor air. This applies to the processing on the construction site and to the use phase of both internal and external products. In order to keep risks to the local environment as low as possible, a careful selection of low-polluting and low-emission construction products is necessary.
In EPEA's ProCA declarations, the BNB criterion 1.1.6. is presented with a result of 0-5. Products that do not have requirements in this criterion are shown as “no requirement.”
Other criteria of the BNB system
In addition to the criteria mentioned above, there are some criteria on which construction products have an indirect effect. However, as there are no specific product quality requirements here, these criteria are not covered in the PROCA declarations.
Criterion 1.1.1: Greenhouse gas potential (GWP)
This criterion, which involves modelling the global warming potential (GWP), is assessed at building level and does not represent product-specific target or limit values. However, the evaluation includes provided environmental product declarations (EPDs) for products installed in the building.
Criterion 1.1.7: Sustainable material extraction/biodiversity
With regard to biodiversity, the criterion is intended to contribute to promoting the conservation and diversity of species in terms of biological diversity. This criterion is assessed at building level and does not include any product-specific requirements. However, if products can demonstrate their sustainable origin and/or contribution to the building's overall biodiversity, this positive impact can be included in the assessment. This criterion is expected to be included in proca with the new version of BNB.
Criterion 2.1.1: Building-related costs in the life cycle
This criterion consists of calculating the costs incurred over the entire life cycle of the building. Here, too, there are no specific requirements at product level, but the costs of the products are part of the overall rating.
Criterion 3.1.1.: Indoor air hygiene
Products that can prove that they are emission-free and therefore have no harmful effect on indoor air quality are rated positively within the framework of this criterion. However, this criterion is calculated at building level and is not based on a single product.
Criterion 4.1.4: Dismantling, separation and recycling
Within this criterion, the overall circularity of the building is assessed. It is therefore positive if the products in the building can be circularity or recyclable. However, the specific requirements for recyclability are assessed at building level.
