European Standards

There are three bodies that are officially recognised by the European Union and by the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) as being responsible for developing and defining voluntary standards at the European level; these are CEN, CENELEC and ETSI.

[edit] CEN

CEN stands for the European Committee for Standardisation and was founded in 1961. Its’ members work together to develop European Standards (EN’s). Why not ECS you may ask? CEN is derived from the French pronunciation, “Comité Européen de Normalisation”. It is an association that brings together the National Standardisation Bodies of 34 European countries, the BSI being one of them. Its mission is to foster the economy of the European Union but it is important to note that members are not limited to just those of the European Union. Members also include EFTA members (Iceland, Norway and Switzerland) as well as other states (North Macedonia, Turkey and Serbia) and there are also additional affiliates and partner standardisation bodies, all of which can be found on the CEN website (www.cen.eu).

[edit] CENELEC

Founded in 1973, CENELEC stands for the “European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation”. Like CEN it is derived from the French title, “Comité Européen de Normalisation Électrotechnique”. CENELEC specialises in the area of electrical engineering. Similar to CEN, CENELEC works closely with the European Union, although it is not an EUinstitution. Members are made up of the national electrotechnical standardisation bodies of most European (geographical) countries including the BSI and there are also affiliate members and cooperation agreements.

[edit] ETSI

Finally, ETSI stands for the “European Telecommunications Standards Institute” it specialises in standards for ICT-enabled systems, applications and services (Information and Communications Technology). The BSI is a member but members also include manufacturers, network operators, administrations, service providers and research bodies. Usersare also from inside and outside of Europe and nearly a third of ETSI's members are Small and Medium Enterprises(SMEs).

Each body has its own technical specialisation and there are no immediate plans to merge the three. The European Parliament noted in a resolution in February 1999 that CEN, CENELEC and ETSI co-operate smoothly and that a merger of the three standardisation bodies would not have clear advantages.

[edit] Example European Standards relating to sustainable buildings

• CEN/TC 350 - Sustainability of construction works
• CEN EN 15643:2021 Sustainability of construction works - Framework for assessment of buildings and civil engineering works
• CEN/TC 350/SC 1 - Circular Economy in the Construction Sector
• CEN/TC 350/WG 1 - Environmental performance of buildings
• CEN/TC 350/WG 2 - Building Life Cycle Description
• CEN/TC 350/WG 3 - Products Level
• CEN/TC 350/WG 4 - Economic performance assessment of buildings
• CEN/TC 350/WG 5 - Social performance assessment of building
• CEN/TC 350/WG 6 - Civil Engineering works
• CEN/TC 350/WG 7 - Framework and Coordination
• CEN/TC 350/WG 8 - Sustainable refurbishment
• CEN EN 15804:2012+A2:2019(MAIN) - Sustainability of construction works - Environmental product declarations - Core rules for the product category of construction products
• CEN/TR 17005:2016(MAIN) - Sustainability of construction works - Additional environmental impact categories and indicators - Background information and possibilities - Evaluation of the possibility of adding environmental impactcategories and related indicators and calculation methods for the assessment of the environmental performance of buildings
• CEN CEN/TR 16970:2016(MAIN) - Sustainability of construction works - Guidance for the implementation of EN 15804
• CEN EN 16627:2015(MAIN) - Sustainability of construction works - Assessment of economic performance of buildings - Calculation methods
• CEN EN 16309:2014+A1:2014(MAIN) - Sustainability of construction works - Assessment of social performance of buildings - Calculation methodology
• CEN EN 15978:2011(MAIN) - Sustainability of construction works - Assessment of environmental performance of buildings - Calculation method
• CEN CEN/TR 15941:2010(MAIN) - Sustainability of construction works - Environmental product declarations - Methodology for selection and use of generic data
• CEN EN ISO 22057:2022(MAIN) - Sustainability in buildings and civil engineering works - Data templates for the use of environmental product declarations (EPDs) for construction products in building information modelling (BIM) (ISO 22057:2022)
• CEN EN 17472:2022(MAIN) - Sustainability of construction works - Sustainability assessment of civil engineeringworks - Calculation methods
• CEN EN 15643:2021(MAIN) - Sustainability of construction works - Framework for assessment of buildings and civil engineering works
• CEN EN 15942:2021(MAIN) - Sustainability of construction works - Environmental product declarations - Communication format business-to-business
• CEN EN 15804:2012+A2:2019/AC:2021(CORRIGENDUM) - Sustainability of construction works - Environmental product declarations - Core rules for the product category of construction products

[edit] Standards in progress as of 2022

• CEN EN 15804:2012+A1:2013/FprA2(AMENDMENT) - Sustainability of construction works - Environmental product declarations - Core rules for the product category of construction products
• CEN EN 15804:2012/FprA1(AMENDMENT) - Sustainability of construction works - Environmental product declarations - Core rules for the product category of construction products
• CEN prEN 17680(MAIN) - Sustainability of construction works - Evaluation of the potential for sustainable refurbishment of buildings
• CEN prEN 15941(MAIN) - Sustainability of construction works - Data quality for environmental assessment of products and construction work - Selection and use of data
• CEN EN 17672:2022(MAIN) - Sustainability of construction works - Environmental product declarations - Horizontal rules for business-to-consumer communication
• CEN prEN 15804(MAIN) - Sustainability of construction works - Environmental product declarations - Product category rules
• CEN prEN 15978-1(MAIN) - Sustainability of construction works - Methodology for the assessment of performance of buildings - Part 1: Environmental Performance

[edit] Related articles of Designing Buildings

• An in-depth look at Environmental Product Declarations EPDs.
• British Standards
• BS EN 15978-1
• Collaboration, standards and their acronyms explained.
• European Standards
• Environmental product declaration EPD
• EN 15804+A1 2012
• EN 15804+A2
• International Standards
• Mandatory environmental impact categories
• Optional environmental impact categories
• Product Environmental Footprint PEF
• Product category rules PCR.
• Sustainable procurement.
• The sustainability of construction works.