National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of EN 17472:2022.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee B/558, Sustainability of construction works.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 31 March 2022.

This European Standard was approved by CEN on 1 November 2021.

CEN members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration. Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CEN member.

This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by translation under the responsibility of a CEN member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and United Kingdom.

European foreword

This document ( EN 17472:2022) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 350 “Sustainability of construction works”, the secretariat of which is held by AFNOR.

This European Standard shall be given the status of a national standard, either by publication of an identical text or by endorsement, at the latest by August 2022, and conflicting national standards shall be withdrawn at the latest by August 2022.

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. CEN shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

This document has been prepared under a mandate given to CEN by the European Commission and the European Free Trade Association.

Any feedback and questions on this document should be directed to the users’ national standards body. A complete listing of these bodies can be found on the CEN website.

According to the CEN-CENELEC Internal Regulations, the national standards organisations of the following countries are bound to implement this European Standard: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

Introduction

This document provides rules for the assessment of the sustainability of civil engineering works including environmental, economic and social aspects.

Figure 1 illustrates how the assessment of the environmental, economic and social performances fits within the concept of the sustainability assessment of a civil engineering works.

Those economic, social or environmental requirements not expressed in the sustainability assessment are communicated, too.

This document supports quantification of the contribution of the assessed civil engineering works to sustainable construction and sustainable development.

The evaluation of technical and functional performance is beyond the scope of this document. Technical and functional characteristics are taken into account here by reference to the functional equivalent, which also forms a basis for comparison of the results of assessments.

Although the assessment of technical and functional performance does not form part of this series of standards, their interrelationship with environmental, social and economic performance is a prerequisite for an assessment of sustainability of construction works and, therefore, is taken into account, as illustrated in Figure 1.

The method of assessment of sustainability described in this document is based on a life cycle approach and provides a consistent model for describing and recording the civil engineering works and its life cycle for assessing the environmental, economic and social performance. For the assessment of the three aspects, the same reference study period is used.

The assessment of social performance differs from the assessment of economic and environmental aspects because it requires both quantitative and descriptive approaches.

The document sets requirements for:

the description of the object of assessment;
the system boundary that applies at the civil engineering works level;
the procedure to be used for the analysis;
definition of the indicators to be declared, information to be provided and the way in which they are collated and reported;
presentation of the results in reporting and communication; and
the data necessary for the application of the standard and calculation.

The economic assessment is undertaken at the civil engineering works level. However, it requires technical and cost information about individual products and components within the civil engineering works and its services and systems, including service life data, type and frequency of maintenance, replacement and repair, and deconstruction and disposal. This information is used as input quantities for the calculation of cost in the life cycle of the civil engineering works.

The framework and the general requirements for sustainability assessments of civil engineering works are specified in EN 15643. Further documents on sustainability assessment have already been developed by CEN/TC 350 or are currently under development. Table 1 gives an overview on relevant standards related to sustainability of construction works. Each standard has been assigned to either the framework level, the works level, or the product level according to the specifications it contains.

1 Scope

This document establishes the requirements and specific methods for the assessment of environmental, economic and social performances of a civil engineering works while taking into account the civil engineering works’ functionality and technical characteristics. By the means of this document the decision making for a project is supported by providing a standardized method for enabling comparability of scheme options.

The assessment of environmental and economic performances of a civil engineering works is based on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Life Cycle Cost (LCC), Whole-Life Cost (WLC) and other quantified environmental and economic information. The approach to the assessment covers all stages of the civil engineering works life cycle and includes all civil engineering works related construction products, processes and services, used over its life cycle.

This document is applicable to new and existing civil engineering works and refurbishment projects. The environmental performance is based on data obtained from Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) and additional indicators.

This document is not applicable for the assessment of the environmental, social and economic performance of building(s) as part of the civil engineering works; instead, EN 15978, EN 16309 and EN 16627 apply.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

4 Abbreviations

5 The process for the assessment

6 Purpose of the assessment

7 Specification of the object of assessment

7.1 General

7.2 Functional equivalent

7.3 Reference study period

7.4 System boundary

7.5 Civil engineering works’ model

7.6 Additional functions

8 Scenarios for defining the civil engineering works life cycle

8.1 General

8.2 Requirements for scenarios

8.3 Scenarios for the pre-construction stage (Module A0)

8.4 Scenarios for the product stage (Modules A1, A2 and A3)

8.5 Scenarios for the construction process stage (Modules A4 and A5)

8.6 Scenarios for use stage (Modules B1-B8)

8.7 Scenarios for the end of life stage (Modules C1 to C4)

8.8 Scenarios for benefits and loads beyond the system boundary (Module D)

9 Quantification of materials and products

9.1 General

9.2 Specification net amount

9.3 Specification gross amount

10 Data for the assessment

10.1 General

10.2 Data quality

10.3 Selection of environmental data

10.4 Selection of social data

10.5 Selection of economic data

11 Methods for assessment of environmental, economic and social performance

11.1 General

11.2 Environmental performance

11.3 Social performance

11.4 Economic performance

11.5 Management mechanisms

12 Reporting and communication

12.1 General

12.2 Information on the assessment

12.3 Statement of boundaries, scenarios used, and additional functions considered in the assessment

12.4 Data sources

12.5 Communication of assessment results

13 Verification of results

Bibliography

BS EN 17472:2022

Sustainability of construction works. Sustainability assessment of civil engineering works. Calculation methods

Current

Published:

31 Mar 2022