The organisational institution for promoting product declaration in the building industry in Germany is the "Arbeitsgemeinschaft umweltvertr?gliches Bauprodukt" (AUB - www.bau-umwelt.com). With the aim of employing more sustainable construction, the public authorities (the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Housing, the Federal Environment Agency) are supporting the AUB, particularly through their participation in an expert panel. As a result, last year an environmental declaration programme for building products that conforms to ISO 14025 was created.

One of the AUB's key tasks is the development of declaration regulations ("Product category rules") for various product groups. These inform future applicants which reporting commitments exist, which system boundaries and frameworks are to be used for calculating Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs), which verification documents must be adduced and according to which testing standards measurements must be carried out.

The AUB's second task is to support enterprises in conducting their declarations. In order to present the environmental performance of products in the context of the whole building, product declarations in the building industry are now being based upon LCA indicators. The AUB recommends that building product manufacturers use background data from the GaBi 4 software (www.gabi-software.com) when identifying their products' environmental impacts.

PE Europe GmbH has supported building product manufacturers in preparing their product declarations for many years - in particular with their mandatory LCAs. This is how the products from the companies Rockwool and Egger Holzwerkstoffe, for whom PE Europe prepared LCAs, were recently given their environmental declarations.

The organisational institution for promoting product declaration in the building industry in Germany is the "Arbeitsgemeinschaft umweltvertr?gliches Bauprodukt" (AUB - www.bau-umwelt.com). With the aim of employing more sustainable construction, the public authorities (the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Housing, the Federal Environment Agency) are supporting the AUB, particularly through their participation in an expert panel. As a result, last year an environmental declaration programme for building products that conforms to ISO 14025 was created.

One of the AUB's key tasks is the development of declaration regulations ("Product category rules") for various product groups. These inform future applicants which reporting commitments exist, which system boundaries and frameworks are to be used for calculating Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs), which verification documents must be adduced and according to which testing standards measurements must be carried out.

The AUB's second task is to support enterprises in conducting their declarations. In order to present the environmental performance of products in the context of the whole building, product declarations in the building industry are now being based upon LCA indicators. The AUB recommends that building product manufacturers use background data from the GaBi 4 software (www.gabi-software.com) when identifying their products' environmental impacts.

PE Europe GmbH has supported building product manufacturers in preparing their product declarations for many years - in particular with their mandatory LCAs. This is how the products from the companies Rockwool and Egger Holzwerkstoffe, for whom PE Europe prepared LCAs, were recently given their environmental declarations.