Building sustainability performance, Level(s)
Level(s) is a new European approach to assess and report on the sustainability performance of buildings, throughout their full life cycle.
It is a European Commission initiative, and its development arises as a response to the Paris Agreement’s demand that the building and construction sector should be decarbonised by 2050, and the necessity of adapting the sector to achieve the objectives of both, the EU Green Deal and the EU Circular Economy Action Plan.
In this regard, Level(s) is an assessment and reporting framework that provides a common language for the sustainability performance of buildings.
Level(s)promotes lifecycle thinking for buildings and provides a robust approach to measuring and supporting improvement from design to end of life, for both residential buildings and offices.
For this purpose, it uses core sustainability indicators, tested with and by the building sector, to measure carbon, materials, water, health and comfort, climate change impacts, taking into account lifecycle costs and value assessments.
Level(s) is divided into three areas, each with its own subject matter and desired outcomes:
- Resource use and environmental performance during a building’s lifecycle
- Health and comfort
- Cost, value, and risk
Furthermore, Level(s) is open-source and freely available to all, intending to transfer its benefits to as many buildings as possible. Within these benefits, the following stand out:
- Enables building professionals and their clients to use fewer resources, and therefore improve the environmental performance of their buildings.
- Encourages users to think about the whole lifecycle of a building, providing a basis for quantifying, analysing, and understanding the lifecycle addresses several aspects of circularity, providing indicators that can help understand how to extend the utility of the building.
- Can be used as an entry-level tool and at each stage of building projects, to give a complete picture throughout the full lifecycle.
- Offers a framework to measure performance in key areas at each stage: concept for the building project, detailed design and construction, and reality after completion.
- Enables comparative performance measurement through cumulative reporting, including across property portfolios.
- Provides a framework of measurement which can be incorporated to assessment and certification schemes and policy initiatives supporting the development of the circular economy at European, national, and local level.
Moreover, Level(s) has been designed in order to be used by different groups of intervening agents, which participate in the lifecycle of building in different moments:
- Planning: public authorities, policymakers, and procurers at a national, regional, and local level.
- Design: architects, designers, engineers, and quantity surveyors.
- Financing: clients and investors, including property owners, and developers.
- Execution: construction companies and contractors, asset managers, facility managers, and building occupants.
For more information about the technical manuals about Level(s), as well as guidance about how to use the framework it is recommended to visit the Joint Research Centre website:
https://susproc.jrc.ec.europa.eu/product-bureau/product-groups/412/documents
Among these manuals, the “Level(s) indicator 2.2: Construction and Demolition waste and materials” stands out for its close relationship to the subject covered in this document.
Links:
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