New environmental declarations are compiled according to the publication “Methodology for Compiling Environmental Declarations for Building Products and Assessing Environmental Impacts of Buildings”. The RT Environmental Declaration is based on the national methodology following the basic principles stated in the ISO standard series 14040 and 14020. The method considers also the preliminary results achieved within ISO CD 21930. It is developed in cooperation with the Confederation of Finnish Construction Industries RT, the Building Information Foundation RTS, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and companies in the construction business.
The RT Environmental Declaration is a voluntary and public document providing comparable and impartial information on the environmental impacts of building materials. It is a source of information for users, designers and constructors.

Why are environmental declarations compiled?

In our society, the major environmental impacts come from the production and operation of buildings. Therefore building materials place a substantial load on the environment. Lifecycle planning is today a necessity in building construction. The information gathered in the environmental declarations is required for different calculation programmes and comparisons. The European Union adopted the Construction Product Directive (CPD) in 1988. It defines the so-called essential requirements concerning safety and health aspects in construction works. According to Annex 1 "the products must be suitable for construction works which are fit for their intended use, account being taken of economy, and in this connection satisfy the essential requirements where the works are subject to regulations containing such requirements. Such requirements must, subject to normal maintenance, be satisfied for an economically reasonable working life." The interpretative documents were completed in 1993. Essential requirement Number 3 is titled "Hygiene, Health and the Environment". According to the essential requirement, the environmental impact of building products shall be considered in all stages of the life cycle, including the extraction of raw materials, manufacture, construction, use, demolition, final disposal and reuse. In Finland, the RT Environmental Declarations fulfil that requirement.

What is an environmental declaration of building products?

The activity began in 1988 when the Building Information Foundation RTS carried out a project that involved 26 companies. The companies compiled the first declarations. Later, the matter was pursued in the EKA project co-ordinated by the Confederation of Finnish Construction Industries RT in 2002–2004.

Energy use, emissions into the air and water, and the use of natural resources are among the topics reported on in the declarations. A building is a project-specific whole by nature, and it consists of building and building service products manufactured by many branches of industry.

The eco-profiles and other environmental aspects assessed according to the methodology aim to provide initial data for the assessment of the environmental impacts of the buildings. The impact assessment based on the eco-profiles of building products and components must be performed as part of the impact assessment of the whole building. The standard measures are not mentioned in the declarations, but they shall be selected for each project. The declarations do not directly take a stand on the service life or categorisation of products.

The eco-profiles of building components can be gathered from the eco-profiles and other environmental aspects of building products when the consumption of the products is recognised in the building components. Consumption of the products should always include the loss during the construction phase.

The aim of the declarations is to promote the use of products that burden the environment less than other similar products.