Background

Due to the many global and local problems with respect to the urban and built environment all stakeholders in the construction industry are increasingly confronted with questions about the environmental friendliness of their construction products and processes and buildings. At the moment there is no clear and generally accepted guidance for the construction of sustainable buildings. In a number of European countries brochures are published with recommendations for sustainable or ecological construction. The scientific and technological basis for those recommendations is, however, in many cases not clear and strong, consequently resulting in many endless discussions.

The PRESCO-network has therefore as a main objective to define a European Code of Practice for Sustainable Building. The Code should contain widely accepted and scientifically supported guidance for the construction of sustainable buildings for residential, commercial and industrial use. Not only environmentally friendly construction technologies, but also social inclusion of elderly and disabled are considered through the study of adaptable housing and building. Furthermore, the network covers all phases of the life cycle of a building, going from inception and feasibility study through design and construction to use and refurbishment, and finally to decommissioning, dismantling and disposal. The Code should enable all construction industry stakeholders to incorporate in the short-to-medium term the sustainability idea in their projects.

Since in the long run, environmental design tools based upon the life cycle assessment methodology will be used in the design process of buildings and constructions in order to get more sustainable buildings, the network aims also to play a key role in this evolution. The network offers tool developers opportunities to compare, to benchmark and to improve their systems, which in most cases have been developed for national use.