Objectives

The PRESCO-network brings together all parties involved in (sustainable) construction and building. By co-ordinating the activities related to sustainable building of 29 partners from 16 countries covering the complete range of stakeholders, the network seeks to facilitate the exchange of experience and the transfer of knowledge. Three main tasks in particular have been identified.

First of all, the network activities are oriented towards the definition of a European Code of Practice for Sustainable Building. In order to produce a widely accepted consensus document, a draft code of practice is being developed based upon a compilation and integration of already existing national or international recommendations. After these discussions, an updated version has been presented and discussed at a workshop, organised by PRESCO together with the CRISP network. The workshop was followed by a second round of internal networkdiscussions. The revised draft Code of Practice will undergo a final review at the second PRESCO Workshop and, after amendments, the final European Code of Practice will be published. It will contain approximately 200 practical recommendations, for which environmental advantages and drawbacks, technical limitations and a cost indication will be described. It is the purpose to allow also for recommendations only valid for parts of Europe (f.i. due to geographical and climate conditions).

A second activity of the PRESCO-network is oriented towards the inter-comparison and benchmarking of LCA-based, environmental assessment and design tools. European tool developers are being given the opportunity to exchange information and to transfer knowledge and data. In order to realise this, a number of reference structures and buildings have been selected. The different tool developers are currently in the process of executing environmental performance assessments on the reference buildings. Results are being compared and discussed in order to define a common baseline offering a harmonised approach for assessment and design methodologies. The effect of the application of the Code of Practice on the final result of the different assessment tools will be verified in order to have a performance test of the assessment tools. This last step will enable at the same time a first review of the Code of Practice.

Finally PRESCO is concerned with the information transfer amongst network members and to the outside world. Information and communication channels to be developed by the network, are the regular meetings, a PRESCO-newsletter, a PRESCO-website, the European PRESCO-CRISP workshop, a PRESCO International Conference and the publication of the Code. The Code will be published as a loose leaflet handbook and will be made available on CD-ROM.