On Thursday 15 October, the European Commission presented the ‘Level(s)’ initiative, a European framework to contribute to the design and construction of sustainable buildings.
“ Level(s) is designed to improve the sustainability of buildings throughout their lifecycle, helping professionals deliver better buildings while also speeding Europe’s transition towards a more circular economic model”, said European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Virginijus Sinkevičius.
Concretely, it is an assessment and reporting framework “which provides a common language for the sustainability performance of buildings”.
According to the Commission, ‘Level(s)’ offers a robust approach to measure and support the improvement of buildings, both residential and commercial, over their entire life cycle.
The initiative uses sustainability indicators, tested with and by the building sector (architects, engineers, product manufacturers, construction companies...), including carbon emissions, circularity and efficiency of materials as well as water use.
This framework has been developed for use by the various actors taking part in the construction of a building, as well as by those managing assessment and certification schemes to make sure that their criteria reflect the most important priorities for the circular economy at European level.
“It is all about assessing the performance of buildings over their lifetime. You can use it at any stage: conception, design or even procurement”, underlined Mr Sinkevičius.
Level(s) is part of the ‘renovation wave’ strategy (see EUROPE 12581/10) of the new ‘EU Circular Economy Action Plan’ and of the initiative for a “European Bauhaus” aimed in particular at promoting innovative and sustainable solutions in terms of architecture and materials (see EUROPE 12581/22). (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)