Plastics & Rubber
Viewpoint on SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION
Key messages
- Reducing the energy demand of buildings via an improved building envelop is necessary to achieve the climate protection ambition. Increasing the rate and depth of building renovation also bring benefits in terms of jobs, health, comfort, and poverty reduction.
- Renewable energy is too valuable to be wasted in inefficient buildings. A low-carbon energy system would not be realistic if buildings continue to waste energy, and the decarbonization of industry will require massive amounts of renewable energy.
- No construction product is completely green or sustainable: it all depends on the application. That’s why, the environmental performance is best assessed at building level via Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).
- Circularity and sustainability approaches in construction must remain material and technology neutral.
About the topic
The built environment has substantial impacts on energy use (ca. 40% of energy consumption), consumption of resources (ca. 50% of raw material use) and waste generation (ca. 30%). Developing more sustainable construction is therefore essential to move towards a climate-neutral and circular economy.
What we offer
- BASF supplies various raw materials used in construction products. From dispersions and additives to performance polymers and insulation materials, our chemistry contributes to make buildings more durable, resource-efficient, and energy-efficient.
- For example, BASF offers a wide portfolio of insulation materials: based on polystyrene (Neopor®, Styropor®, Styrodur®), polyurethane (Elastopor®, Elastopir®, Elastospray®), or minerals (Slentex®, Cavipor®).
- BASF publishes Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) or provides the necessary information to its customers for their EPDs, to declare life cycle impacts of the products and to allow the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of buildings.
- BASF offers solutions with alternative feedstocks via biomass balance or ChemCycling™ without changing the product performance. This can reduce the environmental footprint of the product as demonstrated by LCA/ EPD.
- BASF supports different circularity projects such as PolyStyreneLoop for the recycling of used EPS or BMBF projects for the chemical recycling of used EPS, XPS, PUR/PIR and will contribute to mechanical recycling projects.
What we ask for
- Increase building renovation to ensure the contribution of the building stock to the climate ambition. Achieving a highly energy-efficient and decarbonized building stock by 2050 requires increasing the rate and depth of building renovation.
- Follow the “energy efficiency first” principle to reduce the energy demand of buildings by aiming for a high-performance building envelope.
- Adopt a performance-based, material-neutral, and life-cycle approach to the environmental performance of buildings.
- Apply LCA at the entire building level, to evaluate all environmental aspects of the life cycle and consider the interactions between product choices.
- Use EPDs to declare the life-cycle impacts of construction products.
- Use LCA to assess recycled or biobased content materials as a possible means of achieving a better environmental performance. - Focus on deconstruction and sorting activities, and on the development of recycling value chains to ensure circularity in construction. The aim should be to avoid landfilling of building and demolition waste and to use the best recovery option for each waste stream.
For further information, please contact dialog-plastics@basf.com.