EN 15978:2026 - A Harmonized Method to Assess the Environmental Performance of Buildings

This standard provides a unified approach for assessing environmental performance across all stages of the building life cycle, covering new buildings, existing buildings, and refurbishment projects. It establishes the information requirements for design for circularity as a technical characteristic supporting environmental performance.

To achieve this, it consolidates data obtained from Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) and their information modules (EN 15804:2012+A2:2019), along with other relevant and necessary information used in the assessment.

Why this standard matters

By defining consistent system boundaries, calculation rules, and indicators, EN 15978:2026 ensures that environmental assessments of buildings are carried out in a transparent and comparable way.

Benefits for industry

The standard enables stakeholders to use a common method to quantify environmental performance for new, existing buildings, and refurbished building projects. With clear rules for inventory analysis and reporting, it supports more informed decision-making throughout the built environment sector.

It also ensures that assessments are based on verified data sources, such as EPDs, improving reliability and comparability.

Practical applications of the standard

EN 15978:2026 can be used to structure the collection of environmental data for buildings, to calculate environmental indicators, and to prepare consistent reports for communication purposes.

It helps practitioners assess all life cycle stages and evaluate how construction products, building systems, and services contribute to environmental performance.

The standard was developed by CEN/TC 350 'Sustainability of construction works', the Secretariat of which is held by AFNOR.