Eco-Efficiency in Development of Construction Products

Development processes of the real estate and construction sector aim more often at eco-efficiency and sustainability of products, buildings, infrastructure and the entire built environment. In development of construction products, eco-efficiency is assessed against issues that are related to competitiveness and life-time impacts to the nature and climate at the same time. The impacts may concern the product itself or its succeeding impacts in the use of buildings like e.g. reduction of energy-consumption through phase-changing materials or intake of renewable energy through photovoltaic panels. New types of requirements mean that already in the early stages of a product development project, goals concerning eco-efficiency should be agreed - and methods to verify them throughout the project should be available. Eco-efficiency of construction products has already been improved through many measures like for example reduction of energy-consumption (steel-industry), heat production with recycled materials (cement manufacturing), recycling content (concrete, glass wool), replacing natural sand by crushed stone. However, a true shift toward a market of eco-efficient construction products needs systematic approaches and generic methods as well as reliable environmental data on real estate and construction sector.