Overview

This project already has a certain history. With the publication of the most significant innovations that were to be included in the amendment of the EU Construction Products Directive (89/106/EEC), sustainability has now also been included in the new EU Construction Products Regulation (305/2011/EU) as the seventh basic requirement for construction products. Already at this time, at least in the European sanitary ceramics industry, thought was given to how to describe this basic requirement for their products in the future. In the meantime, the results of the work of CEN/TC 350 "Sustainability of construction works" became known, which had to be taken into account in the industry's own considerations. Based on its current experience with specifications for construction products, the sanitary ceramics industry has decided, on the one hand, to deal with this topic at an early stage and, on the other hand, to articulate the intentions of the manufacturers and to bring these into line with the expected formal specifications of the EU Commission. It has also been learned that in some Member States (for example, France, the Netherlands, Belgium) efforts are underway to make sustainability a legal requirement for industrially manufactured products, including also ceramic sanitary appliances. In this sense the project is a measure that aims to be prepared with corresponding specifications at the time of the requirement to declare sustainability for sanitary appliances. Since 2011 intensive discussions at plenary sessions of CEN/TC 163 "Sanitary appliances" and meetings of its working groups WG 3 and WG 4 have already been held with regard to the problem of demonstrating the sustainability of sanitary appliances. Although a first step was taken towards a common approach based on Decision 1/2012 regarding a defined structure of a possible document, the discussions on this subject and on the development of a basic understanding at the joint meeting of CEN/TC 163/WG 3 and WG 4 did not yield any results; neither was acceptance achieved for the intention of the work initiated by the sanitary ceramics sector nor for the basic concern per se among the other subsectors of the sanitary industry. It is precisely for this reason that the topic has now been pushed with the singular reference to sanitary ceramics products, in order to obtain official national statements at an early stage instead of opinions expressed by certain experts. Though possibly not understood by other subsectors of the sanitary industry at this point in time, the independent initiative of sanitary ceramics was seen by the latter as the only option in order to work on this topic in the sense of the industry concerned; otherwise, a different attitude toward the topic that would support a common approach supported by all subsectors would have had to develop at CEN/TC 163. The draft standard already submitted in May 2013 did not meet with the approval of France and the United Kingdom in particular, so that a significant revision was necessary while maintaining the aforementioned objective, with the criticism of the experts from these two Member States being particularly appreciated. A large proportion of the comments referred to the closer alignment with the latest version of EN 15804 "Sustainability of construction works - Environmental product declarations - Core rules for the product category of construction products", although this standard only has its validity precisely in accordance with its title. The second draft standard published in the interest of fairness in December 2014 contained a much closer relationship to EN 15804 than the first draft standard. It was again clearly emphasized that this is as simple a set of instructions as possible for assessing the sustainability of ceramic sanitary products. Those criteria that can be used for sanitary ceramics were selected from EN 15804. Criteria that were already covered by the harmonized European standards for the products mentioned in the scope have now been deleted. Those from Leiden University (Netherlands) from 2012 were chosen as the data basis for calculations. The standard now developed establishes a system for evaluating the sustainability of ceramic sanitary appliances using a life cycle approach, featuring qualitative and quantitative indicators for ecologic, economic and social performance of sanitary ceramic appliances. The purpose of this standard is to provide requirements and classification values for the assessment of the sustainability of ceramic sanitary appliances. It is recommended that the assessment of sustainable ceramic sanitary appliances is carried out for each production site and should cover a period of one year, with the assessment being valid for a maximum of the following three years. The evaluation scheme can be applied to any product. It is possible to combine product groups with the same characteristics. General and product-specific requirements should be assessed for each product group, for example washing basins and urinals. The criteria identified in the standard are based on the "three pillar model" of sustainability as agreed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002. These "three pillars" (ecological, economic and social requirements) are used here within the meaning of sustainability. The ecological pillar requires the conservation of resources. In the case of ceramic sanitary appliances, sustainability means the conservation of resources, optimized use of raw materials and additives, energy-optimized production and optimized transport (supply chain). The sanitary ceramics industry uses raw materials derived from natural mineral sources. The extraction of these raw materials results in considerable intervention in the environment of the respective country of origin with partly far-reaching ecological consequences. For this reason, extraction should be carried out in a sustainable manner with subsequent restoration of the original condition of the mining area. Sustainable production of ceramic sanitary appliances will reduce emissions and have a positive impact on climate change. Efficient production technologies (for example in terms of energy, water and raw material consumption, waste (including recycling), pollutant emissions) deal with natural resources in a responsible way. Optimum waste management in the sense of a reduction of waste and more efficient use of natural resources is one of the essential objectives of sustainable production. For this purpose, the ratio between the amount of waste and the total use of raw and auxiliary materials as well as the recyclability of disposal waste play a significant role in the evaluation. Ecological transport through the use of new integrated transport concepts and coordination systems for vehicles and infrastructure reduce environmental pollution. For this purpose, the evaluation criterion for the average transport distance of raw materials and finished end products was introduced. The direct impact assessment on the environment was described with parameters such as global warming potential, stratospheric ozone depletion potential, soil and water acidification potential, eutrophication potential, tropospheric ozone formation potential, and abiotic (fossil and non-fossil) resource depletion potential. Economic sustainability requires a viable and sustainable economic system with particular emphasis on the use of natural resources. The impacts of natural resource use are evaluated with various requirements. It is in the general interest to save water. Among other things, washing basins and urinals have to meet certain flushing requirements, using as little water as possible to clean the appliance. Likewise, the behavior of end users has a significant influence on water conservation. The flushing water volumes of washing basins and urinals according to EN 997 and EN 13407 respectively are primarily used for this purpose. The life cycle of a ceramic sanitary appliance provides information on the period of service life for the intended use; that is, the period of intended use from installation to removal, during which no visible changes occur and the full performance level is maintained, whereby the type of power supply and the energy consumption of a product during its service life also have a major economic impact. The social and functional requirements of ceramic sanitary appliances deal with different aspects of user-friendliness, safety of use and maintenance. User-friendliness is determined by the quality of the ceramic sanitary appliance and the ease of use of the appliance by the user based on experience. This includes, among other things, criteria such as the use of cleaning agents and chemicals and the noise emission of an inlet valve of the cistern. It will be possible to indicate the sustainability class in the marking code of the ceramic sanitary appliance by means of a correlation of the achieved sustainability value and sustainability class in the proposed evaluation scheme. During preparation of the standard of accessible environmental product declarations (EPDs) for sanitary ceramic products, it became apparent that comparability was not possible, as different data had been assumed; now the basis for comparability has been created with the standard. The standard can be used by the designer for the calculation of buildings and existing EPDs can also be used for the evaluation of sustainability for sanitary ceramic products. With the aid of this standard, this proof of sustainability can be provided with reasonable effort. This standard has been developed under the leadership of NA 119-05-18-01 UA "Waschtische, Sitzwaschbecken, Klosetts, Urinale" (eines der Spiegelgremien zur CEN/TC 163/WG 3 "WC-Becken, Spülkästen, Urinale, Sitzwaschbecken und Küchenspülen" (Sekretariat DIN)) ("Washing basins, bidets, lavatories, urinals" (one of the mirror committees of CEN/TC 163/WG 3 "Closet bowls, flushing cisterns, urinals, bidets and kitchen sinks" (secretariat: DIN)) at DIN Standards Committee Water Practice (NAW).

Document: references other documents

Responsible national committee

NA 119-05-18-01 UA - Washing basins, bidets, lavatories, urinals (CEN/TC 163/WG 3)  

Responsible european committee

CEN/TC 163/WG 3 - Closet bowls, flushing cisterns, urinals, bidets and kitchen sinks