- New BRE Life Cycle Assessment tool will provide a straightforward route to EPD for a much wider audience than previously possible - BRE’s new online Life Cycle Assessment tool – LINA – goes live today enabling companies and trade associations to assess their products in line with EN 15804*, the European standard for the sustainability of construction products. The standard looks at the environmental impact of a product through its lifespan from raw materials and manufacturing to application, use and disposal. Data from the LINA assessment can then be submitted online for a BRE Global Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) stamp of approval which demonstrates that the underlying data and data handling on the product’s sustainability are consistently reliable. Speaking at the launch event BRE’s Associate Director of Sustainable Products Dr Shamir Ghumra said ‘EPD are now increasingly demanded by clients and specifiers on global development projects that use sustainability standards like BREEAM, CEEQUAL and the Home Quality Mark. EPD will also become a prerequisite of BIM (Building Information Modelling) as it gains market traction. We need to encourage more product manufacturers to get EPD and LINA is the catalyst not simply because it is compliant with the required standard but it also enables companies to generate the data required themselves thereby reducing costs.’ LINA can also be used for product evaluation, product development, and internal benchmarking purposes. Its benefits are not limited to EPD either; the update to ISO 14001 last year now places greater emphasis on life cycle perspective and the outputs of LINA can complement an existing Environmental Management System. The LINA tool has been developed with IT software specialists PRe Sustainability. For further information on LINA go to www.bre.co.uk/lina or contact Dr Shamir Ghumra, email shamir.ghumra@bre.co.uk. NOTES TO EDITOR * EN15804: Sustainability of construction works/Environmental product declarations/Core rules for the product category of construction products BRE: We are a world leading building science centre and the authority on all aspects of the built environment. We generate new knowledge through research that is used to create products, tools and standards that drive positive change across the built environment. We enable our government and private sector clients to meet the environmental, social and economic challenges they face by delivering higher performing, better quality, safer, more secure and more sustainable products homes, buildings and communities. We are owned by the BRE Trust, a registered charity, which funds research and education that advances knowledge of the built environment.  We are committed to building a better world together. We are BRE. BRE Global is an independent, third-party approvals organisation, offering certification of products, services and systems to an international market. Our testing and approvals are carried out by recognised experts in world-class facilities. BRE Global is part of the BRE Trust, the largest UK charity dedicated specifically to research and education in the built environment. www.bre.co.uk PRe Sustainability www.pre-sustainability.com