The FDES and PEP feature several environmental indicators needed for a multi-criteria assessment of a building’s environmental performance. The multi-criteria nature of the environmental assessment is essential and must be preserved in order to make it possible :
- to correctly distinguish construction choices (materials, equipment, architectural design elements, etc.)
- to give decision makers freedom (public authorities, contracting authorities, designers, advisers, etc.) with regard to their environmental policy and their choice of environmental priorities.
For example, to choose a type of energy (gas, coal, heating oil, wood, electricity, geothermal, etc.), one must examine environmental criteria such as consumption of energy resources, greenhouse gas emissions, acid gas emissions, particulate emissions, and production of radioactive waste.
No other form of energy is better than the rest for all these criteria. It is therefore up to the decision maker to make a choice based on their environmental priorities.
