Frequently asked questions

INIES is the French national reference database for environmental and health data on construction products and equipment. INIES offers Environmental and Health Declaration Sheets (FDES) for construction products and Product Environmental Profiles (PEP) for building equipment, provided by manufacturers and trade associations in the format set out in European standard NF EN 15804 and its national supplement NF EN 15804/CN for construction products and standard NF XP C08-100-1 and PCR version 3 for equipment.

The INIES database is run by the supervisory board and the technical committee. The supervisory board, chaired by the Alliance HQE-GBC, ensures that the database operates ethically and professionally. The technical committee oversees the collection and processing of data as well as database content updates.

See more : Who are we ?

A FDES is an Environmental and Health Declaration Sheet. This declaration is drawn up under the responsibility of the product's manufacturers (or trade association). Standard NF EN 15804 and its national supplement defines the production method and the format for declaring environmental and health information.

Creating a FDES entails having a product's life cycle analysis (LCA, a very detailed environmental performance assessment) and health information, often the results of specific tests.

See more : FDES (Construction products)

A PEP or Product Environmental Profile is an environmental declaration for electrical, electronic, and HVAC equipment that is based on the results of a life cycle analysis. Standard NF XP C08-100-1 and PCR (Product Category Rules) edition 3 define the rules for creating a PEP ecopassport®.

See more : PEP (Building equipment)

Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) is an environmental evaluation method that makes it possible to quantify the impacts of a product, service, or process over the span of its life cycle, from extracting raw materials to end of life processing, not forgetting the inclusion of implementation and working life. A standardised, recognised tool (standards in the ISO 14040 series), the LCA is the most complete method in terms of overall multi-criteria evaluation, a result of interpreting the quantified balance sheet of material flows and incoming and outgoing energy flows at each stage of the product's life cycle. To convey the results of the analysis, and to compare the same product or service, a functional unit is defined. This is a means of measurement that quantifies the function performed by the product being studied.

The results of an LCA are expressed as a series of environmental indicators, which include both potential impacts (e.g., x kg of CO2 equivalents for the greenhouse effect) and physical flows (e.g., y kg of hazardous waste).

Standards NF EN 15804, and NF XP C08-100-1, NF EN 15978 are industrial variations of standard ISO 14040 respectively for construction products, equiquements and buildings.

Learn more about product LCA and building LCA

The FDES present in INIES correspond to well-identified products. In the case of products with a wide variety of dimensions, formulations, etc., it is difficult to provide all possible configurations in the INIES Database. Some professions have created tools for editing an FDES by leaving the user the choice to enter the few parameters specific to his building or work project.

Configurators are software with input masks for identified configurable data. These configurators contain LCI data (Life Cycle Indicators) for the product family concerned.

To be listed on the INIES database, the tools must allow editing FDES that are compliant with the NF EN15804 standard and the French complementary standard, and must be checked in the INIES programme. The INIES Programme requested that the FDES of the most commonly used products on the market are present in INIES, in order to be directly accessible on the Database and transmitted to the software by the INIES webservice. For the other configurations of these products, a direct link to the configurator is added in the same section of the INIES nomenclature. Today 5 configurators are available:

• BETie (ready-mixed concrete)
• Environnement IB (concrete)
• SAVE (steel)
• DE-bois (wood)
• DE-bois de France (wood from France)

More information : The configurators

As part of the work on the environmental performance of new buildings and with a view to the RE2020 environmental regulation, default environmental data has been developed for construction or decoration products and equipment. They are made available by the Ministry in charge of construction. In the absence of specific data, these default environmental data are intended to allow an as complete as possible calculation of the LCA of a building. These default environmental data shall be used in the absence of an environmental declaration for the chosen construction or decoration product, or equipment (they always include a safety factor in order to cover the uncertainty on the environmental performance of the installed product, in absence of specific data).

More information : Other data in the INIES database

For construction products, the standard used to carry out a FDES has been European standard NF EN 15804 and its national supplement NF EN 15804/CN.

For building equipment, the standards used are NF XP C08-100-1 and PCR (Product Category Rules) edition 3.

All declarations (FDES and PEP) are vintage and valid for 5 years. The decision to update a declaration is the responsibility of its issuer. Like for drawing up an FDES, its updating is therefore a voluntary process. The main reasons for updating an FDES are:

• modification of the reference baseline to establish the FDES (revision of standards),
• addition of a production site or a manufacturer in the field of an FDES,
• significant change in one of the stages of the life cycle (supply of raw materials, manufacturing process, maintenance rules, modified end of life, etc.)
• update of the generic databases used to draw up the FDES.

The inventory method is used in the NF P01-010 standard for open-loop waste recovery processing (from one product to another). The inventory creates a real or fictitious border between the product that generates the waste and the product that uses it. Everything that is upstream of the inventory is therefore part of the life cycle of the product that generates the waste. Everything that is downstream of the inventory is part of the life cycle of the product that uses the waste. The position of the inventory is defined based on technical, legal and economic criteria.

For example, for concrete waste, the inventory can be positioned after the first crushing. The concrete product then takes on the impacts of being transported to a recycling centre and crushed. The steps after crushing, which transform the crushed concrete into a road product for example, belong to the road product's life cycle.

Wood and more generally any vegetal biomass, thanks to photosynthesis, capture CO2 during the growth of the plant; this carbon is generally called "biogenic carbon". By capturing this CO2, the vegetal biomass can help to mitigate the effects of global warming. This effect is taken into account in the global warming indicator calculated as part of the life cycle assessment. Thus, for the production stage of the product, negative figures may be observed ("A1-A3" stages of the FDES or PEP). Wood construction therefore appears to be a solution for storing carbon during the life of the construction work. But when wood is used to produce energy (wood energy, energy recovery from wood waste) and at the end of life of the building, it re-emits all or part of this CO2, therefore, we use the term temporary storage. The NF EN 15804 +A2/CN standard (and the future PCR ed 4 for PEP) has defined the accounting rules allowing the upstream capture and various re-emissions of greenhouse gases to be taken into account throughout the life cycle, especially at the end of life. In order to meet the requirements of the ELAN law, an indicator of biogenic carbon storage in buildings is implemented by the RE2020 environmental regulation. Therefore, to meet this requirement, it is necessary that the environmental declarations of construction products and equipment specify the quantity stored during the service life of the product. This quantity must be expressed in kgC/FU. This field is now in place on INIES

Two types of DED are available for wood products (sustainable or non-sustainable management of the resource). The calculation method applies safety coefficients to all the processes that contribute to the global warming impact indicator, excluding those related to biogenic carbon where the real balance between capture and emission is kept as it is in the calculation, without application of a safety factor. In case of sustainably managed resources, capture of biogenic carbon dioxide is affected by a coefficient of -1, and emission of biogenic carbon dioxide and methane respectively by a coefficient + 1, and + 25, for the impact indicator on global warming. In case of resources that are not managed sustainably, no capture of biogenic carbon dioxide is considered. Emissions are considered in the same way. If the origin of the wood is not known, the DED considers unsustainable resource management.

Module B, corresponding to the use of the product in a building, is itself divided into 7 modules:

• Module B1 covers operations related to product use (excluding water and energy use);
• Module B2 covers maintenance operations;
• Module B3 covers repair operations;
• Module B4 covers replacement operations;
• Module B5 covers refurbishment operations;
• Module B6 covers operations related to operational energy use;
• Module B7 covers operations related to operational water use;

In order not to count energy and water consumption twice, the information given in modules B6 and B7 should not be taken into account in the building LCA.

Creation and update requests must be made on the Mlab platform available at the following address: www.mdegd.dimn-cstb.fr. The DED are updated either following a change in the calculation method or following requests on the Mlab platform. These update requests can be made for different cases:

• Detection of an anomaly in the DED or noticed error(s);
• Contribution to abnormally high impacts of the DED at the scale of the building or of construction or decoration products and equipment;
• DED advantageous compared to a specific data;
• Publication of one or more first specific data leading to modification of the calculation method of the DED (DED Case 3 (absence of specific data) becoming a DED case 1 or 2 (specific data existing));
• Publication of new specific data leading to modification of the calculation of the DED (DED Case 2 remaining Case 2 but initial sample modified and significantly impacting the statistical calculation of the DED);
• Publication of one or more specific data when only one data already exists leading to modification of the calculation of the DED (DED Case 1 becoming a DED case 2);
• Specific data with presumption of anomaly initially integrated into the sample and distorting the statistical calculation of the DED (Case 1 or case 2: Inies return)
• Request argued on a case-by-case basis.

Once the request is made on the Mlab platform, it is processed in order to judge its relevance and priority.

HQE® is a registered trademark. In form, no construction product or building equipment can claim this brand. In substance, the response given by the Alliance HQE-GBC, which holds the total and exclusive operating licenses of the HQE® brand, is as follows: "...There are no 'HQE' products/materials."

Indeed, all products and materials have different environmental, health, technical, and economic characteristics.

It is up to professionals in the field to choose the products/materials with the technical, economic, environmental, and health characteristics that make it possible, by following standard implementation practices and the manufacturer's instructions, to achieve the level of technical, environmental, and health quality specified for the construction work, within a given budget. This would entail construction product/material manufacturers providing environmental and health characteristics for their products, as they have always done for technical characteristics.

For environmental and health criteria to be taken into account in an unbiased manner when choosing products/materials, it is essential that this environmental and health information meets the same benchmarks to gauge their relevance, reliability and sincerity. This consensual benchmark is standard NF EN 15804 and its national supplement for construction product and NF XP C08-100-1 and PCR edition3 for equipment.

All construction products have impacts on the environment. These impacts are evaluated based on many criteria (energy consumption, water consumption, waste production, air and water pollution, etc.). However, there is currently no recognised consensual benchmark* with set thresholds for these various environmental impacts that could determine if a product is good for the environment (the situation is identical for the other qualifiers such as 'eco-product', 'eco-material', 'environmentally-friendly material', etc.).

Furthermore, a construction product is an "intermediate product". It is meant to be incorporated into a building and associated with other products to contribute to the overall performance of the construction work. Consequently, the scale of the work is the only relevant indicator to comprehensively assess the environmental performance of construction products. A building's overall design, including careful choices of construction processes and products (or an intelligent combination thereof) is what enables said building to achieve the environmental performance that is expected of it. That is why it is impossible to separate products' environmental characteristics from their technical (or economic) characteristics. The most environmentally-friendly construction products possible are therefore those that, thanks to their technical performance and controlled intrinsic environmental impact, help the construction work achieve the technical performance necessary to help control its environmental impact.

The INIES database is therefore not a database of products that have been selected because they are good for the environment; any product can be in the database, as long as its manufacturer meets the admission requirements. * With the exception of the NF Environment benchmark on paints.

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.

FDES sheets detail the environmental impacts of construction products, calculated using a single benchmark (standard NF P 01-010), the only unbiased means of comparison.

However, some precautions must be taken for relevant comparisons to be made: Construction products are components whose purpose is to contribute to building a structure. Their individual environmental performances are integrated into the structure as well as their technical, aesthetic, economic, etc., performances.

For this reason, comparing building products out of context is not always appropriate. However, it is still possible, provided that:

• a functional unit (including a lifetime and at least one key performance indicator) is defined.
• the FDES sheets are checked to ensure that the products being compared have the same parameters (do they include packaging and complementary products?).
• the comparison is not limited to the environmental profile, and that technical performance criteria not included in the functional unit are taken into account if they differ greatly.

Comparing construction products should be kept to a minimum for construction components with the same function.

As with product comparisons, it is appropriate to define a relevant unit of comparison (functional unit), specifying the performances being compared and the lifetime used for this comparison.

The example in the table below shows that the lifetime used for the comparison should not be chosen at random, as it influences the results of the comparison. It is advisable to choose a lifetime for each product included in the comparison (equal or not to the lifetime indicated in the FDES), as well as the period over which the comparison will be carried out.

(For a better reading of the comparison table, you can also consult the FAQ in PDF format)

Defining a relevant functional unit often requires combining several products to form a complete solution (for example, comparing insulation + plasterboard + metal frame versus complex insulation/plasterboard bonded to masonry).

Even in this case, sometimes comparisons can be biased for highly multifunctional solutions (mechanical strength, heat resistance, thermal inertia, acoustic protection, fire behaviour, etc.) when this multifunctionality results in differences in performance on the scale of the overall project. For example, a functional unit based solely on heat resistance is not enough to compare conventional insulation solutions with applied insulation solutions in view of their vastly different thermal inertia and acoustic protection properties.

Often the most appropriate course of action is to evaluate the building in its entirety.

If we exclude the special case of materials that come into contact with drinking water, there are no benchmarks in place to confirm that a product is safe, that is, one product does not have an impact on health but another product does. For the materials that come into contact with drinking water, based on benchmarks (list of authorised materials, migration test, etc.), it is up to health authorities relying on detailed regulations and approved laboratories to grant a product authorisation to come into contact with drinking water (in France: ACS or Certificate of Sanitary Conformity). More generally, the Construction Products Directive (DPC 89/106), transposed into French law, specifies in essential requirement No. 3 that the hygiene and health of occupants and neighbours must be ensured by measures including:

• the design of the project, its implementation, and its maintenance,
• properties,
• performance and use of construction products.

This directive also establishes that the health performance of construction products is assessed through a multi-criteria approach using known technical characteristics (ability to seal out water and gases, thermal shock resistance, permeability to water vapour, etc.) and other more specific health criteria that require specific tests and methods, currently being drafted and/or harmonised at the European level (emissions of hazardous substances including volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and formaldehyde, natural radioactive emissions, emissions of fibres and particles, etc.).

FDES sheets that meet the requirements of standards NF EN 15804 and its national supplement and have been accepted into the INIES contain information that reflects the current French consensus on conveying the health and comfort characteristics of construction products.

The INIES database is therefore not a database of products that have been selected because they are safe. Any product can be in the database, as long as its manufacturer meets the requirements for admission.

Read more: Indoor air quality

For construction products and equipment, the "total primary energy consumption" indicator represents the primary energy "used up" by the product over the course of its life cycle. This represents the amount of energy from nature (gas, oil, uranium ore, biomass, wind, geothermal, etc.) needed to produce, transport, and implement the product, plus the energy used during its lifetime and at the end of its life. This primary energy is one part renewable and one part non-renewable. It also includes a "material" part and a "process" part. The "material" part corresponds to the amount of energy that could theoretically be recovered by burning the product (in the case of products containing polymers or biomass). The "process" energy part corresponds to all of the primary energy invested in processing procedures, operating processes and transporting the material over the entire product life cycle. The FDES and PEP therefore contain the values of five energy indicators that correspond to the product concerned.

Reference standards provide the method for calculating these indicators. However, only the indicators of total primary energy, renewable and non-renewable energy are set according to the standard in the table of environmental indicators. For construction products, these indicators make it possible to explain the concept of embodied (or "grey") energy. Indeed, there is currently no standardised definition of this concept, and different interpretations coexist. Embodied energy values found in the literature differ greatly depending on the definition chosen and its interpretation. Therefore, it is advisable to use the various energy indicators given by the reference standards to describe and quantify the different energy resources consumed over the course of a product's life cycle.

Read more : Product LCA

The climate change indicator is used to assess a construction product or equipment's contribution to the increased content of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. It is generally accepted that the increasing greenhouse effect causes changes to the Earth's climate, notably an increase to its average temperature. It is expressed in kg CO2 equivalent (carbon dioxide or carbonic gas) and includes all of the greenhouse gases that the product emits over the course of its life cycle. Not all gases have the same effect.

For example, a kilogram of methane (CH4) contributes 21 times more to the greenhouse effect than a kilogram of CO2, and one kilogram of nitrous oxide (N2O) is 310 times more harmful. Per kilogram emitted, some gases contribute several thousand times more to the greenhouse effect than CO2. Thus, the climate change indicator provides information on greenhouse gas emissions and their impact on global warming. The standard requires that at least the three main gases relevant to construction products (CO2, CH4, N2O) be taken into account.

While many tools exist for evaluating a territory or activity's greenhouse gas emissions (carbon footprint or carbon accounting, etc.), life cycle analysis (used in the FDES and PEP) is the only tool adapted to both products and buildings.

As for energy, it is important to think on the scale of the building rather than the products because some products benefit the building by reducing its consumption and greenhouse gases emissions. To avoid counting this effect twice, avoidances are not attributed to products but are included in the environmental and energy performances of buildings.

Read more : Product LCA

Since 1 July 2017, manufacturers must have the conformity of their environmental declarations verified by an independent third party (accredited verifiers) in accordance with the reference standards as part of a verification programme: INIES programme for construction products and PEP Ecopassport programme for equipment. These programmes are in particular framed by the order of 31 August 2015, relating to the verification of environmental declarations by an independent third party, which sets the method to be followed to assess the environmental impacts of building construction and decoration products and equipment as far as they are intended to be sold to the consumer, as well as the content of the verification, the skills expected from the verifier and the conditions for recognition of the latter's aptitude. Each verifier passes an exam to obtain an accreditation which is based on the requirements of the ISO 14025 standard aimed at qualifying the skills required to ensure the quality and independence of the verifications. The prerequisites for the verifier exam are the practice of life cycle assessment in the field of construction products or equipment, and a completion of at least 2 FDES / PEP ecopassport® for different product families in the last two years. All data recorded in the INIES Programme and PEP ecopassport are valid for 5 years. The points examined by the verifier are multiple:

• Objective of the study
• Functional unit
• Description of the product
• System boundaries
• Energy mix
• Cut-off rules
• Data collection and quality
• Scenarios used
• Plausibility and completeness of data
• Verification of communication aspects
• Health characteristics for FDES

Beyond the FDES, the INIES programme also offers a verification of Life Cycle Inventories (LCI) and configurators.

Learn more about the INIES verification program and the PEP ecopassport® verification program.

There are now many tools for using FDES and PEP, in particular for building LCA. As part of the RE2020 environmental regulation, some software has undergone an assessment of their compatibility with the E+C- experimentation reference system. This list is available on the E+C- experimentation site. As soon as RE2020 comes into force, this software (or new ones) has to be reassessed and validated to be in compliance with this regulation.

More about the Building LCA and the Digital Data Webservice

The REACH Regulation (Regulation No. 1907/2006 of 18 December 2006) is the regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction of Chemicals (CHemicals).

Entered into force on 1 June 2007, its aim is to ensure a high level of protection for both human health and the environment with regard to chemicals, on their own ("substances"), as "mixtures" or contained in finished or semi-finished products ("articles"). In short, to be produced or imported into the European Economic Area, chemical substances must be registered by their manufacturers or importers according to a timetable based on tonnage placed on the market and dangerousness.

In concrete terms, REACH makes the chemical industry responsible for providing information about the dangers of their substances (intrinsic characteristics) and possible risks posed by their use. Adequate information on substances and mixtures is then communicated to their users, predominantly article manufacturers, via Safety Data Sheets (SDS, not to be confused with the FDES), whose content is regulated. The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), centralises all the information and validates the files ("chemical safety assessment"). Later in the value chain, a similar obligation requires article manufacturers/suppliers to distribute information as follows:

• In a manufacturer-manufacturer relationship (B2B), they must inform their customers if the article sold contains more than 0.1% by weight of a substance on the "candidate" list, provide the name of this substance, and provide rules for how to use the article safely (article 33, paragraph 1),
• In a manufacturer-consumer relationship (B2C), they must provide the same information mentioned above for any article sold containing more than 0.1% by weight of a substance on the "candidate" list (article 33, paragraph 2), free of charge, to any consumer who requests it, within a maximum of 45 days of receiving the request.

The "candidate" list, which features the "very high concern" substances that may be subject to usage restrictions (see below), is updated every six months by the ECHA. The ECHA will gradually select substances from this list that are destined to either be taken off the European market or that will only be authorised for a clearly identified limited number of uses during a set time. These substances are added to "Annex XIV", the first version of which was published on 18 February 2011. According to REACH, construction materials, products and equipment are:

• Mostly "articles":
  • that can only be manufactured from substances that are duly registered for said manufacture,
  • that are subject to the obligations set out in Article 33 regarding information about the content of substances on the candidate list. Specific information provided in the FDES sheets.
• A minority of "mixtures" (cement, glue, etc.) for which Safety Data Sheets must be provided.

Read more : Indoor air quality

FDES and PEP include a set of environmental data from the LCA (impacts, flows, etc.) but they also provide information on the technical performance of the product, on its suitability for use in order to choose the FDES or PEP corresponding to the chosen product. For the FDES, other useful information is related to the contribution of the product to comfort in the building (hygrothermal, acoustic, visual and olfactory comfort), to the sanitary quality of the water as well as the contribution of the product to the health conditions in the building (for example emissions into the air, characterisation in relation to radon, etc.)

Learn more about EHDS (Construction Products) and PEP (Building Equipment)

FDES and PEP contain much information about the materials used at input of the life cycle or the fate of these materials or products at the end of their life. A product participating in the circular economy can be chosen by focusing, for example, on its recycled material content, information that can be found in the "Use of secondary materials" indicator. It can also be chosen according to its contribution to the production of waste throughout its life cycle and its potential for reuse, recycling and energy recovery, which units are expressed in kg. But the circular economy is also the optimisation of resources, which goes through the indicator of depletion of non-fossil resources (ADP) for example resources such as clay, limestone, gold, copper... and its unit is the antimony equivalent (kg Sb). The more the resource is considered rare and exploited, the more the value of the indicator increases. Antimony ADP is worth 1 but that of clay is worth 2.99.10-11 while that of silver is 1.84. The use of this information is currently being tested in the framework of HQE Performance work on material flow analysis (MFA). They will surely prove to be useful for the implementation of article L. 111-9 of the French construction code which aims to incorporate materials from recycling. The circular economy also concerns energy flows and the FDES and PEP inform you about the use of recovered energy (use of renewable and non-renewable secondary fuels) and the energy produced that is recovered from the product. FDES and PEP end-of-life scenarios are based on current national references or regulatory values ​​for equipment under REP systems. With the improvement of deconstruction, sorting on site or in specialised centres and the development of new recycling channels, French references should evolve. Finally, these declarations mention a description of the main components per unit allowing to identify the different materials and quantities used.

More information : The circular economy

The INIES and PEP Ecopassport® programmes are part of the European ECO Platform Association, which aims to facilitate exchanges between programme operators and to harmonise practices. It brings together a number of environmental declaration programmes in Europe. Within this framework, the programmes have worked to develop common rules for the verification of environmental data. For the INIES program, the environmental declaration must be drawn up for a given functional unit (application and performance specified) for a product sold on the French market. If the functional unit is compliant, then for environmental declarations that have been checked by a verifier from an Eco Platform member programme, parts A1-A3 do not need to be checked a second time. The additional verification then concerns the other modules and the sanitary section to be compliant with the requirements of the INIES Programme. The INIES and IBU (Intitut Bauen und Umwelt eV in Germany) programmes have signed a bilateral mutual recognition agreement. The INIES programme has already accepted data from IBU after these have met INIES requirements, namely compliance with French regulations and contextualisation of the data so that they are really representative of a product that will be used in buildings in France (in particular transport and end of life of the product). The declaration must also be drawn up for a given functional unit in order to be used directly in building LCA.

More information : Our international action

The webservice allows building LCA software to be fed with digitised data from INIES. Set up in 2013, the INIES webservice offers the possibility of accessing a large part of the content of environmental declarations in digital format.

More information : The digitised data webservice