The following messages contain the main principles to guide the development of construction activities in the coming years, in the short term as a reaction to the COVID-19 crisis and in the long term to achieve the goals described in the EU Green Deal and Circular economy action plan. 
Construction Products Europe believes in the need to keep sustainability covering environmental impacts (planet), cost (prosperity) and social effects (people) along the life cycle of built assets as key driver for the future of construction. Our association and its members share the goals of the EC as regards European Green Deal and Circular Economy.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology is the most reliable scientific based methodology to quantify the environmental impacts of construction products across the life cycle of the built assets. Standards developed by CEN/TC 350 dealing with LCA for construction constitute a solid system, already in place, able to deliver results in the short and in the long term both at product and at building level. The amendment of EN 15804 aligning it to PEF as requested by the EC is published and a crucial step for the convergence of methodologies considering the specificities of the construction sector.

LCA assessment of buildings is implemented in some Member States and is one of the key deliverables of Level(s). This assessment should be applied to as many buildings as possible, but to achieve this goal digitalisation and a common reporting approach capable of delivering relevant aggregated information is required. Shared competences between EC and Member States must complement each other and result in a healthy market free of barriers to trade.

Circular economy and LCA need to be complementary concepts under a clear legislative framework serving for the purposes of decision making at National and at European level. A common framework addressing the horizontal issues such as demolition, waste hierarchy, secondary product markets, open and closed loop and limitations will have a positive effect. Within this framework a ‘fit for all’ solution is not feasible, as the value, availability, recyclability and potential uses of materials are fundamentaly different and need to be taken into account before implementing any requirement.

Waste, end-of-life and legacy substances  need to be addressed in any measure related to circular economy. Manufacturers as consumers of secondary materials and producers of products which will become waste, support transparency in the delivery of information, but the concept for delivering and managing the information needs to be balanced, must be useful and must not become a burden for the industry without real benefit.
Information from construction products related to circula economy needs to be linked to the built asset, e.g. by means of a building logbook, to be traceable and useful in the long term. Therefore, a consumer product’s approach is, in general, not valid. Required construction product information needs to be relevant and properly harmonised. However, supplying relevant information is not enough, the information must also be used in the decision-making process during all the stages of the construction: design, construction, operation and demolition. Digitalisation is key to deliver and manage complex and detailed information, such as LCA, but under the condition of harmonisation and interoperability at European level.
Policies such as Green Public Procurement and Sustainable financing, when developed on the basis of European harmonised information, are appropriate regulatory instruments to promote circular economy and decarbonisation in a common market.