2022 barometer from the INIES database: ever more environmental data to support RE2020

INIES, reference base for RE2020

Entering into force in January 2022, RE2020 is a major step in the decarbonization of the French construction sector. Its objective is to improve the environmental performance of new buildings in order to reduce their impact on the climate.

Reference tool for the application of RE 2020, the INIES database allows all construction stakeholders to assess the environmental footprint of new buildings. It is now the largest environmental database of construction products and equipment (FDES, PEP Ecopassport®, DED and DES) and stands out as the only source of such rich data in Europe to feed the Building LCA software.

Aware of their central role for the application of RE2020, manufacturers of construction products and equipment have once again actively committed to a voluntary process of declarations of their solutions, 100% verified, digitized then available free of charge.

Thus, as of August 31, 2022, the INIES database had a total of 5 data (up 389% compared to the 28 barometer), including:

• 3 FDES (+29% compared to December 31, 2021) representing 676 commercial references
• 599 PEP (+14% compared to December 31, 2021)
• DED1 including 1009 construction products and 486 equipment
• 105 conventional data including 33 lump sums and 72 conventional service data (DES)
• 343 FDES declaring organizations and 51 PEP declaring organizations (including 100 new FDES declarants and 5 for PEPs since 2022)

This very strong growth in the number of declarants testifies to the democratization of the production of environmental declarations accompanying RE2020.

In terms of product families and equipment, the 2022 INIES Barometer gives a precise view of the different families represented. As in the 2021 Barometer, we note that insulation still records the highest number of FDES (1202), ahead of the sector of products for partitioning and suspended ceilings (493) and those for structure/masonry/shell / carpentry (356), a sector which occupies joint third place with floor and wall coverings/paint/decorative products (356).

For PEPs, installation equipment for the electrical energy and communication network sector still dominates the ranking on the equipment side with 313 documents filled in and verified, followed by HVAC equipment (146) then those dedicated to safety of the building (41).

It is important to remember that the INIES Base provides the information needed to calculate the overall environmental impact of the building. It therefore goes beyond the “carbon” indicator and also includes information on the storage of biogenic carbon present in the atmosphere during the lifetime of buildings; the amount of materials from renewable, recycled or recyclable resources incorporated into them for the circular economy; health information to provide information on the product's contribution to the quality of the air inside the building. It is the consideration of all of these indicators that makes it possible to assess the environmental and health performance of the building.

INIES: what's new

To allow everyone easy access to the INIES database, a new site has been in place since the end of 2021. The latter has been enriched with 5 new design motions for educational purposes. Short videos are available with the aim of sharing, in a simple and fun way, key information concerning the INIES database, the FDES and the PEPs.

With regard to HVAC equipment, the PEP program's environmental declaration database has been completely redesigned and now offers a new registration and consultation interface with new functionalities.

At the request of building LCA specialists in charge of controlling the quality of building LCAs, a new interface has been made available to facilitate control of the calculation of the contribution of building components according to RE2020.

Missing data for RE2020

Despite the constant progress of the INIES database for almost 20 years and a strong mobilization of manufacturers, some data are still missing for RE2020.

In order to encourage manufacturers to provide environmental declarations for their products, the INIES database publishes in its 2022 Barometer the priority list of families of products and equipment for which declarations are missing.

The INIES database includes:

• the Environmental and Health Declaration Sheets (FDES) for construction products;
• Product Environmental Profiles (PEP) for electrical, electronic and HVAC equipment.
• default environmental data (DED)
• conventional service data (DES).

Download the INIES 2022 Barometer