From 1 July 2022, in Norway it is mandatory to account for greenhouse gas emissions related to materials for apartment blocks and commercial buildings according to TEK17. The greenhouse gas account is based on the NS3720:2018 however does not include full life-cycle stages.
The requirement of TEK17 § 17-1 means that the players in the construction industry must increase their expertise on greenhouse gas emissions from materials. They must use tools to calculate greenhouse gas emissions and develop routines to follow up on the requirement. In this way, the industry will be prepared for possible stricter greenhouse gas requirements in the future.
1. Life-Cycle & Results Scope
The calculation includes the life-cycle modules of A1-A3, A4, A5, B2, and B4.
A1-A3: Production stage.
A4: Transport to the construction site.
A5: Construction site activity. In TEK17, the scope in module A5 includes emissions related to the production and transport to the building site of materials that become cuttings and wastage. Emissions related to waste management of cuttings and wastage are not included. Other emissions in A5 are not included in the scope either, such as emissions from use of explosives, mobile or stationary machinery, emissions from waste treatment of packaging, emissions from formwork, or emissions related to the energy use for heating, ventilation, drying, lighting etc. on the building site.
B2: Future maintenance in the use phase. An example is painting the facade every ten years. For maintenance-free solutions, the emissions in module B2 will be equal to zero
B4: Replacement of products and components with a shorter lifespan than the calculation period of 50 years. Examples of this are the installation of new windows after 30 years or new roofing.
The tool reports on Global Warming Potential only. Biogenic carbon should not be included in the calculation.
2. Data Scope
This tool utilizes CML (EN15804+A1) and PEF (EN15804+A2) data.
Because EPDs are product-specific, it is generally recommended to use these when available if it is known what products will be used in the project.
Generic data is also allowed to be used in TEK17. Generic data has a top-up factor of 25 % added to the GWP value. The conservative value is automatically included in the calculations for generic data in the TEK17 tool in One Click LCA. EPDs do not get a top-up factor.
If conservative data already has a conservative factor of 25 % in the original database, no additional top-up is needed (eg. the Boverket database). If generic data has a top-up factor less than 25 % in the original database it is recalculated to 25 % (Eg. the Finnish database CO2data originally has a 20 % top-up factor which is recalculated to 25 % in the TEK17 tool).
3. Assessment Scope
Building elements included in the scope:
215 Pile Foundation (Pelefundamentering)
216 Direct Foundation (Direkte Fundamentering)
22 Carrying Systems (Baeresysteme)
23 External Walls (Ytervegger)
24 Interior Walls (Innervegger)
25 Covers (Dekker)
26 Additional ceiling (Yttertak)
According to NS 3720, it is allowed to exclude products if their weight is below 5 % of the total weight within each 2-digit building part, see classifications above (for foundations, the limit of 5 weight-% is calculated based on the total weight of categories 215 and 216).
Building parts to be included:
Building Part | Included | Omitted |
21 | 215, 216 |
|
22 | 221, 222, 223, 224, 225, 226 | 227, 228 (a), 229 (a) |
23 | 231, 232, 233 (b), 234, 235, 236 (c)(d)(e) | 237 (b), 238 (a), 239 (a) |
24 | 241, 242, 243, 244, 245, 246 (c)(d) | 247, 248 (a), 249 (a) |
25 | 251, 252 (e), 253, 254, 255 (e), 256 (c)(d)(e), 257 | 258 (a), 259 (a) |
26 | 261, 262, 263, 264, 265, 266 (c)(d)(e), 267 | 268 (a), 269 (a) |
a) These building parts include i.a. fasteners, point, and strip sealing, sealant, tape, cuffs, and push strips.
b) For glass façades, it should be assessed whether the solar shading exceeds the limit of 5 % by weight, and if it should therefore be included in the calculation.
c) Internal cladding (plaster, chipboard, MDF, etc.) is included.
d) Internal surface treatment (shuttering formwork, paint, wallpaper, glue, etc.) and moldings are not included.
e) Vapor barrier and moisture barrier are not included
Create a project and select the right calculation tool
Create a building project and select the Greenhouse gas accounting, TEK17 tool as the chosen calculation tool.
Create your first design and set up the LCA parameters
NOTE: Not all LCA parameters affect the TEK 17 tool as it does not report on replacements or end-of-life emissions.
Examples of parameters affecting the TEK17 tool are service life, transportation distance and site wastage.
Check the mandatory scope
Check the mandatory scope of required elements from TEK 17 guidance.
Input data for construction site operations
Add the construction site wastage emissions and if required additional transport emissions can be added.
Input required material data
Fill in your project information in One Click LCA by entering the design either manually or by importing your data (see different import options here; guidance for data import can be found here). If you need help finding the right datasets for your building materials, check our guidance pages here and here.
Use EPD data where available, however the TEK17 tool has some differences from other carbon tools.
The TEK17 tool allows the use of EN15804:A1 and EN15804:A2 data.
The TEK17 tool mandates a markup of 25% emissions to generic data. This is added automatically in the tool.
Generic data from multiple generic databases can be used, examples include the Swedish Boverket, Finnish CO2data and German Ökobaudat databases.
Choose the correct building part classification for each material from the 'Bygningdel' dropdown menu. This can be done also within the import process. This parameter is used for showing the results per building part in the result graphics.
Set the transportation distance and method from the manufacturing site to the construction site of each material.
As outlined in the TEK17 guidance, there is also a simplified option: For emissions related to the transport of building materials, a transport distance in Norway of 300 km to the construction site can be assumed, with the exception of concrete where 50 km can be assumed. For imported building materials, we must also include transport to Norway.
Adjust the Service life column with project-specific data if you wish.
Adjust the Wastage columns with project-specific data if you wish.
If the data is an EPD, mark the EPD checkbox. This will list the material as an EPD in the bill of materials that can be accessed in the results page.
If you have reused materials, check the boxes “Reused material” (impacts from initial manufacturing A1-A3 and A5 will be ignored) and/or “Locally reused” (impacts from A4 will be ignored).
Input data for maintenance
In the Maintenance tab, the user can add data related to the B2 module. In Section 1, average scenarios for maintenance of building elements per m2 can be added. In the other sections, maintenance-related data for consumption of grid electricity, water consumption, fuel consumption, and replacement of parts as part of preventive and regular maintenance can be added.
Construction Site Operations
Add your site impacts either by choosing a suitable construction site scenario in sections 1 and 2 or by adding project-specific site-related data into the other sections.
Add calculation period
In the tab “Calculation period”, enter the service life of the building. In TEK 17, this should be 50 years.
Fill in the building area
Fill in the Building area question form by entering the Bruttoareal (BTA) Norway of the building.
Review the results and download the results report
On the results page, the emissions per life-cycle module included in TEK 17 can be found. Results for each material can be found by clicking on “Details”.
Under “More actions”, reports like the “One Click LCA result report” can be exported.
The section “Bill of materials” will present a summary of the building materials from the building materials query, including material, quantity, unit, comments, building part classification, wastage, and information on if the data is an EPD or not.
In the section “Graphs”, graphs with different formats can be viewed and downloaded.