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EU launches ‘Level(s)’ tool in collaboration with WorldGBC and European Green Building Councils

The European Commission has today launched ‘Level(s)’, a new open source assessment framework aimed at improving sustainability and driving demand for better buildings, as part of EU Sustainable Energy Week in Brussels.

Level(s) has been developed by the European Commission in collaboration with a large and diverse set of building stakeholders including Green Building Councils across Europe (Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Finland and Ireland), and European Regional Network (ERN) partners ASSA ABLOY, BASF, Knauf Insulation, Saint-Gobain, Skanska and Stora Enso.

James Drinkwater, Director of World Green Building Council’s ERN, today took part in a panel which introduced ‘Level(s)’ to over 100 stakeholders in the European building sector.

Level(s) is a voluntary reporting framework that has a broad potential for use by building sector professionals.  The aim of Level(s) is not to create a new standalone building certification scheme but to link an individual building’s environmental impact with resource priorities at the European level.

It is a key tool of the EU’s circular economy package, and incorporates a ‘stepped’ approach enabling users to move from simple to more complex life cycle assessment calculation methods.

James Drinkwater said: 

“Levels is a key development to help grow the green building market in Europe. We strongly believe it forms the foundations of a new ‘common language’ for all European green building professionals, which the market must now adopt to help shift standard practice towards ‘better practice’. Over time our hope is that ‘best practice’ certification becomes a reality for many more projects.” 

A testing phase for Level(s) will launch in autumn 2017 and run for two years. To learn more about Level(s), and register your interest in testing, please visit: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eussd/buildings.htm

Level(s) will be presented at the upcoming high level conference ‘Construction: Let’s Build Changes!’ that will take place on Thursday 6th July in Brussels.

In parallel with the testing phase, Green Building Councils and partners of the ERN are working on an strategy to identify activities that GBCs can undertake across their priority areas to support implementation.