Online product declarations could reduce costs
02 April 2013
The introduction of new rules in Europe that would allow manufacturers of construction products to provide online certificates for the goods they market has been broadly welcomed by the industry.
The European confederation of national construction associations, CEPMC, said making legal documents about construction products available online would make information more accessible, easy to understand and easy to manage, and would also lead to a reduction in the use of resources.
Key representatives from the European construction industry debated the new legislation, which would see the current EU Construction Products Directive (CPD) replaced with new Construction Products Regulation (CPR) on 1st July this year, at a CEPMC workshop at the European Parliament on 27 March.
A large number of construction products are currently CE marked under the CPD, and one of the most important changes under the new CPR will be the need to also provide a document called Declaration of Performance (DoP). This outlines the essential characteristics of the construction product and would be made available online.
Claude Loréa, deputy chief executive of the European cement industry association (CEMBUREAU), said, “The European cement industry puts yearly 1 billion bags on the EU market and hence is in urgent need of being allowed to make its DoPs available via internet.”
And Pavlos Vatavalis of the European Aluminium Association (EAA AISBL) also said it was vital to develop DoPs on websites for specific market sectors. “Thanks to the organisation of the CEPMC workshop and the open discussion that gave the floor to all stakeholders, the procedure seems to be accelerated significantly,” he said.
CEPMC said the rules regarding providing a DoP would be decided in the coming weeks, and the debate had provided an opportunity to exchange points of view and find an agreement on the legal details.
The European Construction Industry Federation (FIEC) also discussed the issues and challenges surrounding the introduction of DoPs in its column in the April issue of Construction Europe magazine, which will be available online soon.
