Building Projects to Generate EPDs

SETAC Europe 13th LCA Case Studies Symposium

Building projects to generate EPDs: major challenges in Brazilian market Saulo de Lara Rozendo Abstract

Environmental performance has been carefully planned between general contractors and

professional firms in the real estate business, in order to increase profit and minimize waste.

LEED rating systems and ISO 14000 series are used to rely on that as a competitive

advantage. Nowadays, several construction players in Brazil are trying to add the use of EPD

(environmental product declaration) to those certification schemes, promoting communication

and awareness amongst prospect customers and the general public. Major challenges to

promote EPDs have been addressed with some add-ons like general permit requirements,

procurement guidelines, benchmark roundtables and integrated design, as it can be seen in

several ongoing projects in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, both in Brazil. Most importantly,

EPDs should be an output to every project, whether LEED- or ISO-certified, that could

actually guide the customer when it comes to choose a sustainable place to live and work.

Market momentum in Brazil

Brazilian construction industry is a complex net of companies and professional firms, with

different scenarios and businesses, but there are unanimous focal points that drive all

players’ attention. The need for process management and the will to improve building design,

to act after recurring problems within civil works, to improve relationship with the client and to

increase market share, are some examples. Brazilian construction industry strongly depends

on natural resources (potable water, large scale hydropower, native wood, waste landfills,

fossil fuels, etc.) and this relationship with the environment has been causing major damages

to all society. These impacts include air pollution, native species deployment, discomfort and

diseases derived from stress under unhealthy built environments, etc.

As the public opinion, the press, NGO’s advocacy and worldwide procurement officers

demonstrate global environmental concerns; several companies realized that they could

establish a more sustainable attitude, applying the same strategies and enforcement used to

take care of their annual budgets. As they work hard to develop more efficient processes and

to deliver better outcomes, they can too adopt the same strategy to improve their relationship

with nature, transforming environmental impacts into growth opportunities.

Environmental management systems like ISO 14001 arise from the need for business

improvement and they are brought by companies that already have: (1) defined their

strategic maps; (2) run their global management systems and (3) demand the same

commitment out of their partners, material suppliers and service providers. Although this

demand would be more likely to occur in global scale companies, there are some new

environmentally-sound businesses that have stimulated small and medium enterprises as

well. In Brazilian cities like Rio de Janeiro and Salvador there are dozens of construction

waste recycling cooperatives. Some small architecture firms, in Florianopolis and Sao Paulo,

are developing simulation tools to assist the design process. In Belo Horizonte, there are

several contractors achieving excellent results using solar energy to water heating.

One other growing demand is brought by real estate developers that are experiencing risks

in their projects due to legal exposure or adverse media coverage. A multiple building project


located at an urban infill that requires environmental permit and a building development at a

brownfield site are some examples. In order to eliminate those risks, companies are not

pulling back their ideas, but instead getting their projects to pursue a LEED certification as a

green building. By doing so, the construction industry is getting closer to environmental

aspects e.g. energy-related issues, commissioning procedures and life cycle information for

materials and equipments.

Both ISO 14001 certified companies and LEED certified projects are inspiring Brazilian

market players to publicize their environmental results and expose their environmental

concerns, assets and limitations. There is a clear idea of evolution and, in this case, it heads

toward environmental product declarations (EPD) on completed building projects.

Recent research about sustainable consumption in Brazil (Ethos Institute and Akatu Institute,

2005) points out that 300 out of 1,000 interviewed people did actually refuse or consider

refusing to buy products from socially irresponsible companies, in a sense of punishment.

Sectors most recognized for their social responsibility, according to the same research,

include food and IT industries; tobacco, banking and mining industries are at the bottom.

An approach for EPD development

Real estate developers in Brazil have waken up for EPDs while their final customers are

asking for more than just a greenwash about their places to live and work, but really

understand in what they are laying their investments on. In a certain way, there is a

competitive advantage of a real estate with EPD compared to another with no information

available to their clients. In a world of competition and marketing around client-ever-lasting

relationships, EPDs are just the extra buck that final customers are willing to pay for. More

important, EPDs are been developed in Brazil with no extra cost to general contractors so

that turns into a win-win-win solution to grab it. It is a ‘win’ for the environment, because it

can minimize waste disposal, water and air pollution and reintegrate human settlements with

natural landscapes. It’s a ‘win’ for the economy, because it raises the level of competition in

the construction industry without compromising their budgets. And it’s a ‘win’ for the health,

well-being and happiness of final customers, who get detailed information about what they

are buying.

Central Park Mooca is the name of a building project with nine residential high-rises released

in June 2006 by Cyrela, a major real estate developer in Sao Paulo, Brazil. An EPD was

developed to increase details about the product, which includes the demolition of an old

industrial plant and the creation of a park with 10,000 m² of native species inside the project

site area. All of the 564 apartments were sold in only eight days and a record was broken in

the real estate market. The paradigm of reducing the development footprint in order to

restore natural landscapes could be confirmed not only with the retailers and marketing

agents, but with the EPD as an annex of the sales contract, available to all stakeholders.

Mundo Apto is the name of another residential high rise in Sao Paulo, Brazil, this time with a

different challenge: to prove that environmental assets could guarantee no extra budget. 11

Mundo Apto buildings were released in early 2005 by Setin, the first general contractor to

become ISO 14001 certified in Brazil, and an EPD was developed based on the results of its

EMS. Solar water heating, façades manufactured in industrial plants, high-efficiency


showers, toilets and faucets, and wastewater treatment and reuse, are some environmental

assets that could definitely create value among players and are summarized in an EPD.

Ventura Corporate Towers is intended to be one of the largest commercial buildings in the

city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. To be released in late January 2007 by a consortium between

Tishman Speyer Properties and Camargo Correa Real Estate Development, Ventura

Corporate Towers is a complex 176,000 m² office building for lease, and it is taking part of a

huge transformation in Rio de Janeiro’s downtown development. Tishman Speyer’s officers

are developing an EPD to promote an integrated design that could minimize environmental

impacts and create a competitive advantage to future occupants. The EPD is going to be a

great step for Tishman Speyer so as to pursue LEED® certification for Core and Shell

Development, since the project is already registered at the U.S. Green Building Council and

will apply for certification in May 2008, with the completed building.

In the cases above, EPDs have been used by the construction major players to recognize

that education and core values significantly change when there is access to information.

Moreover, if an EPD could be done with whole life cycle quantitative results, its development

would reach a higher level of trust and liability. A building project EPD could be generated as

a result of EPDs for each and every material and equipment. Yet, this is not so in the

Brazilian market. Architects and engineers can design and specify all materials and

equipments in a building project; they put their signature on each design document for

technical approval. Contractors can define procurement policies and construction

procedures; they put their signature on every document to declare full legal responsibility

during civil works. Manufacturers provide all components of a building project; they send

invoices of everything that is manufactured, and they also send material safety data sheets

(MSDS) when applicable. These roles and relationships are suggested to improve so they

could communicate with each other using EPDs, so they could demonstrate their own

environmental responsibilities. Real estate developers might sum all EPDs and get an EPD

for the total project. Retailers might take the final EPD and share information with final

customers.

This EPD-thinking process is getting stronger in Brazilian market, in an evolution that has

four basic steps for the construction major players: (1) declare environmental benefits of pilot

projects in order to get market attention and branding recall; (2) improve EPD framework and

insert quantifiable data for actual projects; (3) recognize environmental information as an

opportunity for market competition; (4) foster the awareness and demand EPD information

from suppliers and service providers; (5) generate type III EPDs as an output for every

project.

In order to advance in those four basic steps, for example, the City of Sao Paulo signed

decree # 42,318 in 2002 to create a Local Environmental Quality Program, which establishes

green procurement guidelines and acknowledge best practices from construction industry

players. Moreover in 2004, the State of Sao Paulo also signed a decree to assign

environmental and social concerns to procurement procedures of the State, ruling on 560

different construction products. The State of Sao Paulo is also a major construction

developer, with hospitals, schools, county jails, housing developments, government facilities,

etc. They have scheduled several roundtables with construction players in order to

streamline the EPD evolution process.


Major challenges in Brazilian market

There are several challenges to bridge while moving forward to type III EPDs in building

projects. The first challenge is to approve the introduction of environmental values into one

company’s competitive strategy. These values might drive the company to recognize

environmental risks it might incur without knowing, providing quantifiable data to the future

EPD. Since all process is voluntary, decision-making is based on qualitative information and

there is not enough strength to approve EPDs with the main executive board.

Construction industry players do not have a common place for debate and presentation of

best practices for each market segment. There are few events and meetings for the whole

construction industry regarding this issue and current publications are not enough to guide

companies to manage their resources more professionally towards better environmental

results. There are lots of events and meetings in Brazil about environmental issues and

corporate responsibility but no one particularly for the construction industry.

There must be more research about the market change for products with higher

environmental performance. Current research is very profound and clear about this issue and

it must be empowered more and more by manufacturers and real estate developers; they

are, in a certain way, less active than other markets, e.g. food and IT companies. Brazilian

financing program Habitare, created in 1995 to support researchers and entrepreneurs

interested in solving the housing deficiencies in the country and modernize the construction

industry, have already four successful ongoing projects.

Construction permit officers and government agencies are very likely to ease the approval for

new construction projects designed with environmental concerns. But the challenge is to

definitely leave behind the controversial, bureaucratic behavior that only promotes

procrastination instead of action. Renewable permits to manufacturers are more flexible

when they demonstrate improvement in environmental performance indicators, as it can be

seen in several States: Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Sao

Paulo, Bahia, Rondonia and Acre.

These challenges can be addressed in Brazil with dialogue, meetings and roundtables,

progress documentation and case studies within market leaders. Having EPDs as a result

from every project development, the construction industry shall improve its environmental

performance, whether in design and construction practices, reaching a higher level of

stakeholders’ engagement and awareness.