Public hearing on proposed new criteria

Nordic Ecolabelling gives you the opportunity to comment on the proposal for a new criteria generation for Renovation of buildings. The ecolabelling is assessed on a life cycle perspective. 

Your comments are important and will be considered by the national ecolabelling boards and the Nordic Ecolabelling Board.

Please find the proposed criteria for download further down on this page.

We look forward to your comments, which should be sent to Nordic Ecolabelling no later than 29 October 2023 to be taken into consideration.

What has been changed?

• The criteria now include Hotels and associated conference facilities, in addition to the building types included in the current criteria (generation 1): small houses, apartment buildings, buildings for schools and preschools and offices.
• The section prior to the renovation phase has been revised to have better direct correspondence with the practice in the market.
• The new section on circular economy has new requirements on waste management and the reuse of construction products.
• In the section of climate, new requirements for materials with a high climate impact such as concrete, steel and aluminum have been introduced. These are similar to the requirements in generation 4 of the criteria for New Buildings.
• In the Energy section new limits have been defined for the energy use of the building after renovation and an alternative requirement for protected/buildings worthy of preservation has been introduced. In addition, the requirements on lighting and white goods are now only activated when these are part of the renovation project.
• All requirements on indoor environment have been updated. Requirements have been clarified, tightened and some new requirements have been introduced. Three alternatives have been implemented to comply with the radon requirement and Hotels and office buildings have been added to the Noise requirement.
• Requirements for chemical products and ingoing substances in construction materials and construction products have mainly been revised regarding changes in the chemicals legislation. The same approach as in generation 4 of the criteria for New buildings are proposed, this includes: exemptions have been reviewed and a new definition of potential endocrine disruptors has been introduced. The requirement for nanomaterials in construction products has been removed but is partly handled by a requirement for antimicrobial additives. Additives in concrete are no longer covered by the chemical requirements. A mandatory requirement for halogen-free cables is proposed.
• The criteria have been aligned with the technical screening criteria in the first delegated act of the EU taxonomy for green investments, environmental goals "Climate change mitigation", section 7.2.
• The quality management section has been changed to follow the scope of the criteria for New Buildings.

We are particularly interested in getting comments on the following points

Nordic Ecolabelling would like to have comments on the complete criteria set, but would like to highlight the following points:

• The scope of the product group definition.
• Implementation of Hotels and conference facilities in the criteria.
• The overall structure of the section “prior to the renovation phase”. Is it in line with the practice in the industry?
• The scope of the environmental survey - is it reasonable that it must also cover parts of the building with suspicion of hazardous substances/waste that are not renovated?
• Requirement O13 Construction waste management – The required percentage in relation to both demolition and construction waste.
• The alternative energy requirement for protected buildings and buildings worthy of preservation.
• The three different alternatives for documenting the requirement on Radon.
• That the requirements on lighting and white goods are now only activated when these are part of the renovation project.
• The more limited approach in the requirement for Noise environment in office buildings, hotels, pre-schools and schools (only focus on reverberation time).
• The approach choosen to handle the alignment with the EU Taxonomy.

Documents for download

• Criteria proposal
• Background to the proposal

Who can provide input?

All people, companies and institutions who are interested in taking part in the development work of Nordic Ecolabelling criteria for Renovation of buildings can provide us with their opinions and comments. We would appreciate if you kindly distribute information about this review to whom it may concern.

How can comments be sent in?

Your input is most valuable to our criteria development. We prefer to receive your comments via this form Consultation input form. 

For further questions, please contact our product specialists

Sweden

Kirsikka Englund
E-mail: hus@svanen.se (please, write "Consultation" in the subject)

Norway

Anita Spjøtvold
E-mail: asp@svanemerket.no or post@svanemerket.no

Denmark

Alba Caviedes Nozal
E-mail: acn@ecolabel.dk

Finland

Heidi Vaarala
E-mail: heidi.vaarala@ecolabel.fi or joutsen@ecolabel.fi

Iceland

Bergþóra Kvaran
E-mail: bergthora.kvaran@umhverfisstofnun.is

Consulation webbinar

We will get back to you as soon as we know a possible date.

What happens next?

When the public hearing period is complete, the answers will be compiled and evaluated. For this reason, a new revised proposal for criteria will be submitted to the national committees. On this basis, the Nordic Ecolabelling Board will then decide on new criteria.

Part of the decision document is the summary of all public hearing responses together with answers from Nordic Ecolabelling. The summary will be public and available on the Nordic Swan Ecolabel web page in connection with the publication of the new criteria.

We look forward to receiving your comments no later than 29 October 2023.