Our Story
An international working group since 2015
”The construction sector has a significant impact on how sustainable our homes and buildings will be in the future.“
About us
Sustainable considerations are of growing interest in the construction sector and are even recommended by the European Construction Product Regulation (CPR). Based on that development the InData Working Group was founded in order to provide a platform for exchanging experience and harmonization of ongoing activities.
InData is an informal, non-profit working group of interested stakeholders who support the mission of InData. This is to establish an open web based international data network structure for EPD/LCA data using a common data format and open source software; primarily for construction products based on EPD information, open for other products.
This site offers information about the InData Working Group and provides access to documents and specifications. At a later stage, it is foreseen to also serve as an entry point to an international open data network for sustainable construction. EPDs (Environmental Product Declarations) and other basis data for (construction) LCA calculations provide the required material data based on calculation methods according to international standards such as EN 15804 and ISO 21930.
Background
During the World Sustainable Building Conference 2014 in Barcelona, a growing interest in structuring and using information from Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) for sustainable construction was recognized. Subsequently, the German Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR) initiated a first meeting of interested international stakeholders, who met in Berlin in March 2015 in order to discuss how to exchange experience and harmonize ongoing activities. Today, the InData Working Group consists of public and research institutions, EPD program operators and experts.
Decalogue
The Decalogue expresses the main objectives of the InData Working Group that have been agreed upon.
Open international data network
Common quality rules
Common core information
Background database
Mandatory 3rd party verification of data
Different types of data
EN 15804 compliant
Information in English
ILCD+EPD data format
Data free of charge
Mission and Strategy
InData’s mission is to proactively support the harmonized digitalization of EPD and generic data for construction products according to EN 15804 in order to assess and improve the environmental performance of buildings and infrastructure. Data quality principles shall ensure that machine-readable EPD and generic data follow the same data format rules and are communicated in a transparent, credible, and user-friendly way throughout the value chain.