ProSys, the Institut Bauen und Umwelt e.V.’s New Product Information System, Meets with Great Interest
BAU, the world’s foremost trade fair for architecture, materials, and systems, was a resounding success, reports Hans Peters, Chairman of the Board at the Institut Bauen und Umwelt e.V. (IBU). The trade fair attracted 2,250 exhibitors from 45 different countries as well as more than 250,000 visitors.  Peters was particularly delighted at the positive response received at the IBU stand: “Over the course of the six days of the fair, we greeted a huge number of visitors who were interested in obtaining information on our cross-sector EPD programme, sustainable construction, and our new ProSys product information system”.
Major Demand for Internationally-Standardised Environmental Product Declarations
The IBU took advantage of the gathering at BAU 2019 to present environmental product declarations (EPDs) to a large number of companies and associations from a variety of areas within the construction materials and building product manufacturing sector. The EPDs indicate the environmental impact of the materials contained in the products manufactured by these companies, contributing to the transparency that is essential for the promotion of sustainability in the construction industry. The forty-nine EPDs presented by Hans Peters and the IBU’s new Managing Director, Dr Alexander Röder, to member companies and declaration owners at the trade fair are a clear indication of the current emphasis on ecological sustainability within the construction industry – the quantitative data on product life cycles contained in EPDs is now being incorporated into building certification systems worldwide.
Many long-time IBU members, including DEUTSCHE ROCKWOOL, EGGER, bauformstahl, nora systems, Studiengemeinschaft Holzleimbau e.V., Überwachungsgemeinschaft Konstuktionstionsvollholz e.V., VM Building Solutions, GUTEX, Heinze Cobiax, BETTE, Hydro Building Systems, the European Resilient Flooring Manufacturers Institute (ERFMI), TAIM e.V., Schöck, and Lindner, were presented with EPDs either at their own exhibition stands or at the IBU stand. New members NMC, Romakowski, Georg Börner Chemisches Werk für Dach- und Bautenschutz, as well as declaration owners InformationsZentrum Beton and Rubner, were also delighted to be presented with their EPDs and to take part in the photo session.
Interest in Product-Specific Sustainability Data from the IBU
Along with learning more about the established, internationally-renowned EPD system for construction-related products, trade fair visitors and industry representatives were, for the first time, also introduced to the new ProSys product information system. In the future, the product-specific sustainability information required for different national and international building certification systems will be collected, allowing this new product information system to provide data that can be used by sustainability assessment systems for assessments based on specific criteria catalogues. Member companies took advantage of the opportunity at the trade fair to gain hands-on experience with ProSys, testing out the programme and entering initial product data into the IBU’s new system. As soon as the current testing phase for the beta version is successfully completed, ProSys’s full functionality will become available to all (member) companies, planners, and auditors.
Download photos of all of the EPD presentations at BAU 2019 here.