FAQ

baubook offers a web portal for building products and components. Manufacturers declare their products with building physics and building ecology values. All products are validated by baubook and are quality-assured. Product qualities can be compared objectively. The fulfilment of criteria is documented and verified for each product. A core function of baubook is to search, find and compare products based on specific criteria in the respective eco-platforms.

When it comes to ecological and sustainable construction, there is a veritable jungle of criteria, certifications, environmental labels, quality seals, etc.. The baubook product declaration is none of these, and yet somehow combines them all. Ecological procurement criteria, building certifications, environmental labels and environmental product declarations are important instruments in sustainable and ecological construction. Their differences are not always apparent at first glance.

Distinguishing features
Ecological procurement criteria, such as the ecological building criteria, set specific requirements for the use of environmentally friendly products in the context of specific construction projects. These include, for example, avoiding PVC or limiting VOC emissions. Building certifications, on the other hand, consider a wide range of aspects of a building: from energy consumption to the number of bicycle parking spaces and ecological material requirements. Environmental labels distinguish products that are considered particularly environmentally friendly within a specific product category (e.g. Austrian Ecolabel or natureplus quality label). The assessment and award is carried out by an independent public or private certification body. An environmental product declaration (EPD), on the other hand, is not an award, but provides quantified environmental information on the life cycle of the product (life cycle assessment data). 

baubook product declaration
The baubook product database aims to present all these requirements in a clear and objective manner. Querying the fulfilment of criteria and storing the verification documents is therefore at the heart of the baubook product declaration. The criteria queried are not related to baubook, but come from various ecological programmes (e.g. ÖkoBauKritierien, klimaaktiv, measures of the housing subsidies, etc.). Environmental labels, EPDs or other product certifications can be added in the upload area. LCA data from recognised EPDs can be digitised by baubook and thus made available for building evaluation. Product descriptions, images and key values for building physics supplement the ecological product information. The data is quality-assured by the baubook team before publication and is then available for an objective comparison of the products in the web portal. In principle, all building products can be declared in the baubook database, regardless of their ecological performance. The evaluation of the products is left to the users.

baubook is particularly useful for manufacturers as a platform for verification. This applies to product groups with products for which verification is required to fulfil the criteria. Product groups for which there are few or no suppliers are of particular interest to manufacturers.

Declared products benefit from centralised verification, which is necessary for tenders, building certifications and subsidy systems. The products are made available to programme manufacturers and published on other databases. Tendering bodies can access the products directly.

• quality-assured representation of product quality
• no individual verification necessary
• optimum visibility and data dissemination (sales channel)
• display on baubook eco-programmes
• broad specialist audience
• platform for criteria holders
• presentation of company and product
• no marketing platform (full data depth)

• Registration service: Product registration by baubook
• Update service: Product update by baubook
• Import of EPD data
• Quality assurance of products
• Mapping of eco-programmes and criteria
• Product declaration and product listing
• baubook data access via interface
• Manufacturer platforms / company partnerships
• baubook online tools

The web portal is visited around 10,000 times a week by manufacturers, dealers, planners, consultants and tradespeople. They obtain specific information about recommended products on the baubook platforms. This makes baubook the leading database for healthy, quality-assured and ecological construction in the German-speaking world. baubook supports planners and building contractors in making decisions about ecologically recommendable building products.

baubook displays various ecological programmes on behalf of the criteria owners. Programmes for building certification are offered, for example, by Klimaaktiv, Wohngsund, ÖGNI, BNB & QNG or LEED.

Labels and certificates for product certification are tested and issued by, for example, the Austrian Ecolabel, Blue Angel, EMICODE, natureplus, IBO certification mark.

Tender criteria: ÖkoBauCriteria, BNB and QNG (Germany)

1. Register free of charge: The manufacturer must register free of charge before starting the declaration.
2. Product declaration (independent). baubook also offers a convenient product registration service.
3. Product validation and quality assurance. As soon as the product has been submitted, baubook quality assurance starts. Activation and publication takes place within 14 days. Published products are available in all applications and are listed on the target group-specific platforms.
   

The evidence to be provided for the product's fulfilment of the criteria depends on the respective criterion and varies. In principle, the following data can be recorded for each product:

• product name
• description and processing instructions
  
• photo(s) for publication (image rights must be available)
  
• technical data sheet, technical properties (e.g. dimensions)
  
• safety data sheet 
• building physics parameters: Thermal conductivity rated value, Thermal conductivity nominal value, bulk density, heat storage capacity, vapour diffusion resistance, ...
  
• building ecology parameters: global warming potential (GWP-total), acidification potential (AP), non-renewable primary energy (PENRT), ...
  
• CE Declaration of Performance 
• test reports, test certificates 
• Quality seals, eco-labels
  
• Certificates of conformity 
• EPD data
  

Here you will find an overview of the baubook product groups. There are groups for which no products have yet been declared. These are particularly interesting for manufacturers (because they are then the only first and only supplier). When declaring a product, you can assign it to several groups (at no extra cost). baubook reserves the right to make corrections if necessary.

Liability for declared product properties lies with the manufacturer and is regulated in the baubook T&Cs.

Product manufacturers confirm the accuracy of the information and guarantee that the listed products or product series correspond to the registered properties (ecological criteria, technical and ecological key figures, ingredients, etc.). Product manufacturers undertake to notify baubook GmbH immediately in writing of any changes relevant to the product entry or to change these directly in the product administration.

The operation of the baubook platforms is refinanced by the listing fees. Costs are incurred for the one-off quality assurance of the product by baubook, as well as for the platform listing (annual costs). A price scale supports manufacturers with many products.

Costs:

• Quality assurance by baubook (one-off for initial registration)
  
• Listing costs (annual)
  
• Amendment costs only if the product is not up-to-date* and a new quality assurance is necessary or the amendment is not made independently.
  

* A product is considered up-to-date if the date of the last product change (change with a baubook quality assurance) is not older than 2 years. We want to incentivise manufacturers to keep their products up-to-date on baubook and save costs at the same time.

The baubook listing fees are only charged once a product has been checked and published online. These are invoiced for the first year on a pro rata basis and on a daily basis. The following year is billed with an annual invoice. The product is available via the interface one day after its publication by the programme manufacturer.

The data is presented on the 11 eco-platforms and the baubook central office on the Internet. baubook distributes and disseminates the data via an interface to partner databases and various programme manufacturers (software manufacturers of life cycle assessment and energy performance certificate programmes).

From 01.01.2024, baubook quality assurance will be free of charge for product changes or product updates for current products*!

To update products on baubook, you need an account for the declaration centre. You can register here free of charge. As soon as you are logged in to the declaration centre, you can edit the product data by clicking on the ‘Start product change’ button to start the update. The documents can then be exchanged and, if necessary, the fulfilment of the criteria can be checked and updated.

Yes, it is possible to update documents at the same time. You can download the instructions here.

To compare products, you must log in (and if necessary register free of charge in advance). You can then add several products as favourites and compare them with each other.

• eco2soft: quickly and easily create life cycle assessments for buildings and clearly visualise the costs of construction, renovation and disposal
• online product manager: processing tool to simplify product management as part of building certification programmes
• amortisation calculator for components: for calculating the ecological amortisation of insulation measures, particularly in renovation projects
• construction calculator: for compiling walls, ceilings, floors, roofs and windows using the quality-assured products and guide values from baubook

The eco-programmes recognise proof of the criteria for a product through the declaration on baubook. The platform (example: ÖKoBauKriterien) is used to document and make the fulfilment of criteria traceable.

baubook provides catalogues with well over 1,000 reference values for the most common building materials. The reference values include building physics and building ecology data for the energy and life cycle assessment calculation of buildings. They are used for the calculations in the baubook tools or can be downloaded for import into authorised energy performance certificate and other software programmes. baubook provides the building physics and building ecology reference values as well as the product parameters declared by manufacturers free of charge.

baubook specialises in the creation of eco-platforms and the implementation of individual verification management. If you are interested in mapping criteria, please contact us. We will be happy to provide you with a customised offer!

baubook currently maps the following eco-programmes:

• baubook EcoBuildingCriteria
  
• baubook klimaaktiv criteria and products
  
• baubook BNB and QNG
  
• baubook Vorarlberg
  
• baubook Carinthia
  
• baubook Lower Austria
  
• baubook Oekoindex
  
• baubook wohngsund
  
• baubook biomass boilers
  

If you are interested in creating an eco-platform and implementing your own criteria, please contact us. We will be happy to prepare a customised offer for you!

Manufacturers can assign their declared products to the relevant eco- and quality labels. Proof is provided by the certificate issued. The following ecolabels are assigned to products:

• The Blue Angel
  
• eco-INSTITUT label
  
• EMICODE EC 1
  
• EMICODE EC 1 R
  
• EMICODE EC 1PLUS
  
• EMICODE EC 1PLUS R
  
• European Ecolabel / EU Ecolabel (‘Euroblume’)
  
• FSC
  
• Wood from here
  
• IBO test mark IBR test mark
  
• KEYMARK
  
• natureplus
  
• PEFC
  
• PH certificate
  
• TÜV SÜD
  
• Austrian Ecolabel

Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) provide environmentally relevant data on the life cycle of a construction product in a verified and standardised form. The main content of the EPD is product data for the life cycle assessment of buildings and other structures. EPD data can be imported and processed on baubook. Please get in touch with us.

The reference values for building physics are mainly taken from ONORM 8110-7 ‘Thermal insulation in building construction - Part 7: Tabulated thermal insulation design values’. The design values of ONORM 8110-7 are adjusted in such a way that 90% of the products on the market achieve this value. This alignment guarantees that, as a rule, the products actually used (e.g. as part of the EAW calculation) also achieve this value. The reference values therefore enable a product-neutral and safe calculation within the framework of the housing subsidies of individual federal states or a building authority procedure (energy performance certificate). The data is only suitable to a limited extent for use in building physics reports.

The building ecology reference values provided on baubook are lists of life cycle assessment data for building materials and construction processes. Together with the building physics data in baubook, the reference values are used to calculate the energy or life cycle assessment parameters of buildings, e.g. for the Oekoindex OI3 and the disposal indicator EI.

Manufacturer information and literature data serve as the source for the IBO reference values. The building materials are analysed cumulatively up to the ‘product ex works’ stage. This means that all upstream processes up to the product ready for delivery are taken into account. For each process step, material, transport and energy inputs, emissions to air, soil, water and waste must be determined. This so-called background data is based on ecoinvent 2.2. The life cycle assessments are modelled in accordance with the requirements of EN 15804:2012+A1:2013. To date, IBO reference values have been defined for more than 500 building materials, building services materials and construction processes. 
Link: Methodological assumptions for the IBO reference values