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On 27 May 2026, the European Commission hosted a major Construction Product Regulation (CPR) Acquis training session on the environmental sustainability of construction products.
The event brought together representatives from DG GROW, DG ENER, Construction Products Europe, EOTA, ECO Platform, the cement sector and the Group of Notified Bodies. It examined how environmental performance will be assessed, verified, declared and digitalised under the revised Construction Products Regulation—Regulation (EU) 2024/3110.
Central message
A central message was that the new environmental obligations will not apply to every construction product immediately. They will be introduced progressively, product family by product family, as new harmonised standards and European Assessment Documents are developed under CPR 2024 and made applicable by the Commission. This process involves the CPR Acquis, preparation of a standardisation request, development of the technical specification by CEN/CENELEC and a subsequent Commission implementing act. Manufacturers should therefore monitor the programme for the product families relevant to them rather than relying solely on the CPR’s general application date.
For products entering the new harmonised system, manufacturers will have to assess environmental performance through a Life Cycle Assessment based on EN 15804, the applicable complementary Product Category Rules and the relevant product standard or European Assessment Document. The initial mandatory indicators will relate to climate change, including total, fossil, biogenic and land-use-related Global Warming Potential. Further environmental indicators will become mandatory in stages from January 2030 and January 2032 where the relevant technical specification provides the necessary assessment method.
The manufacturer will define the product type, determine whether products can be grouped using representative or conservative values, and have the environmental assessment validated by a notified body under the new Assessment and Verification System 3+. Environmental information will then be incorporated into the Declaration of Performance and Conformity and made digitally accessible through the future Digital Product Passport. Factory Production Control will also need to cover the environmental data and production variables underlying the declared performance.
Existing Environmental Product Declarations will continue to play an important role during the transition and can help manufacturers develop the necessary data, systems and Life Cycle Assessment capability. However, an EPD will not automatically satisfy the future regulatory requirements for products within the harmonised CPR zone. The Commission’s objective is to move towards comparable, machine-readable and legally reliable environmental information supported by common background datasets and more consistent calculation rules.
The training also highlighted the connection between product-level CPR information and building-level whole-life carbon assessment under the revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. Life-cycle Global Warming Potential calculations and Energy Performance Certificate disclosure will apply from 2028 to new buildings over 1,000 m² and from 2030 to all new buildings. Reliable product data from the CPR system are therefore expected to become an important input to building assessment, procurement, design models and national carbon-limit requirements.
Cement was presented as an early implementation example. The emerging cement standard incorporates additional lower-clinker cement types, environmental Factory Production Control and factory-specific digital declarations. The example demonstrated that implementation is not simply a matter of producing a new document: it will require integration between environmental assessment, production records, supplier information, quality systems and digital product data.
Immediate priority is preparation
For CIF members, the immediate priority is preparation. Manufacturers should identify relevant CPR Acquis and standardisation activity, examine the availability and quality of their production and supplier data, and consider how product grouping or conservative declarations might reduce administrative burden. Contractors, designers and procurers should prepare their BIM, procurement and project-record systems to receive and retain digital product information. Although the principal legal duties will fall on manufacturers, the new framework will increasingly influence product selection, technical submittals, embodied-carbon calculations, public procurement and evidence of the products installed on site.