This article was presented at SETAC Europe 13th LCA Case Studies Symposium, in the context of Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) as a guide for customers choosing a sustainable place to live and work.

1. SETAC Europe 13th LCA Case Studies Symposium
Building projects to generate EPDs: major challenges in Brazilian market
Saulo de Lara Rozendo
Abstract
Environmental performance has been carefully planned between general contractors and
professional firms in the real estate business, in order to increase profit and minimize waste.
LEED rating systems and ISO 14000 series are used to rely on that as a competitive
advantage. Nowadays, several construction players in Brazil are trying to add the use of EPD
(environmental product declaration) to those certification schemes, promoting communication
and awareness amongst prospect customers and the general public. Major challenges to
promote EPDs have been addressed with some add-ons like general permit requirements,
procurement guidelines, benchmark roundtables and integrated design, as it can be seen in
several ongoing projects in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, both in Brazil. Most importantly,
EPDs should be an output to every project, whether LEED- or ISO-certified, that could
actually guide the customer when it comes to choose a sustainable place to live and work.
Market momentum in Brazil
Brazilian construction industry is a complex net of companies and professional firms, with
different scenarios and businesses, but there are unanimous focal points that drive all
players’ attention. The need for process management and the will to improve building design,
to act after recurring problems within civil works, to improve relationship with the client and to
increase market share, are some examples. Brazilian construction industry strongly depends
on natural resources (potable water, large scale hydropower, native wood, waste landfills,
fossil fuels, etc.) and this relationship with the environment has been causing major damages
to all society. These impacts include air pollution, native species deployment, discomfort and
diseases derived from stress under unhealthy built environments, etc.
As the public opinion, the press, NGO’s advocacy and worldwide procurement officers
demonstrate global environmental concerns; several companies realized that they could
establish a more sustainable attitude, applying the same strategies and enforcement used to
take care of their annual budgets. As they work hard to develop more efficient processes and
to deliver better outcomes, they can too adopt the same strategy to improve their relationship
with nature, transforming environmental impacts into growth opportunities.
Environmental management systems like ISO 14001 arise from the need for business
improvement and they are brought by companies that already have: (1) defined their
strategic maps; (2) run their global management systems and (3) demand the same
commitment out of their partners, material suppliers and service providers. Although this
demand would be more likely to occur in global scale companies, there are some new
environmentally-sound businesses that have stimulated small and medium enterprises as
well. In Brazilian cities like Rio de Janeiro and Salvador there are dozens of construction
waste recycling cooperatives. Some small architecture firms, in Florianopolis and Sao Paulo,
are developing simulation tools to assist the design process. In Belo Horizonte, there are
several contractors achieving excellent results using solar energy to water heating.
One other growing demand is brought by real estate developers that are experiencing risks
in their projects due to legal exposure or adverse media coverage. A multiple building project

2. SETAC Europe 13th LCA Case Studies Symposium
located at an urban infill that requires environmental permit and a building development at a
brownfield site are some examples. In order to eliminate those risks, companies are not
pulling back their ideas, but instead getting their projects to pursue a LEED certification as a
green building. By doing so, the construction industry is getting closer to environmental
aspects e.g. energy-related issues, commissioning procedures and life cycle information for
materials and equipments.
Both ISO 14001 certified companies and LEED certified projects are inspiring Brazilian
market players to publicize their environmental results and expose their environmental
concerns, assets and limitations. There is a clear idea of evolution and, in this case, it heads
toward environmental product declarations (EPD) on completed building projects.
Recent research about sustainable consumption in Brazil (Ethos Institute and Akatu Institute,
2005) points out that 300 out of 1,000 interviewed people did actually refuse or consider
refusing to buy products from socially irresponsible companies, in a sense of punishment.
Sectors most recognized for their social responsibility, according to the same research,
include food and IT industries; tobacco, banking and mining industries are at the bottom.
An approach for EPD development
Real estate developers in Brazil have waken up for EPDs while their final customers are
asking for more than just a greenwash about their places to live and work, but really
understand in what they are laying their investments on. In a certain way, there is a
competitive advantage of a real estate with EPD compared to another with no information
available to their clients. In a world of competition and marketing around client-ever-lasting
relationships, EPDs are just the extra buck that final customers are willing to pay for. More
important, EPDs are been developed in Brazil with no extra cost to general contractors so
that turns into a win-win-win solution to grab it. It is a ‘win’ for the environment, because it
can minimize waste disposal, water and air pollution and reintegrate human settlements with
natural landscapes. It’s a ‘win’ for the economy, because it raises the level of competition in
the construction industry without compromising their budgets. And it’s a ‘win’ for the health,
well-being and happiness of final customers, who get detailed information about what they
are buying.
Central Park Mooca is the name of a building project with nine residential high-rises released
in June 2006 by Cyrela, a major real estate developer in Sao Paulo, Brazil. An EPD was
developed to increase details about the product, which includes the demolition of an old
industrial plant and the creation of a park with 10,000 m² of native species inside the project
site area. All of the 564 apartments were sold in only eight days and a record was broken in
the real estate market. The paradigm of reducing the development footprint in order to
restore natural landscapes could be confirmed not only with the retailers and marketing
agents, but with the EPD as an annex of the sales contract, available to all stakeholders.
Mundo Apto is the name of another residential high rise in Sao Paulo, Brazil, this time with a
different challenge: to prove that environmental assets could guarantee no extra budget. 11
Mundo Apto buildings were released in early 2005 by Setin, the first general contractor to
become ISO 14001 certified in Brazil, and an EPD was developed based on the results of its
EMS. Solar water heating, façades manufactured in industrial plants, high-efficiency

3. SETAC Europe 13th LCA Case Studies Symposium
showers, toilets and faucets, and wastewater treatment and reuse, are some environmental
assets that could definitely create value among players and are summarized in an EPD.
Ventura Corporate Towers is intended to be one of the largest commercial buildings in the
city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. To be released in late January 2007 by a consortium between
Tishman Speyer Properties and Camargo Correa Real Estate Development, Ventura
Corporate Towers is a complex 176,000 m² office building for lease, and it is taking part of a
huge transformation in Rio de Janeiro’s downtown development. Tishman Speyer’s officers
are developing an EPD to promote an integrated design that could minimize environmental
impacts and create a competitive advantage to future occupants. The EPD is going to be a
great step for Tishman Speyer so as to pursue LEED® certification for Core and Shell
Development, since the project is already registered at the U.S. Green Building Council and
will apply for certification in May 2008, with the completed building.
In the cases above, EPDs have been used by the construction major players to recognize
that education and core values significantly change when there is access to information.
Moreover, if an EPD could be done with whole life cycle quantitative results, its development
would reach a higher level of trust and liability. A building project EPD could be generated as
a result of EPDs for each and every material and equipment. Yet, this is not so in the
Brazilian market. Architects and engineers can design and specify all materials and
equipments in a building project; they put their signature on each design document for
technical approval. Contractors can define procurement policies and construction
procedures; they put their signature on every document to declare full legal responsibility
during civil works. Manufacturers provide all components of a building project; they send
invoices of everything that is manufactured, and they also send material safety data sheets
(MSDS) when applicable. These roles and relationships are suggested to improve so they
could communicate with each other using EPDs, so they could demonstrate their own
environmental responsibilities. Real estate developers might sum all EPDs and get an EPD
for the total project. Retailers might take the final EPD and share information with final
customers.
This EPD-thinking process is getting stronger in Brazilian market, in an evolution that has
four basic steps for the construction major players: (1) declare environmental benefits of pilot
projects in order to get market attention and branding recall; (2) improve EPD framework and
insert quantifiable data for actual projects; (3) recognize environmental information as an
opportunity for market competition; (4) foster the awareness and demand EPD information
from suppliers and service providers; (5) generate type III EPDs as an output for every
project.
In order to advance in those four basic steps, for example, the City of Sao Paulo signed
decree # 42,318 in 2002 to create a Local Environmental Quality Program, which establishes
green procurement guidelines and acknowledge best practices from construction industry
players. Moreover in 2004, the State of Sao Paulo also signed a decree to assign
environmental and social concerns to procurement procedures of the State, ruling on 560
different construction products. The State of Sao Paulo is also a major construction
developer, with hospitals, schools, county jails, housing developments, government facilities,
etc. They have scheduled several roundtables with construction players in order to
streamline the EPD evolution process.

4. SETAC Europe 13th LCA Case Studies Symposium
Major challenges in Brazilian market
There are several challenges to bridge while moving forward to type III EPDs in building
projects. The first challenge is to approve the introduction of environmental values into one
company’s competitive strategy. These values might drive the company to recognize
environmental risks it might incur without knowing, providing quantifiable data to the future
EPD. Since all process is voluntary, decision-making is based on qualitative information and
there is not enough strength to approve EPDs with the main executive board.
Construction industry players do not have a common place for debate and presentation of
best practices for each market segment. There are few events and meetings for the whole
construction industry regarding this issue and current publications are not enough to guide
companies to manage their resources more professionally towards better environmental
results. There are lots of events and meetings in Brazil about environmental issues and
corporate responsibility but no one particularly for the construction industry.
There must be more research about the market change for products with higher
environmental performance. Current research is very profound and clear about this issue and
it must be empowered more and more by manufacturers and real estate developers; they
are, in a certain way, less active than other markets, e.g. food and IT companies. Brazilian
financing program Habitare, created in 1995 to support researchers and entrepreneurs
interested in solving the housing deficiencies in the country and modernize the construction
industry, have already four successful ongoing projects.
Construction permit officers and government agencies are very likely to ease the approval for
new construction projects designed with environmental concerns. But the challenge is to
definitely leave behind the controversial, bureaucratic behavior that only promotes
procrastination instead of action. Renewable permits to manufacturers are more flexible
when they demonstrate improvement in environmental performance indicators, as it can be
seen in several States: Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Sao
Paulo, Bahia, Rondonia and Acre.
These challenges can be addressed in Brazil with dialogue, meetings and roundtables,
progress documentation and case studies within market leaders. Having EPDs as a result
from every project development, the construction industry shall improve its environmental
performance, whether in design and construction practices, reaching a higher level of
stakeholders’ engagement and awareness.