Since the amendment of the French environmental regulation RE 2020 on January 1, 2021, manufacturers of construction products have been required to provide comprehensive evidence of the environmental and health impacts of their products, the FDES (Fiche de Déclaration Environnementale et Sanitaire). It provides information on the entire life cycle, on all product components, raw material extraction, supplementary products during manufacture, installation and maintenance, as well as for transport and packaging.
In addition to the EPD (Environmental Product Declaration), the FDES also includes information on health and user comfort: the effects of the product on the health quality of indoor spaces and water are also assessed. In addition, the contribution to the quality of life in the building is recorded, including hygrothermal, acoustic, visual and olfactory comfort. The FDES must be verifiably prepared by an independent organisation and audited by a third party and is valid for five years.
Swisspacer is one of the first manufacturers to publish the FDES for the warm edge spacer bars Swisspacer Advance, Ultimate and the Swisspacer Georgian bars. The premium manufacturer has also updated its EPDs and is the only one on the market to extend them to the EN15804+A2 “Cradle to Grave” standard.
“Our spacer bars demonstrably help to save energy – and therefore CO2 – in buildings. We will also continuously reduce our footprint in production and have it reliably documented by EPDs and FDES,” said Björn Kluth, Head of Sales and Marketing France at Swisspacer.
The FDES is published in the French national reference database for environmental and health data on construction products INIES. Like the updated EPDs, it is also available in the Swisspacer download area.