BEAst: environmental data follow-up

The construction and civil engineering sector, together with seven other industry organisations, are developing a roadmap for a climate-neutral and competitive construction sector. One approach is to measure and collect environmental data to assess and implement the relevant measures to reduce climate impact. Today, greenhouse gas emissions are partly assessed on templates and partly on actual data.

By using the construction industry's electronic business standard - BEAst - environmental data can be captured through the economic transactions that occurs between suppliers and between suppliers and clients. The standard allows greenhouse gas emissions to be reported through environmental product declarations (EPDs) associated economic transactions or through the direct emissions that occur during transportation. The system that has been developed for the construction industry and implemented since 2014 for economic tracking has now been supplemented with environmental data. This enables environmental data to be reported for every economic transaction. By using BEAst, the project captures the entire environmental load during the construction of homes, offices, transportation and purchasing of goods and consumables.

Purpose and goal

The purpose is to test BEAst as a system for capturing all emission data from the construction production in terms of transportation, building materials, construction production, and more. The goal is a full-scale collection and requirement setting in all procurements.

Results and experiences

A pilot project was initiated in Stockholm Royal Seaport in 2021, encompassing earthworks and waste management. To scale up and test the system across the entire City Development Administration and, in the long run, with developers, a larger project will be carried out to demonstrate the potential for a full-scale collection and requirement setting in all procurements concerning reporting. Stockholm Royal Seaport is actively participating in the implementation of BEAst in various forums. Examples include the 2022 seminar "Synka mera" (Sync more) organised by Lindholmen Science Park and Byggherrarna (Swedish Construction Clients).

Synka mera (Sync more): A hearing from June 2022 on digitalisation, information sharing, and BEAst in the construction industry. Implementation Manager Fredrik Bergman, Stockholm Royal Seaport presents at 1:58. (only in Swedish)

Ongoing activities

• Collection of production and environmental data for fuels, which is then converted into carbon dioxide emissions.
• Evaluation of the system.
• Procurement of support systems to receive BEAst standard messages and continue implementation of requirements and usage of BEAst standard messages in the project.
• The final report will be presented in spring 2023.

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