English

In the Danish building sector, environmental management is currently being introduced in three areas: design, construction and operation of buildings. This innovation is based on development programmes, some of which are in progress, while others have been completed in the last few years. Dissemination and incorporation of the results of these programmes are being closely monitored. Common to all the development programmes is a requirement that employers and companies formulate an environmental policy describing attitudes, goals, priorities and organisation.

Annex 31 is a multinational project to support researchers engaged in determining how to measure the effects of buildings on their immediate, regional and global environments. Fourteen member countries of the International Energy Agency's (lEA) Implementing Agreement on Energy Conservation in Buildings and Community Systems are involved in the work, divided into 8 tasks.

In order to study pollution dispersion in built up area, aeraulic simulation at reduced scale in a boundary layer wind tunnel is intensively used at CSTB. The experimental set up and the associated procedures are described here. A comparison with complementary approaches developed at CSTB, numerical simulation and full scale measurements using tracer gas release is also provided.

The EQuity model is a Life Cycle Assessment-based tool aimed at evaluating and improving building products Environmental Quality aspects. Unlike most "classical" LCAs, EQuity is strongly based on users' statements about their perception of environmental quality, as well as their goals and constrains pertaining to a given product study. Two applications of the EQuity model are presented in this paper. They illustrate the benefits of the case-by-case approach.

The high environmental_ quality of the buildings in the south of France requires a good control of the summer thermal comfort. For economical and ecological reasons this purpose must be reached essentially by architectural design. In the program "Haute Qualite Environnementale" of the "Plan-Construction". 58 collective housings have been built in Nice in a dense urban zone with a principal consideration to the summer comfort, specially to allow a good transversal ventilation in the moderate hot and humid climate of this city.

Health complaints related to indoor air quality are increasingly common. Hence, it is well known that environmental factors act on the emergence of certain illnesses. Today, many people consider that their health problems are due to a specific building environment. Chemical, microbiological and particulate pollutants are of interest, but only as one category of potential factors. Other risk factors have been identified ranging from the individual's sex and health status to psychosociological issues and buildings characteristics.