Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs). Finalized agreements:

Agreements in process:

Since July 1, 2017, it has been mandatory in France for manufacturers who want to voluntarily communicate to the market some environmental aspect of their products, to have and provide the consumer with an Environmental Product Declaration verified by a third party. (BP X30-323-0 Principes généraux pour l’affichage environnemental des produits de grande consommation. (Framed in application of the “Grenelle 2” Law). This fact has triggered the number of Environmental Product Declarations in France, this being a very environmentally mature market of high interest for Spanish companies, since in France it represents 19% of Spanish exports of construction products.

For all these reasons, the DAPconstrucción operator program, administered by Cateb, initiated the mutual recognition procedures with the INIES operator program, which manages Environmental Declarations in France and is administered by Alliance HQE-GBC. During this time, work has been done to establish a common procedure for the verification and registration of EPDs in both operator programmes, with DAPconstrucción being the first operator programme for environmental product declarations to sign a bilateral agreement with the French operator programme INIES.This mutual agreement facilitates the free movement of products, the mutual recognition of EPDs registered in both operator programmes and the development of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for products in the Spanish and French markets.

This agreement that is signed, expands the international recognition of the DAPconstrucción operator program, which already has international recognitionEPD verifiedof the ECO platform, an international association of which the DAPconstrucción operator programme wasFounding Memberand where they can beConsultAll current declarations registered in the operator programs that are members.

With this international agreement between DAPcons and INIES, alliances are created and efforts are joined between France and Spain to achieve the objectives of decarbonisation and the reduction of environmental impacts in the construction sector.  The INIES environmental product declaration operator programme was created in 2004 and is the French national reference for environmental data on construction products. For its part, the DAPconstrucción operator programme was established in 2008, through an initiative of the Department of Territory and Environment of the Generalitat de Catalunya and the College of Technical Architecture of Barcelona (Cateb), being the first operator programme and the reference for EPDs and environmental information on construction products in Spain.

This mutual agreement will allow cooperation between the two programs, facilitating the development and registration of new EPDs or existing EPDs in one of the two programs, streamlining administrative processes and facilitating cost reductions for product manufacturing companies. For all these reasons, this alliance is very good news that benefits companies from both countries, since there is a lot of trade between France and Spain. In the case of Spain, the Spanish construction products manufacturer sector exported products worth 30,736 million euros in 2022, 10.7% more than in 2021 and 37% more than in 2020. Spain is the fifth producing country with the most exports in the last five years, behind Germany, Italy, France and Poland and the seventh in absolute export terms. By economic destination, the countries of the European Union that target Spanish products are France (19.0%), Italy (9.4%), Germany (8.1%), Portugal (7.4%), and the Netherlands (5.5%). the United States (7.2%), the United Kingdom (5.1%), Morocco (3.1%), Mexico (1.6%), Saudi Arabia (1.23%) and Turkey.

In a context in which integrating a life cycle perspective is becoming increasingly important, Environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as a generator of data and Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) as a communication vehicle, have established themselves as the essential tools to assess and minimise the environmental impact of building projects.   as well as to help in the choice of construction systems and products that contribute to this. Although currently the use of EPDs in building is mainly linked to public tenders, access to subsidies and obtaining environmental certifications for buildings, in the coming years, it will become the essential and necessary communication vehicle for products in all building projects. For all these reasons, this mutual agreement is a step forward in responding to market demand and helping to promote sustainability in the construction sector.

Do you want to register and publish DAPcons within the framework of the mutual agreement with INIES? Through our contact form in General Information about the Program indicating in the subject “Mutual agreement DAPcons-INIES”.