About Climate database

The National Board of Housing, Building and Planning provides an open database for use in a climate declaration for new buildings. In cases where the developer wants to use generic climate data in a climate declaration, the data must be retrieved from here.

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Boverkets climate database version 02.05.000 updated 25 January 2024.

Climate database

Generic data in the climate database from Boverket

The database presents conservative emissions data for construction products used in Sweden and also for energy and fuel. If you use generic climate data in your climate declaration, you must use data from the climate database from Boverket. More information about the regulation on climate declaration for buildings can be found in the page Questions and answers about climate declarations, see "Related information".

The values ​​in the database are conservatively set, ie about 25 percent higher than the average of the value calculated for the product group. The value is based on an average value from existing environmental product declarations (EPDs). The purpose is to stimulate the use of construction products with a low climate impact as possible and which are verified with EPDs in the final climate declaration. It should not be an advantage to use generic climate data instead of product-specific data for the construction products that have a high climate impact. Conservatively set data also stimulates construction product manufacturers to produce EPDs.

The content in the climate database

The climate database from Boverket contains generic climate data for:

• product stage (module A1-A3)
• climate impact for transports for the generic construction products included in the climate database (A4)
• waste of construction products (A5)
• different types of energy and fuel use (A5).

The climate database also contains information on the conservative factor used to calculate the conservative value of climate data. In the early stages, in order to compare materials and select materials with a lower climate impact, it may be more relevant to use average values. This value can be calculated by dividing the conservative value by the conservative factor.

The alternative is to use specific data

A climate declaration can be made entirely with generic values ​​from the climate database from Boverket.

Specific climate data show more precisely the climate impact from the building. Specific climate data for a construction product shows the climate impact during the manufacture of the product, under the product's special manufacturing conditions. We therefor encourage that product-specific climate data (EPDs) are used and rewarded in the management so that the climate declaration reflects the building's climate impact as built, as far as possible.

Specific climate data must be from an environmental product declaration that has been produced according to a calculation method that follows product-specific calculation rules with inventory data from a life cycle perspective. The environmental product declaration must be third-party audited or equivalent. This mainly refers to the so-called EPD (Environmental Product Declaration), ie an environmental product declaration that follows the calculation rules in the standard EN 15804. 

To retrieve climate data from the climate database

The climate database from Boverket will be provided in a web interface and in the Json and xml file formats.

The web interface has a search function that makes it easy to find climate data. Climate data for a product group can be found in a product data sheet and can be printed. The possibility to export climate data to an excel file is also available.

For those who want to download data digitally, there is a Json file and an xml file. A file specification has been developed for the files so that the software developers can adapt to their software.

Method for production the climate data

The ambition for the climate database is to base climate data on an average value for a product group on market shares and EPDs for the construction products used in the Swedish market. This has not been possible at the time, so the climate data have been produced as described below.

We have used valid environmental product declarations (EPDs) for construction products used on the Swedish market. First, the distribution of the climate impact within the product group is controlled, and in cases where there is a large distribution between the products (more than 25 percent), the product group is divided into at least two product types. Product groups with a known large distribution are metal-based products where the use of recycled material from end-of-life products significantly affects the construction product's climate impact. Recycled material has no environmental impact from the life cycle of previous products according to the European standard for environmental product declarations EN 15804.

The following steps have been applied to determine an average value within a product group.

1. Average value based on knowledge or estimation of the market shares of the various construction products and the EPDs or equivalent of these construction products.
2. If the market shares are not known for the construction products, an average value of the products used on the market is used, in combination with the EPDs or equivalent of these construction products.
3. If EPDs or equivalent do not exist, general data sources are used instead that can be considered representative of the products used on the Swedish market.
4. In cases where climate data cannot be determined according to steps 1–3, a value is set. It is a value that cannot be validated.

Method for conservatively set data in the climate database

The values ​​in the database are conservatively set, ie about 25 percent higher than the average of the value calculated for the product group. The value is based on an average value for existing EPDs.

If data according to step 1 above exists for a product group, a conservative value can be calculated based on a 75th percentile. This conservative value can then theoretically be defined as an "exact conservative calculated" value. In most cases, this is not possible to obtain the basis required to calculate a mean and a 75th percentile. Therefore, a simplified method is needed based on this principle, that can be applied with the available data. A conservative value for climate data in the climate database is set according to the following step-by-step procedure.

1. Conservative data are set as a 75th percentile of the products and their specific climate data when this is possible to calculate, primarily according to step 1 and secondly according to step 2 above for averaging data.
2. In other cases, a generic factor of 1.25 is used, in order to obtain a conservative value based on the mean value. A check is only made if steps 2 to 3 are applied to average value data, to check that the calculated conservative value with a factor of 1.25 is not higher than the highest environmental impact identified within the product/group. If so, conservative data is set to this highest identified value for environmental performance.