Framework for regulations and standards

Description – The Framework for Regulations and Standards will be a written report (PDF) on suggestions for future policies and standards. The suggested future policies and standards will not only respond directly to existing barriers identified, but will also reinforce existing regulations and cover areas that are not yet regulated. The suggestions for future policies and standards will be assessed with regard to how they can facilitate the transition towards circular and dynamic buildings, their effect on waste reduction and the reduction of the use of virgin resources, as well as their impact on different stakeholders. Impact assessment of current policy actions will be based on resource productivity indicators and other key performance indicators (as defined in the EU Resource Efficiency Roadmap), the avoided environmental burden and the estimated financial cost related to current policy actions. To allow for an effective analysis, it is necessary to narrow the scope of the policy instruments to be investigated. Two approaches are to be taken to define the boundaries of the analysis. The first is the limitation of the geographic scope in relation to the BAMB project. In addition to broadly applicable EU level regulations, policies and standards that are to be examined; 3 locations will be defined based on pilot locations and the geographical activity of the involved BAMB partners in order to sufficiently narrow the scope for an in-depth analysis at the local and national levels. This does not exclude however that best practices be identified in other national and local contexts. The second approach to determine the scope is to identify the policy levels to be investigated based on: 1) the narrowed geographic scope that has been selected, 2) the impact of the regulations, policies, and standards on BAMB. For each defined geographical area, the policies impacting BAMB on the different links of the value chain are going to be investigated and mapped in a policy matrix. The policy matrix is a table to be used to identify and categorize policy instruments, providing a broad view of the elements investigated. To categorize instruments, the matrix will take into account the different links of the value chain (raw materials, production of products, construction, building use, end of life/waste, reuse/recycle) as well as the type or objective of the policy instruments in question (judicial- legislation/regulation, authorization, control; financial- taxes, subsidies, premiums, specific financial mechanisms; public investments– infrastructure, equipment, human resources, excellence; information- raising awareness, training and education, labelling; research and innovation – technical research, science, foundations; etc.). Content for the final recommendations will also take into account conclusions and input from a governance platform within the BAMB project, as well as interactions with other EU and international platforms dedicated to related areas of work (i.e. UNEP – SBCI, JRC etc.).