Understanding FDES configurators: the complete guide

When a manufacturer needs an FDES, they commission a study: the product is modelled, the declaration is verified, then published. Things get complicated the day they need five, ten, fifty or several hundred: should they still handle them one by one? This guide starts from that question. It gives the big picture and, for each point worth exploring further, points to a dedicated guide.

Why do manufacturers need to produce more FDES?

RE2020, the French environmental regulation for new buildings, requires the environmental impact of new buildings to be assessed over their whole life cycle. The calculation covers the construction products and equipment that make up the building, as well as energy and water consumption and construction site activities.

To calculate the impact of construction products, the quantities installed must be matched with representative environmental data. This is the role of FDES (Fiches de Déclaration Environnementale et Sanitaire, the French EPD format) in particular: they provide the environmental results these assessments need.

When no suitable FDES is available, the calculation can fall back on default environmental data. These values are set conservatively and do not necessarily reflect the actual performance of the products.

To meet RE2020 requirements, construction stakeholders must control and reduce the environmental impact of their buildings. The environmental impact of materials and equipment has therefore become a selection criterion, alongside price and technical performance.

For manufacturers, having FDES that represent their products is therefore becoming a genuine commercial issue.

One FDES can cover several references in the same range, but when compositions, dimensions, performance or manufacturing conditions vary, more specific FDES may become necessary.

As references and variants multiply, the number of FDES to produce can rise considerably.

Producing them one at a time: where are the limits?

When they are produced one at a time, FDES remain individual projects. Some groundwork can be reused (methodology, LCA model, shared data), but each new declaration still has to be adapted, recalculated, documented, verified and published. For a few products, this works; for dozens or hundreds, it becomes hard to scale.

Cost is only part of the problem. Each FDES also takes up your teams' time and that of an approved verifier, whose availability cannot be stretched overnight. The cost and payback guide details what producing everything one at a time costs.

A scale problem is not solved by simply producing more FDES one at a time. Changing scale means changing the model.

What is an FDES configurator?

An FDES configurator is a digital application built around a parametric life cycle assessment (LCA) model. It calculates the environmental impacts of construction products from their characteristics and generates the FDES and related deliverables.

At the heart of the application, the LCA model brings together the environmental data, assumptions, scenarios and calculation rules required. It also defines which parameters can vary, and within what limits.

A configurator does not replace LCA: it makes that expertise available to your teams, without them having to master it.

Depending on the products to cover and the results you are after, there are two main approaches: the generator configurator and the distributor configurator.

Generator or distributor: what are the differences?

The main difference between an FDES generator and an FDES distributor lies in which product characteristics can vary. A generator models products, whereas a distributor adapts the results of products that are already defined.

Explore the differences between an FDES generator and distributor

What is the best way to generate compliant FDES?

An FDES is compliant when it meets the EN 15804+A2 standard and its French national supplement, and when it is verified by a third party approved by the INIES programme. To produce them at scale, the most reliable solution is a verified, custom-built FDES configurator: the LCA expertise is built once into a checked model, and every FDES generated relies on that framework.

An LCA platform, by contrast, is used to carry out studies. It can produce compliant FDES, provided each one is modelled by an expert and then verified in full: each new declaration remains a complete project, with its own cost and lead time.

This difference is what makes a configurator worthwhile economically: compliance is built into the tool once, instead of being redone for every FDES. The configurators Ailoop developed for MEISER (distributor) and for Rockwool (generator) rest on this principle.

How is an FDES configurator built?

A configurator is built in five stages, before it produces a single FDES: scope the project, collect and structure the data, build the LCA model, develop the application, then test it and have it verified. Without structured product data, nothing can vary: data collection determines everything else.

1. Scope the project

   Products to cover, type of configurator, expected deliverables, users: the scope is set before any data is collected.

2. Collect and structure the data

   Families, references, compositions, sites, processes, transport: what stays the same is separated from what varies.

3. Build the LCA model

   Assumptions, scenarios, variables, calculation rules and formulas.

4. Develop the application

   User journey, interface, calculation engine, PDF and XML exports, checks.

5. Test it and have it verified

   The LCA model and its implementation in the application are reviewed together.

Once verified, the configurator can produce FDES for every configuration its model allows. Each stage still needs its own preparation: the guide to building an FDES configurator describes them one by one and lists the data to gather.

How is the configurator verified?

Verifying a configurator is not the same as testing software. The configurator is reviewed by a third-party verifier, independent of every party to the project: neither the manufacturer, nor whoever carried out the LCA, nor the company that developed the application. This verifier must be approved by the INIES programme, which publishes the list of approved verifiers. They check two things: that the LCA model is correct, and that the application implements it faithfully, whatever configuration is chosen.

Verification therefore covers a calculation framework, not a single result. What happens next depends on the type of configurator: for a generator, each FDES must be verified and published on INIES; a distributor can be recognised by the French ministry responsible for construction for RE2020, and its declarations can then be used directly in building calculation software, with no further verification of each FDES. These procedures follow their own timetable, which you need to plan for.

The FDES configurator verification guide walks you through verification, registration, publication and RE2020 recognition, step by step.

Is a configurator right for every manufacturer?

No. There is no number of FDES beyond which a configurator becomes necessary: whether it is worthwhile depends on five factors, and a range FDES or one-off FDES is sometimes still the best answer.

The suitability guide details these criteria and offers an interactive self-assessment.

How much does an FDES configurator cost?

A configurator requires a heavier upfront investment than a one-off FDES (data, LCA model, development, verification), then a much lower cost per FDES. It pays off when that investment is spread over enough FDES or configurations.

There is no universal price: the budget depends on the number of product families, the state of the data, the LCA work, the features and the verification set-up. Where the two cost curves cross depends on your situation. The cost and payback guide explains the cost items and the calculation method, and offers a simulator using your own assumptions.

What are the benefits of an FDES configurator?

A configurator brings scale, consistency and autonomy: the LCA work, done once, serves every FDES generated, and your teams produce the declarations they need without being LCA experts.

Where to go next?

This guide gives the big picture. Each of the five questions that follow has its own guide, in the order a project comes across them.

The configurators presented here are not theoretical: Ailoop has developed them for manufacturers and industry sectors, such as the MEISER FDES configurator for gratings and industrial flooring, or the DimACV configurator for the natural stone sector, designed with CTMNC.