SNUG Standardization Workshop: Advancing Standards in Sustainable Construction
As a project partner in SNUG Austrian Standards International (ASI) supports the consortium by connecting research outputs with relevant international and European standards. This includes identifying applicable standards, detecting gaps in standardization for emerging technologies, and advising on standardization strategies and deliverables. ASI also provides access to CEN and ISO networks and guidance on standardization processes, helping ensure that SNUG’s results are robust, compliant, and more easily transferable to market and regulatory frameworks.
The SNUG project recently hosted a highly engaging and productive Standardization Workshop, bringing together all project partners to identify and discuss opportunities for advancing standards in the field of sustainable building and insulation materials. The workshop marked a key milestone in SNUG’s mission to support innovation, interoperability and knowledge sharing across the construction value chain.
Key discussions
The central focus of the workshop was the identification, evaluation, and prioritization of standardization gaps. These gaps represent areas where existing standards are lacking, unclear, difficult to apply in practice, or where entirely new standards could generate significant benefits for innovation and market uptake.
The discussions built on input collected through the SNUG Standardization Questionnaire, while also inviting participants to highlight additional gaps that may have emerged during their project work. One of the objectives in SNUG is to develop standardization recommendations that will be shared with relevant European and/or International standardization bodies at CEN or ISO. These recommendations may serve as input for the revision of existing standards or as a basis for initiating new European standardization deliverables.
To support this process, a dedicated questionnaire was designed to help identify potential standardization gaps in areas relevant to SNUG. In this context, a “standardization gap” refers not only to technical shortcomings in existing standards, but also to barriers to their implementation, as well as to a clear need for new standards in specific domains. The valuable feedback and expertise provided by project partners through this questionnaire played a crucial role in accurately identifying these gaps and ensuring that the workshop discussions were grounded in real project experience.
To guide the interactive discussions during the Standardization Workshop, participants were asked to reflect on several key questions:
- Methodologies and results: Which methods, processes, or outcomes developed within your work package could be recommended for use beyond the project?
- Quality standards: Do you regularly discuss the quality of your results with colleagues? Could standards help define minimum quality requirements and ensure consistent outcomes?
- Interoperability and compatibility: Which aspects of SNUG require agreements between partners that could benefit from streamlining? Could these evolve into standards applicable beyond the project?
- Communication and terminology: Are there challenges in explaining your work? Could a shared terminology standard improve understanding and clarity across teams?
These guiding questions and input from the standardization questionnaire stimulated constructive dialogue and encouraged participants to think critically about how their work could contribute to broader standardization efforts. The workshop was designed not only to identify gaps, but also to assess which opportunities could have the greatest impact if pursued further.
Following in-depth discussions and collaborative exercises, participants ranked the identified standardization gaps, resulting in the selection of three priority ideas. These standardization ideas will now form the basis for focused task groups that will further discuss the ideas and develop the concepts.
1. New Standard for Bio-Based Insulation Materials and Bio-Based Panels
This SNUG project partner initiative aims to establish standardized criteria for the performance, testing, and classification of bio-based insulation materials and panels. A new standard in this area would support the wider adoption of sustainable materials in construction, while ensuring safety, reliability, and transparency for all stakeholders.
2. Limitations for Early-Stage Material Development Due to Requirements for Large-Scale Fire and Acoustic Testing in Standards
Experience gained during the SNUG project has shown that early-stage material development often faces significant challenges due to stringent requirements for large-scale fire and acoustic testing. This standardization idea seeks to address these hurdles by providing ideas to establish correlations between small-scale and large-scale tests. Small-scale tests are considered useful screening tools to guide material development, discard underperforming variants, and reduce cost, time, and resource consumption. Introducing recognized small-scale methods would improve sustainability, reduce resource use, and better support innovation without replacing mandatory large-scale certification tests.
3. Practical Guidance and Training for ISO 15686-5 Life-Cycle Costing and Circularity Metrics
Feedback of the SNUG partners revealed, although ISO 15686-5 Buildings and constructed assets — Service life planning — Part 5: Life-cycle costing provides a framework for life-cycle costing and circularity assessment, practical guidance and training are often limited. This standardization idea focuses on joint exchange of experiences to research and explore guidance and training opportunities to support consistent application of these metrics and to strengthen circular economy principles in construction projects.
The collaborative environment of the workshop enabled all participants to share diverse perspectives, challenge assumptions, and align on the most impactful areas for standardization. By actively engaging multiple partners, the SNUG project ensures that these efforts are firmly grounded in real-world needs and have the potential to influence industry practice beyond the project’s duration.
Looking Ahead
As a next step, dedicated task groups will be established for each standardization idea. All partners are invited to join one or more groups and actively contribute to the further development of standardization ideas that can shape future innovation. The workshop benefited greatly from the participants’ active engagement, insightful contributions, and collaborative spirit, laying a strong foundation for practical and impactful standardization initiatives.
Through initiatives such as this workshop, SNUG continues to demonstrate its commitment to innovation, sustainability, and the harmonization of best practices in the building and insulation sector. By identifying key gaps, prioritizing actionable ideas, and fostering collaborative task groups, the project is taking concrete steps toward creating standards that support a more sustainable, resilient, and efficient construction industry. Together, we can ensure that SNUG’s work delivers lasting impact—not only within the project, but across the wider industry ecosystem.
Author
Lisa Jesner is an Innovation Specialist at Austrian Standards International (ASI) within the STAIR – Standardization Services for Innovation & Research unit. She focuses on knowledge transfer between research, industry and society and supports projects and organizations in bringing solutions to market through professional guidance and expertise in the field of standardization and international networks.
