Tool summary

Name of the tool
HQE Process

Description of the tool

This process aims at improving the sustainability of urban development, rehabilitation or construction projects, regardless its size.

HQE process is first at all a process for project management aiming at:
- controlling environmental impacts of construction operations
- creating healthy and comfortable living conditions. It covers the whole life cycle of the building, from the inception of the project up to its demolition.

HQE process is based:
- on one hand, on an environmental management system
- on the other hand, on environmental requirements.

The HQE process puts the emphasis on the early stages of the project. It proposes 14 targets that the project owner should prioritize according to the project objectives, local context and environmental requirements.
The 14 targets are classified under 2 areas and 4 categories:

First Area: Environment preservation
1: eco construction
- harmonious relation between buildings and their close environment
- integrated choice of construction processes and products
- building site with low nuisance

2. eco management
- energy management
- water management
- waste management
- maintenance management

Second Area: user's health
3. comfort
- heat comfort
- acoustic comfort
- visual comfort
- olfactory comfort

4. health
- health quality of the areas
- health quality of water
- health quality of air

Each target is directly linked with requirements that correspond to a set of operational indicators (qualitative or quantitative). An original feature of the HQE process comes from the fact that it is not required to have the best performance for the 14 targets. It is asked to choose the main important targets on which special attention and efforts will be carried out. The purpose is not to achieve a medium mark on a set of criteria but to be really good on the most sensible criteria.

The application of the HQE process is based on guidelines, indicators and an environmental management system.
The implementation of the HQE process should not been separated from the implementation of an environmental management system (Iso 14001, …).

Specific topic
Reducing the environmental and healthy impacts of construction sector.

Sector/s of use

Waste	Energy	Water	Transport	Green/Blue	Building & Land use
1	1	1	0	1	M

M - main sector, 1 - sub sector and 0 - n/a

Scale of applications

Component	Building	Neighbourhood	City	Region
0	1	0	0	0