The presentation of the draft EIA national standards for transport facilities took place on November 13 from 14 to 17 at the Aarhus Information and Education Center of the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine:

• DSTU Environmental Impact Assessment. Assessment criteria and environmental impact indicators.
• DSTU Environmental Impact Assessment. Transport structures.. Guidance on the preparation of the Environmental Impact Assessment Report (hereinafter referred to as DSTU).

The event was attended by the developers of standards, representatives of the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine, Ministry of Infrastructure, Ukravtodor, State Research Institute Derzhdor, KNUBA and other research, design and construction organizations, and business associations.

At the beginning, Svitlana Berzina, Deputy Chair of the Technical Committee for Standardization TC 82 "Environmental Protection" stated that the initiative of developing standards was aimed at establishing clear criteria for the assessment and indicators of environmental impacts of roads, railways, bridges, hydro structures subject to EIA in accordance with the Law.

Construction throughout the life cycle is associated with the use of non-renewable resources and the transformation of territories. As a result, such activities can have significant economic impacts and impacts on the environment and human health. We propose to establish a benchmark for the development and EIA Report based on indicators focused on improving the economic, environmental and social impacts of the planned activity, following the provisions of the international standard ISO 21929-1: 2015, which sets the baseline criteria for life cycle assessment of construction objects.

In addition to environmental impacts, the developers have also paid attention to such criteria as energy efficiency, resource conservation (replacing natural materials with technogenic ones), impacts on social and technogenic environments. This approach is in line with the Strategic Objectives of the State Environmental Policy until 2030 and Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production.

“In Europe, in particular in the UK, standardized methods for assessing the life cycle of construction sites have been in use since the 1990s. Over time, this approach has spread globally worldwide. Clear criteria make it possible to provide an unbiased assessment that ensures the transparency of the procedure,” said David Leonard, a spokesman for BRE Global, which ensures that Europe's most widely used system for assessing the environmental performance of buildings and structures.

David's colleague V. Hong focused on resource efficiency criteria: “It is very important that the presented draft standards pay particular attention to the conservation of natural resources. The British standards provide for the mandatory use of construction waste and slag materials in the design of facilities, including transport infrastructure - roads, overpasses, bridges. There is a concept of "saved material". When determining the percentage of the content of such materials under a number of conditions of use environmental and economic feasibility is assessed. This is the basis of the circular economy.”.

The members of the working group presented the substantive part of DSTU:

About the proposed criteria, assessment method and calculation example

Khrutba Victoria, Doctor of Engineering, Head of the Department of Ecology and Health and Safety of the National Transport University, Corresponding Member of Transport Academy of Ukraine.

About technological possibilities of application of slag materials (examples)

Natalia Kharitonova, Head of the Department of Ecology and Earthwork, State Research Institute Derzhdor

During the discussion, Maryna Shymkus, Head of the Environmental Impact Assessment Unit of the Environmental Impact Assessment and Licensing Activity of the Department of Environmental Safety and Permitting and Licensing of the Ministry of Energy and Fuel Resources, clarified the questions on EIA legal regulation changes in legislation.

As a result of the discussion, the introduction of the standards was generally supported, and some proposals for changes and additions to DSTU projects were elaborated. The decision to continue collecting and reviewing comments until November 27 has been approved.

Comments

Comments shall be submitted to TC 82 "Environmental protection":

a) in electronic format (Word) to the address of the responsible secretary of TC Halyna Buzan, galinabuzan@gmail.com, tel. (066) 405-42-80;

b) by official letter to the secretariat of TC 82: State Ecological Academy of Postgraduate Education and Management, 35 Metropolitan Vasyl Lipkivsky, Corp. 2, Kyiv, 03035.

The DSTU was developed by the TK 82 Working Group, which included the representatives of research institutes, business associations, EIA experts, in the field of resource conservation and cleaner production technologies, and modern management systems.

The use of DSTU will ensure the implementation of a unified approach to the criterion base and the evaluation of EIA reports in accordance with the Law of Ukraine “On Environmental Impact Assessment”.

The DSTUs are intended for the application:

• by the subject of the planned activity in the preparation of the EIA report and for after-project monitoring;
• by the public (public hearings);
• by EIA decision-making bodies (Ministry of Energy and Regional Government Units);
• by design and construction organizations;
• by the bodies that exercise state control over compliance with the requirements of the Law.