The development of service life product standards and standardization of service life design and planning of buildings and constructed facilities are key elements for achieving “Sustainable Construction”. The technical committee CIB W80 has focused over the past decade, on the development of knowledge in support of such standards and design methods and it has been the prime purveyor of fundamental information on the service life prediction of building materials and components. A final report is provided of work completed in the most recent work programme covering the period between 2002-2005. Advances in three areas of estimating the service life of building products components or systems are outlined. These include the factorial method, an engineering design approach and reliability-based methods. As well, a summary is given of work carried out in related areas, including environmental factors. Additional information is provided on failure mode effects analysis and its use in the building industry. Insights are provided into the collaborative efforts and related activities within ISO TC 59 SC14 – “Design life” and the Performance based building (PeBBu) thematic network initiative focused on “Construction materials” of the fifth EC framework on Competitive and Sustainable Growth.