Environmental Product Declarations

The overall goal of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) is to promote demand for products that have lower adverse environmental impacts, through communication of science-based, verifiable and accurate information, thereby stimulating market-driven continuous improvement of environmental performance.

An EPD is a globally recognized voluntary Type III environmental declaration based on the ISO 14025 standard.  The EPD is an independently verified product declaration that takes into account the complete life cycle assessment of a product’s key environmental impacts, encompassing all stages of a product’s life cycle including materials extraction, production, transportation, installation, use and end of life stages. The environmental impacts, including everything from energy, water and materials consumption to waste generation and emissions, are quantified based on Life Cycle Assessment studies conducted in accordance with the ISO 14040 standard and a set of product-specific rules and specifications.

The five most commonly reported environmental impact categories used are Global Warming Potential, Ozone Depletion, Photooxidant Formation, Acidification and Eutrophication.  The EPD also provides additional quantitative or qualitative environmental information that is material to the product (see “EPD Content” section below).

EPD’s are to be used for informed decision-making but they are NOT comparative assertions in and of themselves.  The “nutrition-label” approach communicates the key life cycle environmental impacts, leaving any relative weighting/scoring and judgments regarding those impacts in the hands of the intended users.

The preparation of an EPD is commissioned by a producer and performed by an independent organization (EPD Program Operator) on the basis of pre-defined Product Category Rules (PCR).  PCRs contain criteria and standardized rules for LCA methodology applicable to individual product groups.  The PCRs are developed by the Program Operator using a defined process that includes consultation with identified stakeholders with expertise in life cycle assessment as well as those who are knowledgeable about the product.

The Program Operator is a body that conducts a Type III environmental declaration program.  A program operator can be a company or a group of companies, industry sector or trade association, public authorities or agencies, or an independent scientific body or other organization.

Final Environmental Product Declarations are subject to verification to confirm that they comply with the applicable international standards and Product Category Rules.  EPD verification may be conducted by an internal reviewer for business-to-business (B-to-B) situations, and by a third party verifier for business-to-consumer (B-to-C) applications.  The program operator appoints the verifier and establishes a transparent verification procedure, usually in consultation with the verifier.

Once verified, the EPD can be officially registered and entered into a public repository.   The public database/repository makes it possible for users to access scientifically verified information about environmental impacts of products and to compare their environmental performance.  The manufacturer owns the EPD for their product and they receive the right to use the EPD Program Operator logo for the EPD.

EPD Content

Organization, Product and Process Description

LCA-based information

• Performance and functional units
• Criteria, methodology, parameters of the LCA study
• Environmental impacts assessment based on life cycle inventory (LCI) data (materials and energy inflows and outflows)

Other environmental information that may be required

• Description of list of materials and chemical substances.
• Data derived from LCA but not communicated in the typical LCI or LCIA based formats, e.g. recycled material content.
• Data that is not part of the product’s LCA study, but is still based on consideration of the product’s life cycle and is part of the product’s environmental profile, e.g. information on toxic substances.
• Information concerning other issues with the product’s overall environmental performance.
• Documented environmental management system

Applicable Standards

• ISO 14020:   Environmental labels and declarations – General principles
• ISO 14025:   Environmental labels and declarations – Type III environmental declarations – principles and procedures
• ISO 14040:   Environmental management – Life cycle assessment — Principles and framework
• ISO 14044:    Environmental management — Life cycle assessment — Requirements and guidelines
• ISO 21930:   Sustainability in building construction – Environmental declaration of building products

The EPD is typically valid for three years.  After this period the producer prepares and documents an internal review of the EPD contents and the verifier verifies this review. A periodic review of the basis for environmental labels and declarations accounts for innovation and the underlying information should be updated at a frequency consistent with the pace of innovation.

Contact Us to discuss how EPDs can enhance your environmental marketing strategy, facilitate specification in environmentally preferable purchasing programs or green building rating systems and for guidance on developing EPDs for your industry sector or your products.