What is an EPD?
An Environmental Product Declaration or EPD is a standardised document that transparently and clearly communicates the environmental performance or impact of any product or material over it's lifetime.
Within the construction industry, EPDs support carbon emission reduction by making it possible to compare the impacts of different materials and products in order to select the greener or more sustainable option.
Environmental Product Declarations help to achieve EPD and LCA credits in green building certifications like LEED, BREEAM and more.
A scientific certification
An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is not only limited to products, such as a window, but can also be applied to materials (an aluminium billet), assembly parts of products or even for services (like maintenance). In summary, an EPD is a scientific, transparent and sound document that is used for many different applications, including:
- Public procurement
- Green building rating schemes (i.e. BREEAM, LEED, DGNB)
- Customer requests on environmental data for the products or components that are delivered to them
- Use by specialists to include the products in their further LCA calculations (products, buildings, ...)
- Use by the companies themselves, to strive improving the environmental footprint of their products
