Society’s increased awareness of global warming and climate change makes it necessary for companies to report on the carbon footprint of their products. There is a growing demand for products that are sustainable and have the least possible impact on the environment. But how can this be achieved today?
Environmental Product Declarations, also known by their acronym EPD (Environmental Product Declaration) have the answer.
In this article we explain the keys to various concepts that are key to understanding the environmental performance of a product.
- What is an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)?
- What are product category rules?
- What is product life cycle analysis?
- Environmental performance indicators.
- What are the benefits or advantages of an Environmental Product Declaration?
What is an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)?
An Environmental Product Declaration (hereafter EPD) describes the environmental performance of a product by carrying out a life cycle assessment (Life Cycle Assessment – LCA).
An EPD records resource consumption and emissions during the entire life cycle of a product, from raw material extraction to disposal, and quantifies and evaluates them. Thus, an Environmental Product Declaration offers the possibility to compare different products with each other. In the Environmental Product Declaration the characteristics of a product are neutrally identified using internationally recognised standards such as ISO 14025, and EN 15804, and all values obtained are also externally audited by independent professionals.
However, the EPD is not a certificate, i.e. there are requirements on quality and data format, but not on product quality. For the building sector, it is a very important basis for the assessment of buildings from an ecological perspective.
The International EPD® System is the world’s most comprehensive environmental declaration system, with a global scope and covering all types of goods and services. The International EPD System is the inventor of the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) and the Product Category Rules (PCR).
An EPD allows:
- Fair comparison of environmental performance
- Reflect continuous environmental improvement
- Present checked and verified environmental information
With the development of Environmental Product Declarations manufacturers are able to communicate comparable, objective and verified data that certifies the environmental performance of products by providing the market with accurate and verified information. The EPD is accepted in several green building systems (e.g. BREEAM and LEED), in building information management (BIM) software, and for LCA of buildings.
STAGES of a EPD
An Environmental Product Declaration consists of a series of phases:
- Selection of Product Category Rules (PCR).
- Product Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
- Information gathering
- Third-party verification
- Registration and publication
Once these stages have been completed, the Environmental Product Declaration document is obtained, which will be published on Environdec’s website.
What are product category rules?
Product Category Rules (PCR) provide the rules, requirements and guidelines for developing an EPD for a specific product category.
Product Category Rules (PCRs) ensure that functionally similar products are assessed in the same way when performing Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and for product comparison. In other words, a PCR should enable different professionals using it to generate consistent results when assessing products of the same category. They are a fundamental part of ISO 14025, as they enable transparency and comparability between EPDs. There are currently more than 180 product categories, such as the one for construction products, which includes electrical components, insulation, wood and piping systems, among others. The full list can be found here.
What is product life cycle analysis?
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a process of assessing the effects a product has on the environment throughout its life cycle, thereby increasing resource efficiency and reducing liabilities. It can be used to study the environmental impact of a product or the function for which it is designed. LCA is often referred to as cradle-to-grave analysis.
The key elements of the LCA are:
- Identify and quantify the environmental burdens involved, e.g. energy and raw materials consumed, emissions and waste generated;
- Assess the potential environmental impacts of these loads; and
- Assess the options available to reduce these environmental impacts.
During the elaboration of an EPD, the environmental performance of the product will be described from a life cycle perspective, where one of the main steps is to perform a life cycle assessment (LCA) of the product.
The LCA study shall comply with the internationally accepted principles, framework, methodology and practices set out in ISO 14040 and ISO 14044, the general purpose of EPDs in data collection, and the methods and assumptions used, as advocated in ISO 14025.
A life cycle assessment takes into account the entire life cycle of a product or parts of it. There are therefore three different approaches to assessing the product life cycle:
- Cradle to grave
- Cradle to gate
- Cradle to cradle
Cradle to grave’ refers to the life cycle phases from the extraction of raw materials to the disposal of the product at the end of its life cycle. If only the extraction of raw materials and the production of materials is assessed, it is referred to as ‘cradle to gate’. Consideration of product impact in the life cycle Life cycle ends with the finished product arriving at the factory gate. Transport and use are not included in this approach.
The cradle-to-cradle approach is the most comprehensive approach, where the product or parts of it are reused for a new product.
Environmental performance indicators
Life cycle assessments provide information on the potential impact of a product or service on the environment. EN 15804+A2 describes 13 basic environmental impact indicators to be reported for an Environmental Product Declaration and 6 additional optional Environmental Impact Indicators. Some of the most relevant ones are listed below:
- Global Warming Potential:
The GWP index (Global Warming Potential – GWP = Global Warming Potential) is a relative measure of how much heat can be trapped by a given greenhouse gas, compared to a reference gas, usually carbon dioxide. - Acidification potential:
Acidification potential (AP) is an important environmental impact that must be taken into account when assessing bioenergy systems, as it is expected to increase with increasing biomass production. AP is caused by the emission of acids or acid-forming substances into the environment, leading to acidification of soil and water. - Eutrophication potential:
Eutrophication potential is considered a process whereby water bodies, such as lakes, estuaries or slow-flowing streams, receive excess nutrients that stimulate excessive plant growth. - Photochemical ozone creation potential:
Photochemical ozone creation potential (POCP) is a metric used to quantify emissions that can contribute to low-level smog; the unit is ethane equivalents. SO2 (59%), volatile organic compounds (VOCs) (19%), NOx (17%) and methane (CH4) (2%) contribute to this figure from primary industry. - Ozone Depletion Potential:
Ozone depletion potential is a measure of the damage a chemical can cause to the ozone layer compared to a similar mass of trichlorofluoromethane (CFC-11). CFC-11, with an ozone depletion potential of 1.0, is used as the baseline figure for measuring ozone depletion potential. - Abiotic Depletion Potential for minerals and metals:
The Abiotic Depletion Potential (ADP) method is based on the concept of ‘depletion’: the extraction of a resource from the earth’s crust is considered to contribute to its depletion (depletion). - Abiotic depletion potential for fossil resources:
In the fossil fuel component of the ADP, the impact of transport is primarily responsible for abiotic depletion. This means that the distance between the extraction of raw materials and the manufacturer is the main influencing factor for the fossil fuel component of the ADP because transport commonly uses them as energy. - Water deprivation potential:
Quantifies the potential for water deprivation, both for humans and ecosystems, and is used to calculate the water consumption impact score at the midpoint of the LCA or to calculate a water scarcity footprint according to ISO 14046.
The benefits of Environmental Product Declarations
Environmental Product Declarations provide a basis for assessing the environmental impact of a product and enable architects, engineers, construction companies and the entire value chain to make sustainable decisions for their projects.
Customers and legislators are increasingly demanding that the impact of products be presented in a transparent manner. In this respect, environmental product declarations enable companies, for example, to participate in public tenders or in building sustainability systems such as BREEAM, LEED or WELL. Furthermore, an Environmental Product Declaration forms the basis for the development and optimisation of sustainable products.
