Environmental Product Declarations (EPD)

What are Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) and how are they prepared?

Environmental product declarations according to ISO 14025 are also called type III environmental declarations. The abbreviation EPD, which is also commonly used in German, is derived from the English term Environmental Product Declarations. In contrast to Type I ecolabels, they do not contain an assessment, but provide "quantified environmental information" (life cycle assessment data) for the life cycle of a product. The life cycle assessment data published within the scope of an EPD are mainly used to calculate life cycle assessments of buildings.

EPDs are created by programme operators such as Bau EPD GmbH. The required LCAs are prepared on behalf of the manufacturer, then checked for plausibility and conformity by independent external verifiers, and the EPD is published as such after approval by the EPD programme.

In the building sector, EN 15804 is the decisive basis for the preparation of EPDs in addition to ISO 14025. Furthermore, specific product category rules (PCR) are to create a uniform basis for the preparation of EPDs and lead to consistent and thus comparable building material data. 

Many EPD programme operators are organised in the umbrella organisation of the ECO Platform. The ECO Platform established a common quality management for EPD programmes through strict verification criteria. EPDs from members of the association that comply with these rules are marked accordingly (ECO-platform logo).

References

• EN 15804 Sustainability of construction works - Environmental product declarations - Basic rules for the category of construction products
• ISO 14025 Environmental labels and declarations - Type III environmental declarations - Principles and procedures

Inclusion criteria for EPD data in baubook

In order for LCA data to be comparable with each other and to be used together for the LCA of buildings, they must be prepared according to uniform rules.

For the inclusion of EPD data in baubook, there are therefore inclusion criteria that are intended to ensure as uniform a database as possible for users.

The following topics are to be considered in particular:

• Comparison of "baubook products" with "EPD products" (see baubook EPD data manual chapter 4).
• Background database GaBi or ecoinvent: Depending on which background database was used, different inclusion criteria apply.
• EPD data based on ecoinvent must comply with the harmonised LCA rules for Austria (ed. Bau EPD GmbH).
• EPD data based on GaBi must comply with the ÖKOBAUDAT principles, sections 4.2.1 and 5.3 (ed. BBSR, www.oekobaudat.de).
• For the declaration of the disposal phase (module C) there are predefined scenarios in baubook (see baubook EPD data M01 LCA rules, section 3.4).
• In order to make the "Module D" usable in building assessments, a distinction is made in baubook between module "D from A5" and module "D from C" (see baubook EPD data EPD data M01 LCA rules, section 3.4).
• For the indicator Global Warming Potential (GWP), the sub-indicators GWP-biogenic and GWP-fossil are mandatory (see baubook EPD data EPD data M01 LCA rules, section 3.1.9).

The detailed inclusion criteria for EPD data in baubook and supporting forms can be found in the baubook EPD data manual and the applicable documents (see Downloads).