What is an EPD?
EPD stands for Environmental Product Declaration. It is a third-party verified, standardized document that provides the environmental impact of a product, based on the data from an LCA. It is a standardized way of providing transparent and comparable information about the environmental performance of a product or material.
How to create a product's EPD?
If you have a product EPD that is not in cove.tools database from EC3, you can create a custom EPD in cove.tool, or encourage the manufacturer to supply their EPD information to EC3 directly.
If you are a manufacturer and would like to create a specific product EPD, please reach out to us via LiveChat.
What are the different types of EPDs?
An EPD is a so-called product Specific Type III environmental declaration (Third-Party Reviewed). This is the most thorough type of EPD, which covers a single product from a manufacturer and is reviewed by a third-party entity. An EPD is usually valid for five years and is generated according to the relevant standards. Construction EPDs are based on the ISO 14040/14044, ISO 14025, EN 15804, or ISO 21930 standards.
In physical terms, an EPD consists of two key documents:
The underlying LCA report is a systematic and comprehensive summary of the LCA project to support the third-party verifier when verifying the EPD. This report is not part of public communication.
Public EPD document that provides the LCA results and other EPD content.
As a voluntary declaration of the life-cycle environmental impact, having an EPD for a product does however not imply that the declared product is environmentally superior to alternatives.
What is the EPD Database?
We are using Building Transparency's EC3 database - which is the largest global database of product EPDS. Updates to this database are quarterly. Embodied Carbon results change as EPDs are added to the database. This way you can compare products appropriately in an up-to-date manner.
What is the Baseline for EPDs?
EC3 also incorporates baselines: static points of reference that help ground and give context to embodied carbon results. A baseline is a static reference against which to compare progress toward a goal. Baseline data enables the tracking of changes or improvements over time and across projects. The Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF) ‘high’ baseline value is used to establish baselines for each material category.
How to compare EPDs?
To compare the impact of different EPDs on your project, you can systematically do so in 3 steps:
On the EPD Selection Page, review the EPD Library for building assembly categories (you can sort by GWP impact, or use filters to refine your search)
Add a few EPDs to your Project Library
On the EPD Assignment Page, choose from the EPDs you added to Project Library to see their impact on your Project Carbon Profile
References:
Happy Modeling!