Increasingly, the construction industry expects EPDs for the materials it purchases, especially steel. As the focus on green ratings and projects’ environmental impact and performance continues to grow, EPDs are a primary, internationally accepted tool for comparing materials and calculating a building’s impact.

So exactly what are they, how do they work, and most importantly – how can you distinguish legit EPDs?

What is an EPD?

An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is a document that provides information about the environmental impact of a product or service over its lifecycle. They are the international gold standard for environmental information.

An EPD must be independently-verified and registered, and in accordance with international standard ISO 14025 (where they are called “type III environmental declarations”). They are created and registered in the framework of a programme, such as EPD Australasia.

There are 120,000 EPDs for construction products available globally[1] and 300 published through EPD Australasia.[2]

Use of EPDs is on the rise, with over 100 new EPDs published in the year to August 2024, the majority for building and construction products, “reflecting the ongoing momentum for transparency (particularly for verified embodied carbon footprint) and sustainability in this industry” – Australasia EPD.

As the number of EPDs available climbs, decision making on products will improve. Investment and innovation also mean enhanced digitalisation and availability of EPD data.

What do EPDs cover?

EPDs comprise info on use of resources, energy, and emissions (to air, water, soil), from a life cycle assessment (LCA) of a product or service. They can also include information about the installation, use, and end-of-Iife of the product or service. The aggregated data will reflect contributions to climate change (carbon footprint), pollution, and resource depletion.

Unlike other documents, such as type I ecolabels, EPDs don’t judge or rank products, they only provide comparable information. Judgement or comparison is left to the EPD user in the context of their design project or usage. But EPDs are produced in such a that products can be compared on a fair and equitable basis within their product category.

Why do people use EPDs?

EPDs are used to assess the environmental impact of a product, usually as part of its role in a wider project. Because it’s standardised, independent data, it makes it easy to compare the impact of different products, and use them to calculate and report on the environmental impact and performance of a project.

Engineers, architects, specifiers, and end customers use EPDs to understand and compare the embodied carbon impact of materials in their projects, and to choose the best product to meet sustainability requirements or rating schemes.

1. Sustainable procurement: EPDs help buyers consider sustainability making purchasing decisions. 
2. Regulatory compliance/stakeholder demands: Where building codes, project mandates, or stakeholder demands require an understanding of environmental impact, EPDs can be used. From
3. Green Star and IS Credits: EPD data and information is used to aid environmental assessment of building design and infrastructure projects across Australasia, including for Green Building Council Australia’s Green Star rating system and Infrastructure Sustainability Council’s IS Rating Scheme.
4. Climate declarations: on the global warming potential of a product. 
5. Carbon Neutral Certification: as part of the Australian Government’s Climate Active Carbon Neutral Standard, for carbon neutral certification.
6. International/design usage: because Australasian EPDs are internationally aligned, they – or other internationally aligned EPDs for imported materials – can be used for sustainability credits with relevant schemes, for private and public sustainable procurement requirements, and in building design support tools such as LCAQuick or eTool. 

How should you compare EPDs?

There are currently 40 EPD programme operators globally, with multiple operators in some countries. Although all EPDs should meet the same international standards, they do differ – commonly by 10-120% – due to variations in:

1. Product Category Rules (PCRs)
2. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) modelling
3. Background databases
4. Geographical scope and local adaptations
5. Inclusion of capital goods and personnel activities 
6. Default values and assumptions
7. Verification processes

This should continue to improve however: ECO Platform is an active global initiative aiming to mainstream building and construction LCAs, and driving consistency in the EPDs that feed into them. The digitalisation of EPD data and the introduction of the European Digital Product Passport should also lead to more consistency and comparability.

In the meantime, it is important that users check the quality of EPD certifiers. An EPD for a product should be:

1. Comparable: Is it provided not just to ISO 14025, the generic EPD standard, but also to EN 15804+A2 – which defines how EPDs should be created specifically for construction? This also ensures EPDs can be compared and combined into building-scale LCAs. Only around 40 thousand of the 120 thousand EPDs for construction products actually use EN 15804.
2. Comprehensive; Is it comprehensive, including information on LCA methodology, product, impact results? EPDs should not be just a page – the table of contents might include: program information and verification, geographical scope, products, production, lifecycle, LCA methodology, product composition, environmental indicators, environmental profiles, approach to climate risks/, etc.
3. Verified: Has the EPD been independently verified by a verifier accredited by an EPD program operator? EPDs can’t be self-declared, and should clearly state the declaration owner (e.g. the company producing the product); the EPD program operator (e.g. Australasia EPD); and the Third Party Verifier, accredited by the EPD program operator.
4. Legitimate: Is it accepted by ECO Platform and recognised on an international register? All EPD programs that comply with ISO 14025 have EPD programme operators who are responsible for maintaining publicly available records; ensuring requirements are followed; accrediting independent verifiers; ensuring correct references to standards. 

All EPDs registered with EPD Australasia are globally recognised publicly available at epd-australasia.com and on the International EPD® System website environdec.com.

Note that the National and NSW Governments’ ‘Embodied Carbon Measurement for Infrastructure’ technical guidance documents specify that: 

“EPD data must be third-party verified… and comply with one of the following PCR documents:”

1. EN 15804:2012+A1:2013 (while this standard is no longer valid, thousands of EPDs worldwide were produced to it so it is still often seen today) 
2. EN 15804:2012+A2:2019 (which replaced EN 15804+A1)
3. ISO 21930:2017 (broadly aligned with EN 15804+A1)

This will come into effect in NSW from April 2025. See more about this in our article “What you need to know: Government’s Decarbonising infrastructure Initiative” >

Example EPD results for 1 m³ of a concrete product – NSW Government Embodied Carbon Measurement for Infrastructure

ACRS gives particular thanks to Jonas Bengtsson, Vice Chair EPD Australasia and Founder Director of Edge Impact, for his presentation at the Building Product Leaders Forum on Australian EPDs for Building Products, September 2024. You can see his full presentation here.

[1] Source: constructionlca.co.uk

[2] Source: epd-australasia.com