The standard ISO 14025 states that the rules for verification shall be set up in accordance with the standards ISO 14040 and ISO 14020. The justification of independent verification of LCA data is explained in ISO standard 14040: Life Cycle Assessments - General Principles and Framework indicating that the results of any LCA study shall be critically reviewed before the information can be used for comparative purposes.

Underlying data and the EPD® reporting format shall be independently verified externally witihin the framework of the international EPD®system either as:

• external verification: verification of LCA-based data, additional environmental information and the EPD® conducted by a third party verifier, etiher being an individual expert or a certification body, or as:
• verification of LCA-based data, additional environmental information and the EPD® conducted by the organisation licensed for a so-called "EPD® process certification" by a certification body.

For more information, see General Programme Instructions.

Bodies checking the competence requirements of verifiers/organisations

Examining the compliance of external verifiers with the prescribed competence requirements as well as carrying out supervisions of verifiers are vital parts in an envrionmental declarations programme for raising and maintain market acceptance of envrionmental declarations. In the international EPD®system, there are two possibilities to fulfil these tasks:

• to be carried out by organisations officially appointed to act as so-called accreditation bodies, which are valid in cases of external verification, where the verifier is a certification body, and in the case of internal verification where the verification procedure is carried out by an organisation having an "EPD process certification".
• to be carried out under the auspices of the programme operator, which is valid in the case of external verification of individual LCA/PCR experts.

Accreditation bodies are listed here

Certification bodies are listed here

Independent verifiers

Independent verifiers shall review EPDs from different viewpoints including:

• the underlying data used for the LCA calculations,
• the way the LCA-based calculations has been carried and their compliance with the calculation rules set up in the PCR,
• the presentation of environmental performance in the declaration,
• any other additional environmental information included in the declaration, and
• document the review and positions taken in a verification report.

For more information, see General Programme Instructions.

Approved individual verifiers are listed here 

Organisations creating EPDs

Organisations creating EPDs for registration and publication shall carry out the following tasks:

• to collect LCA-based information and other relevant additional environmental information to be included in the EPD according to the instructions in the relevant PCR document,
• to convert input data into the prescribed information to be included in an EPD,
• to have the EPD examined by an independent verifier or certification body (not applicable if the organisation has an EPD process certification),
• to carry out routine work to follow-up the accuracy of the information in the EPD and to report to the verifier in case of significant changes in the input data occur causing a need for modifying the information in the EPDs when found necessary (not applicable if the organisation has an EPD process certification when it is supposed to handle such a situation on a regular basis), and to
• provide the programme operator with relevant associated information and the EPD to be published on the EPD website.

For more information, see General Programme Instructions.