Appoint a PCR Moderator

The work to be carried out for the PCR development process needs strong coordination. Therefore, it is of vital importance that the work is led by a person familiar with the EPD approach as well as having the necessary basic LCA understanding. This work shall be carried out in close cooperation with the programme operator. To safeguard a successful outcome of the PCR development work, it is recommended to appoint a PCR moderator willing to accept the role of leading and coordinating the work and the various tasks to carry out.

Consider available PCRs

Harmonisation of PCR documents is a cornerstone in the international EPD®system due to its international applicability. Therefore, the development of PCR for a product category should be done considering readily available PCR documents in the same product category and the appropriate market area, as advocated in the international EPD standard, ISO 14025. When starting up PCR work, it is therefore important to search for available PCR document.

Search for PCR in the International EPD System

PCRs in other systems may be found through a Google search or by searching on the web page of other programme operators.

If a PCR do not exist for the product category of interest, this has to be prepared and approved in accordance to the procedure for creating a PCR document.

Seek cooperation with other parties

Developing PCR documents should always be done as a co-operative effort including as many interested parties as possible, e.g. representatives different companies and branch organisations, to ensure a broad acceptance and reproducibility of the calculation rules. In case of single companies initiating the work to develop PCR, it is especially important seek co-operation with other parties that may be interested to participate in the work. Announcing the PCR development on the website can give contacts with other parties interested in the development.

Constitute the Product Category Stakeholder Consultation Group

The seeking of cooperation with other parties should be followed by an activity carried out jointly by the PCR moderator and Swedish Environmental Management Council to form a core group of persons - referred to as the Product Category Stakeholder Consultation Group - representing the product category and willing to help in the consultation process to provide comments etc. The constitution of such a group is of vital importance to meet the demands for open consultation on international premises.

The establishment of the Product Category Stakeholder Consultation Groups is followed by a special service to those persons involved giving them a direct response and feed-back addressed to their E-mail addresses on activities related to the specific category of interest. This arrangement will safeguard to alert peolpe involved when the open consultation process is taking place as well as on any other acitivity on the PCR Forum related to the specific product category.

Publication on the Internet

When a decision is taken to start the work creating a PCR document, this shall be announced to the programme operator of the international EPD®system, being responsible for handling such an announcement. The announcement shall be accompanied by selected mandatory information to follow upcoming publication on the website. It is recommended that the PCR moderator to contact the Secretariat to be instructed on what type of information to be reported.

The IEC will make information public available about the upcoming PCR work on the website and in the searchable database. The immediate publication of a PCR document under preparation is important of several reasons, e.g.:

• to inform and engage interested parties to be involved in the work (which should be done by contacting the PCR moderator)
• to avoid parallel work within the same product category in another EPD programme