During the CILCA 2015 conference in Lima, Peru, the International EPD® System and its partners announced the most recent expansion of its network: the EPD Latin America Hub.

The regional partners will provide local support and promote the use of EPDs in the region, starting in Mexico and Chile. The hub will also be responsible for registration of EPDs into the International EPD® System library at www.environdec.com for companies in these two countries.

The interest for EPDs is growing globally, and we are very happy to find regional partners in Latin America who can ensure that the emerging interest there is aligned with what is occuring internationally, says Joakim Thornéus, programme manager of the International EPD® System.

The Latin America Hub is the latest in a group of regional hubs of the International EPD® System, which is now covering the Czech Republic (CENDEC), Turkey (EPD Turkey), New Zealand and Australia (Australasian EPD Programme). The International Secretariat with offices in Sweden and a helpdesk in China are responsible for all other countries.

Companies, LCA consultants, certification bodies or other stakeholders in Mexico and Chile are welcome to contact the regional hub at claudia@epd-americalatina.com to learn more about the opportunities for them with EPDs.

The Swedish Knowledge Centre for Renewable Transportation Fuels (f3) has issued a report that relates to EPDs: Beyond LCI: Towards EPD-conforming LCA’s for Vehicle Fuels. The report is the result of a extension of on-going f3-projects that are aiming for a setup of a fuel LCI data base.

The general conclusion of the project, and the project workshop with participants from fuel producers and related actors included:

[…] EPD (or similar LCA-based environmental information) was pointed out as an advisable foundation for comparing environmental performance of fuels.

The workshop participants concluded that there is certainly a need for EPD’s and that a structured communication of the environmental information based on common methods and assumptions are required. It presents fuel producers with a possibility to deliver data so that customers can make decisions based on sufficient representativity, minimizing the risk that market decisions are based on inadequate information or subjective judgements. However, the market requirements need to be further highlighted. [...]

The International EPD® System participated in the workhshop of the project, and contributed with background information about what are EPDs and what they are used for.

It has been possible for us to extend the deadline for the registration to the EPD International Stakeholder Conference until 2015-08-20.

The event will take place in Bordeaux, France on August 30th, back-to-back with the LCM 2015 conference. The event is expected to gather EPD stakeholders from industry, academia and others sectors for a chance to meet and learn about the latest developments in the field of Environmental Product Declarations.

We hope to see you in Bordeaux!

Four updated and one new PCRs have recently been published:

• Kiwifruit (updated)
• Cleaning inox trolleys (update)
• Basic iron or steel products & special steels, except construction products (new)
• Beverage cartons (update)
• Research and development services in natural sciences and engineering (update)

These documents are now availble to develop and register EPDs for each product category.

EPD is a useful tool for environmental management, whether the environmental management system (EMS) is certified according to ISO 14001 or EMAS or based on other guidelines. By using EPDs, the organization can identify, control, monitor and evaluate the environmental performance in a life cycle perspective and also communicate the result to different stakeholders.

Ecodesign is the concept of taking environmental issues into consideration when designing and developing new products, or when updating existing products. It may also be referred to as or Design for Environment (DfE), eco-design or, more generally, Environmental design. EPD, and the underlying life cycle assessment (LCA) study, may be used as a way to measure impacts and avoiding sub-optimization.

We have described how EPDs can be used in the context of environmental management and ecodesign, use the links below to read more.

The Product Category Rules (PCR) for Finished bovine leather version 2.0 have been published. The new version is now available for verification, registration and publications of EPD according to ISO 14025 in the International EPD® System.

Since its original publication in 2011, the PCR has been used by two companies to develop and register EPDs.

The work to update the PCR was led by Daniele Pernigotti as PCR Moderator. The draft was available for two months open consultation at www.environdec.com, and reviewed by the Technical Committee of the International EPD® System before publication

EPDs can be an useful tool in green public procurement and ISO 14025 states that one of the applications of environmental declarations is procurement. However, so far it is not common to use EPDs in public procurement although there is a great potential.

We have updated the website with more information on how EPDs can be used in public procurement. If you have comments, questions or want to share experiences, please contact the secretariat info@environdec.com .

Product Category Rules (PCR) for declaring the environmental impact of Passenger Commercial Aeroplanes have now been published in the International EPD® System.

The development of the PCR was led by Bombardier Aerospace according to the PCR Process described in the General Programme Instructions of the International EPD® System, based on ISO 14025. During the development of the document, it has been subject for an open consultation on www.environdec.com as well as a review by the Technical Committee as the appointed review panel.

The PCR is now available for any company to voluntarily develop and publish information on the life cycle environment impact of these types of product in a transparent and comparable way.

The Secretariat will be closed for about three weeks during the summer period of 2015. For any questions the EPD System, EPDs, PCRs or EPD registrations, please use the following contacts:

If you have an EPD that is expected to be ready very close in time to this period, please contact the Secretariat.

The Product Category Rules (PCR) for Bakery products version 2.0 have now been published. The new version is now available for verification, registration and publications of EPD according to ISO 14025 in the International EPD® System.

This PCR is one of the most used by companies for brands such as Kungsörnen, Pan di Stelle, Harry's and Wasabröd.

The work to update the PCR was led by Paola Borla at Life Cycle Engineering as PCR Moderator. The draft was available for two months open consultation at www.environdec.com, and reviewed by the Technical Committee of the International EPD® System before publication

The International EPD System recently launched a Beijing helpdesk to offer local support, answering questions regarding EPD, etc. We met with Xu Min at the Beijing helpdesk to talk about current EPD activities in China.