Transparent reporting of objective, comparable and third-party verified data.
The EPD is an ISO type III Environmental Declaration acc. ISO 14025 standard
As that, the EPD differs in many aspects from ISO type I third-party (independent eco-labels) and type II self-declared eco-labels. No secret, the EPDs relevance is steadily growing in voluntary and mandatory engagements.
An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) transparently reports objective, comparable and third-party verified data about products and services' environmental performances from a lifecycle perspective.
Where the EPD is the final report, the foundation of any EPD is a life cycle assessment (LCA). This LCA allows you to evaluate your product’s environmental performance over its entire life cycle. It typically takes into consideration your full value chain, from material extraction to manufactured product, its usage stage and end of life.
An EPD is a so-called type III environmental declaration that is compliant with the ISO 14025 standard. A type III environmental declaration is created and registered in the framework of a programme, such as the International EPD® System. EPDs registered in the International EPD System are publicly available and free to download through the EPD Library, accessible via this link.
In physical terms, an EPD consists of two key documents:
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.
Following we present a short summary conveying an EPD's (yours?) value!
EPDs are based on International Standards
The concept of EPDs is based on the standard ISO 14025, which is internationally recognized and developed with in the International Organization for Standardization.
EPDs consider the full Life Cycle Assessment of goods and services
Compared to alternative reporting formats such as eco-labels and self-declared labels that only cover aspects of a lifecycle perspective, EPDs cover the full LCA of goods and services.
EPDs can be used for all types of goods and services
There are no restrictions regarding what products that can have EPDs as there are no criteria on environmental performance that must be met. EPDs works for both goods and services and companies all sizes have registered EPDs.
EPDs contain verified environmental information
The EPD is a third-party verified document which gives the information credibility and therefore is very suitable for procurement.
EPDs are based on a robust, transparent and open framework
ISO 14025 requires the programme operator to publish the programme instructions, product category rules and registered EPDs. The transparent framework makes it possible to understand the calculations and methods behind the results in the EPD.
EPDs gives comparable information within the same product group
EPDs that are based on the same product category rules (PCR) are comparable as the PCR set the rules for the life cycle assessment that the EPD must meet, for example allocation rules, data quality requirements and system boundaries.
EPDs communicate sensitive commercial information, correct?
No, this is absolutely not the case!
Factually, as little as it is correct that surströmming, a Swedish delicacy, tastes worse than it smells...
The public EPD document does not include sensitive commercial details of e.g. your own manufacturing processes or up and down-stream supply chain partners and activities. An EPD is used to communicate the life-cycle assessment results, only. The public EPD that is published via the EPD Portal/website does not contain any such specific details.
Now want to try surströmming?
Please do not open the can indoors! Your neighbours will love you...