Scaling EPDs in a Digital Era: Balancing Automation with Credibility

The session “Advancing EPDs: Data Quality, Automation, and Integration” highlighted the rapid evolution of the EPD landscape. The discussion moved beyond individual EPD projects to examine how the market is shifting toward scalable and digitally connected EPD workflows.

With more LCA and EPD tools entering the market, there is growing interest in automated workflows, digital data exchange, and fully pre-verified tools to accelerate the EPD development process and support its maintenance workflow. This reflects a broader transition toward more scalable and integrated approaches.

The industrial applications presented in the session made this shift even more tangible. They demonstrated how companies are moving from individual LCA models toward product-level sustainability data and enterprise-wide EPD generation. These examples also connected EPD development to broader digital advancements related to current and future regulations and standards. Moreover, they highlighted real market drivers, including rising customer expectations, public procurement requirements, and the need for large-scale data handling.

For programme operators, these developments underscore the importance of ensuring that digital and pre-verified solutions are supported by clear rules, strong guardrails, verification structures, and transparency. As part of this approach, we briefly introduced the EPD Compiler and tool handling portal in the EPD Portal.

While automation offers clear benefits, e.g. improving efficiency, reducing manual work, and supporting machine-readable EPD data, the central message of the presentation was clear: all stakeholders in the ecosystem must ensure that increased digitalisation does not compromise credibility and transparency at any stage of the EPD processes.