An EPD® (Environmental Product Declaration) is an independently verified and registered document that communicates transparent and comparable information about the life-cycle environmental impact of products.
Having an EPD® for a product does not imply that the declared product is environmentally superior to alternatives — it is simply a transparent declaration of the life-cycle environmental impact.
What kind of information does an EPD contain?
- Program-related information – Information on registration of a product, product category rules, and validity of the EPD.
- Product-specific information – Specific information such as functional properties and a content declaration of a certain product.
- Environmental and performance-related information – A life cycle assessment (LCA) provides information on use of resources and energy as well as various types of emissions.
- Additional environmental information – An EPD may contain environmental information additional to the LCA, such as specific information about the user- and the end-of-life phases.
- Mandatory statements – Information about the verification procedure needs to be included
An EPD® may be used for many different applications, including green public procurement (GPP) and building assessment schemes. The concept of type III environmental declarations was developed to primarily be used in business-to-business communication, but their use in business-to-consumer communication is not precluded by the standards.
All EPD®s registered in the International EPD® System are publically available and free to download through the EPD Search on their website.
