An EPD is a standardized (ISO 14025/TR) and LCA based tool to communicate the environmental performance of a product or system, and is applicable worldwide for all interested companies and organizations.
A declaration is based on a Life Cycle Assessment. It includes information about the environmental impacts associated with a product or service, such as raw material acquisition, energy use and efficiency, content of materials and chemical substances, emissions to air, soil and water and waste generation. It also includes product and company information.
Certified EPDs are open for all products and services. There is no evaluation of the environmental information since no predetermined environmental performance levels are set. Instead it builds on well-structured and quantitative data certified by an independent third part
An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) presents quantified environmental data for products or systems based on information from a LCA conducted according to the ISO-standards for LCA. EPD is voluntarily developed information and the purpose is to provide quality-assured and comparable information regarding environmental performance of products.
The information presented in this section is based on the framework developed by the Swedish Environmental Management Council.
This system is the most internationally recognized of its kind.
Certified EPDs can be found and downloaded from the web site link
above.
Documents for EPD Calculation
Two documents control how the calculations and data collection behind an EPD should be conducted and what information the EPD must contain;Requirements for the EPD system (MSR) The MSR contains general requirements for all EPDs
Product specific requirements (PSR) The PSR contains more detailed requirements for each product group.
EPDs are:
Objective, due to the requirement that scientifically accepted and valid methods are used for life cycle assessment (LCA)
Non-selective and neutral, due to the absence of valuations and predetermined environmental performance levels that must be met
Flexible,
since the contents of an EPD can be amended as necessary and as
required by the company/organisation after due external review and
verification
Using EPD Certifications
For those
using the information, EPDs can be used as a source information for factual-based and comparable
environmental information about the environmental performance of
products and services along the supply chain and for end-products.
Specific attributes of EPDs are:
Comparable, since the information in the declarations is collected and calculated based on common harmonized calculation rules.
Credible, due to the requirements for inspection, review, approval and follow-up by an independent verifier.
Continuously up-dated, through the requirements concerning routines for documentation and follow-up procedures
ISO 14025:2006
ISO 14025:2006 establishes the principles and specifies the procedures for developing Type III environmental declaration programmes and Type III environmental declarations. It specifically establishes the use of the ISO 14040 series of standards in the development of Type III environmental declaration programmes and Type III environmental declarations.
ISO 14025:2006 establishes principles for the use of environmental information, in addition to those given in ISO 14020:2000
Type III environmental declarations as described in ISO 14025:2006 are primarily intended for use in business-to-business communication, but their use in business-to-consumer communication under certain conditions is not precluded.
Related Links
Overview: http://www.environmentalproductdeclarations.com
SO 14025:2006 Environmental labels and declarations -- Type III environmental declarations -- Principles and procedures.
Swedish Environmental Management Council
.