Today, the local and global markets have increased demand for science-based, verified and comparable information about environmental performance of goods and services. Are you looking for a way to communicate and declare the environmental performance of your product without risking entering into green wash territory?
Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) are ideal for companies looking to communicate their product’s environmental profile to clients and stakeholders. An Environmental Product Declaration, EPD, is a verified document that reports environmental data of products based on life cycle assessment (LCA) and other relevant information and in accordance with the international standard ISO 14025 (Type III Environmental Declarations).
Key characteristics of EPDs are:
- Objective,
- Credible,
- Neutral,
- Comparable,
- Open to all goods and services,
- Open to all interested parties,
- Environmental impact-oriented, and
- Instructive.
Important to note is that EPDs are not eco-labels, in other words, a product carrying an EPD does not by association mean the product is greener than any of its peers in the market. An EPD is simply put a standardised format and mechanism for declaring the environmental impacts, resources consumed and benefits delivered over the life cycle of your product. It’s the equivalence of a nutrition label on food products in the super market.
Most EPDs have been developed by building product manufactures, largely driven by credits rewarding products with EPDs in green building rating tools such as LEED, Green Star (Australia), BREEAM (UK) and DGNB (Germany). However, companies in other sectors have also realised the value of EPDs as a way to communicate their environmental credentials. For example:
- Electricity: Vattenfall’s electricity generated in the Nordic countries and the UK. These cover hydro power, wind power and nuclear power – and includes almost 100% of Vattenfall’s electricity generation in Sweden. Read more…
- Food & agricultural products: The Barilla Group’s production of pasta in Italy, Greece, Turkey, and the United State. Read more…
- Services: Professional cleaning service by Microrapid. Read more…
- Metal products: Aluminium beverage cans made from used beverage cans by Universal Can Corporation in Japan. Read more…
- Wood and paper products: Corrugated board boxes. Read more…
- Transport vehicles and equipment: Zaragoza tram passenger urban transport vehicle. Read more…
Finally EPDs are now available for Australia and New Zealand as well. The recently launched Australasian EPD® Programme provides a trans-Tasman platform for communicating credible environmental information.
The Australasian EPD® Programme is aligned with its partner organization, the International EPD® System, to enable a harmonized and efficient platform for global EPD® development and communication.
Both organisations are programme operators for type III environmental declarations, commonly maintaining an aligned system to verify and register EPD®s as well as keeping a library of EPD®s and PCRs in accordance with ISO 14025.
For construction products the programme also adopt the European standard EN 15804, and recommend construction products and materials declare their EPDs according to EN 15804.
The Australasian EPD® Programme is a strategic joint venture of the Life Cycle Association of New Zealand and The Australian Life Cycle Assessment Society (ALCAS).
For more information on how EPDs can help your business, contact Edge Environment and ALCAS director Jonas Bengtsson ([email protected],au).