Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) are becoming essential tools in today's construction industry. These standardized, verified documents transparently present credible information about a product's environmental impact throughout its lifecycle. EPDs help architects and builders make informed decisions about building materials, supporting carbon emission reduction efforts by allowing direct comparison of different products' environmental impacts.
Think of EPDs as nutrition labels for building products - they provide clear data about environmental impacts at various stages of a product's life. As construction projects increasingly focus on sustainability, these third-party verified documents have become valuable for companies seeking to demonstrate environmental responsibility and comply with green building certifications.
Site-specific EPDs are particularly important for selecting high-performing materials with lower global warming potential. The construction industry's shift toward transparent environmental reporting reflects growing awareness about embodied carbon and the need to reduce the environmental footprint of buildings from material production through end-of-life.
Environmental Product Declarations provide critical transparency tools for the construction industry. They help professionals make informed decisions while working toward sustainability goals through standardized environmental impact reporting.
Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) are standardized, verified documents that communicate a product's environmental impact throughout its lifecycle. In construction, these "nutrition labels" for building materials offer quantifiable data on environmental performance.
EPDs follow international standards (ISO 14025 and EN 15804) to ensure consistency and comparability across products. This standardization allows architects, engineers, and contractors to make meaningful comparisons between similar materials.
The importance of EPDs extends beyond transparency. They support:
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) forms the backbone of every EPD. This systematic analysis evaluates environmental impacts across a product's entire existence—from raw material extraction to disposal.
The LCA process typically includes four key phases:
LCA examines multiple environmental indicators including global warming potential, ozone depletion, and resource depletion. The comprehensive nature of LCA ensures EPDs capture the full environmental impact of construction materials rather than just a single aspect like carbon emissions.
Building professionals use these assessments to make data-driven decisions that consider long-term environmental consequences rather than focusing solely on initial costs.
Environmental Product Declarations serve as critical tools for promoting transparency and informed decision-making in sustainable construction projects. They provide standardized environmental impact data that helps architects, builders, and owners make better choices.
EPDs offer a comprehensive view of a building product's environmental impact throughout its lifecycle. They measure multiple factors including carbon footprint, resource use, and potential pollution. This standardized, transparent means helps construction professionals compare similar products fairly.
Builders can analyze which materials will have lower environmental impacts during extraction, manufacturing, transportation, installation, use, and disposal. This lifecycle approach ensures that sustainability is considered at every stage.
EPDs help construction teams identify products with reduced environmental harm, supporting goals to lower carbon emissions in buildings. They also assist in selecting materials that contribute to healthier indoor environments.
EPDs play a significant role in earning points for major green building certification systems. Programs like LEED and BREEAM recognize EPDs as evidence of environmental consideration in material selection.
Building projects seeking certification can earn credits by choosing products with verified EPDs. These declarations help demonstrate commitment to reducing environmental impacts and promoting transparency.
Many certification programs award additional points for products that show environmental performance improvements. Projects using materials with better-than-average EPD scores may qualify for higher certification levels.
EPDs also support compliance with regulatory requirements that increasingly demand environmental disclosure. They help projects meet sustainability regulations while simultaneously advancing toward certification goals.
Environmental Product Declarations follow specific international standards that ensure consistency and reliability in reporting environmental impacts. These frameworks establish both the verification requirements and the specific data that must be included in a proper EPD.
EN 15804 serves as the core standard for construction product EPDs in Europe and increasingly worldwide. This standard defines exactly what environmental impacts must be reported and how they should be calculated. It requires specific impact categories including global warming potential, ozone depletion, and resource use.
ISO 14025 complements this by establishing principles for environmental declarations. It requires third-party verification to ensure EPDs are trustworthy and accurate. EPDs typically remain valid for five years before needing renewal.
Different regions may have specific requirements, but most EPD programs require adherence to these key standards:
Product Category Rules (PCRs) provide specific guidelines for creating EPDs within particular product categories. These rules ensure that similar products are assessed using identical methodologies, making comparisons fair and meaningful.
TPCRs define crucial parameters including:
The Construction Products Regulation mandates EPDs for specific materials, ensuring compliance with standards. Each EPD program operator (organizations that publish and verify EPDs) maintains specific PCRs for different product categories.
PCRs eliminate inconsistencies between EPDs for similar products, creating a level playing field for manufacturers and providing reliable information for purchasers and specifiers in building projects.
Environmental Product Declarations provide essential information that guides sustainable construction decisions. They enable precise environmental impact assessment of building materials and create pathways for more eco-conscious building practices.
Architects use EPDs to select materials with lower environmental impacts when designing buildings. They can compare different products based on standardized data rather than relying on general claims or marketing materials.
Manufacturers benefit from creating EPDs by:
EPDs help manufacturers identify improvement opportunities in their production processes. By analyzing the lifecycle assessment data, they can pinpoint high-impact areas and make targeted improvements.
For building product manufacturers, EPDs are increasingly becoming a market necessity rather than just a differentiator. Many building certification programs now award points for using products with verified EPDs.
Construction teams integrate EPDs into their workflows through several practical methods. Digital tools now allow for quick comparison of environmental impacts directly within building information modeling (BIM) software.
During material procurement, EPDs serve as verification documents that ensure environmental claims are backed by data. This helps construction managers meet project sustainability goals with confidence.
EPDs make whole-building sustainability calculations calculations more accurate and efficient. Project teams can sum the environmental impacts of all materials to determine a building's overall footprint.
Many construction industry professionals use EPDs to comply with:
EPDs also support the growing trend of embodied carbon tracking in construction projects, helping teams identify and reduce climate impacts.
Environmental Product Declarations provide clear, measurable data that helps construction stakeholders make informed decisions about materials. This transparency drives the industry toward more sustainable practices while meeting increasing regulatory demands.
EPDs play a crucial role in measuring and reducing carbon emissions in construction projects. They offer standardized, transparent data about products' environmental impacts throughout their lifecycle.
When builders can see exact carbon footprint measurements for materials, they can make targeted improvements. For example, choosing between two steel beam options becomes simpler when their embodied carbon values are clearly documented.
EPDs also track water consumption and recycling potential, giving a complete picture of environmental impact. This helps project teams identify hotspots where improvements will have the greatest effect.
Many sustainability certification programs now award points for using products with verified EPDs. LEED, BREEAM, and other frameworks recognize the value of this transparency in advancing sustainable building practices.
EPDs are evolving to become more accessible and comparable across product categories. Digital platforms now make it easier to analyze environmental impacts across entire building systems rather than individual components.
New regulations increasingly require EPDs for certain construction materials. The EU's Construction Products Regulation and similar policies worldwide are making EPDs mandatory for many projects.
Machine-readable EPD formats will enable automated sustainability analysis. This allows designers to instantly compare options and optimize for environmental performance from the earliest design stages.
Industry experts predict EPDs will expand to include social impact metrics alongside environmental ones. These powerful tools for promoting transparency will likely address fair labor practices, community impacts, and other social sustainability factors.
Environmental Product Declarations provide essential information about products' environmental impacts through verified data. These standardized documents help construction professionals make informed decisions and comply with sustainability requirements.
EPDs offer transparency by providing credible information about a product's environmental impact. This allows builders and designers to make informed choices based on verified data.
EPDs enable fair product comparisons based on standardized metrics. Construction teams can evaluate similar products from different manufacturers to select the most environmentally responsible options.
These declarations can help projects earn points in green building certification systems like LEED. Many certification programs award credits for using products with EPDs, making them valuable tools for achieving sustainability goals.
EPDs support life-cycle thinking by documenting environmental impacts across a product's entire existence. This comprehensive approach considers everything from raw material extraction to disposal.
They encourage manufacturers to improve their production processes. When companies see their environmental performance quantified, they often identify and implement efficiency improvements.
EPDs facilitate data-driven decision making for sustainable design. Architects and engineers can select materials based on scientific environmental assessments rather than marketing claims.
The process begins with a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the product. This scientific analysis measures environmental impacts across multiple categories throughout the product's life cycle.
Next, the LCA results must be verified by an independent third party. This verification ensures the data meets ISO 14025 and ISO 21930 standards for environmental declarations.
Finally, the verified EPD is published and registered with a program operator. These organizations maintain databases of EPDs and ensure they remain accessible to construction professionals and the public.
EPDs are becoming an increasingly important part of product data sets as green building standards evolve. Many building codes and certification systems now require or reward the use of products with EPDs.
Client demand for transparency and sustainability is growing. Building owners and occupants increasingly want assurance that their spaces use environmentally responsible materials.
Government regulations increasingly mandate environmental disclosure. In many regions, construction projects must document the environmental impacts of the materials they use.
EPDs highlight hotspots in a product's environmental profile. Engineers can identify which aspects of their products create the most significant impacts and focus improvement efforts accordingly.
They provide benchmarking opportunities against industry standards. Product developers can see how their offerings compare to competitors and set targets for improvement.
EPDs support innovation by quantifying environmental benefits of new designs. When engineers develop more sustainable alternatives, EPDs provide credible documentation of these improvements.
EPDs demonstrate a company's commitment to transparency. By voluntarily disclosing environmental performance data, businesses show stakeholders they have nothing to hide.
They help businesses identify efficiency opportunities that can reduce costs. The same processes that lower environmental impacts often decrease resource consumption and waste.
EPDs can become powerful marketing tools that differentiate products. As third party-verified documents, they provide credibility to environmental claims and help avoid accusations of greenwashing.
While not currently mandatory for all construction materials across all markets, EPDs are increasingly becoming required in many contexts. Public infrastructure projects, government-funded buildings, and projects pursuing green certifications like LEED or BREEAM often require EPDs for key materials. Some jurisdictions, like California with its Buy Clean California Act, have begun mandating EPDs for certain materials in state-funded projects. The trend is clearly moving toward greater requirements for transparency, so forward-thinking construction professionals are already prioritizing materials with EPDs even when not strictly required.
Yes, EPDs typically have a validity period of five years. After this period expires, manufacturers must conduct a new Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and update their EPD to maintain its validity. This time limit ensures that the environmental impact data remains current, accounting for changes in manufacturing processes, energy sources, or supply chains that might affect a product's environmental footprint. Always check the publication date on an EPD to ensure it hasn't expired when using it for project specifications or certification documentation.
Several resources make locating EPD-verified products straightforward. Major EPD databases include:
Many manufacturers also publish their EPDs directly on their websites, usually in product specification sections or sustainability pages. Building product directories and green building certification websites often include filters to search specifically for products with verified EPDs. Construction specification software is increasingly incorporating EPD data, making it easier to identify compliant products during the specification process.
MAXTERRA® is the only MgO product on the market with an Environmental Product Declaration. You can review the full EPD here. This third-party verified document provides comprehensive data about the environmental impact of our MgO products across their entire lifecycle, demonstrating our commitment to transparency and sustainable building practices.