Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)
Environmental product declarations, or EPDs, provide transparent data on construction products to help designers choose building materials with lower environmental impacts. To ensure comparability across different products, the methodology to be used is set out by international standards such as the European standard for EPDs, EN 15804, and the complementary product category rules for concrete, EN 16757. All EPDs must be independently verified by an accredited third-party verifier prior to registration and publication with an EPD programme operator.
An EPD is based on a life cycle assessment (LCA) over the full product value chain using indicators for climate change and other environmental impacts, as well as resource use. For each indicator, the construction product life cycle is broken down into stages and sub-stages: material extraction, manufacturing and construction (modules A1-5); use (B1-7); end of life of the building (C1 -4); and finally, potential for recovery and reuse (D).
EPDs are referenced in project-level carbon tools and assessments and are increasingly required to achieve green building certifications, and to drive lower-carbon public procurement.
All EPDs expire after five years. The underlying methodologies also undergo periodic review. Notably, the European standard for EPDs, EN 15804, was amended in 2019, introducing additional requirements and indicators.
Different kinds of EPD
The most accurate measure of as-built environmental impact is given by a manufacturer-specific EPD for production of a specific product or material at the plant from which it is supplied. However, this level of detail is not always available.
As an alternative, manufacturers may average data for a specific product over a number of their plants. They can also average data for different products produced at one or more plants to create an "average EPD".
Multiple manufacturers can pool their data to create a "collective EPD". Mineral Products Association (MPA),aggregates data from its members to create collective EPDs, this are known as "sector EPDs".
Sector EPDs have multiple benefits and uses. They set an industry baseline that is independently verified. They can be used by designers to inform early-stage design choices, before a specific product or manufacturer has been selected.
They enable individual manufacturers to benchmark the environmental performance of their own products. And, manufacturers without their own EPDs, who have provided MPA with appropriate manufacturing data, can reference them for procurement purposes.
Previously, sector association EPDs were often called "generic EPDs", but the guidance and terminology for different EPD and data types used in environmental assessment has recently been updated. The new European data quality standard, EN 15941, says that this label should no longer be used.
Sector EPDs
The MPA has published sector-average EPDs for cement, a range of ready-mix concrete specifications and a number of precast concrete and masonry products.
Note: The GWP-fossil values reported in MPA EPDs are based on 'gross' CO2e emissions, including combustion of both fossil and waste-derived fuels (also called 'alternative' or 'secondary' fuels). Some cement and concrete EPDs published by other organisations exclude the combustion of waste-derived fuels, and report GWP values based on 'net' CO2e emissions. This net data is available on the additional information tab of MPA EPDs.
When comparing EPDs, it is important to note that 'net' GWP values, which exclude CO2 emissions from the combustion of waste-derived fuels, will be lower than 'gross' GWP values which include them.
All MPA published sector EPDs are available on the Sustainable Concrete website.