Why EPDs are needed?
Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) enable a company to present relevant information about the product’s environmental impact to designers, suppliers, developers, and other customers. EPDs make it possible to compare data on a factual basis and avoid false green claims. EPD is based on a comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA), which can be used to implement continuous improvement in areas such as production, product development and procurement. Although EPD is a voluntary document, it is becoming a prerequisite for business in many markets.
EPD is based on Life Cycle Assessment
An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is a document that provides a standardized and comparable way to present a product’s environmental impacts. It is based on a comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which analyses impacts of a product “from cradle to grave”, i.e. from raw material extraction to manufacture and use to recycling. The EPD contains information on, among other things, energy and water use, emissions into the atmosphere and water, and waste generation. The LCA report is company´s private document, but the EPD stored in the EPD-system is public. This increases the comparability of products and the transparency of companies’ operations.
Fact-based green claims
The European Union (EU) is tightening product rules now and in the near future. The aim is to provide different actors with fact-based information on the environmental characteristics of a product, which will reduce so-called greenwashing. In greenwashing, an environmental claim implies that a product or service has 1) a positive environmental impact, 2) no environmental impact at all, or 3) harms the environment less than other products in the same product group. Environmental claims for products should be based on scientific evidence, consider the entire life cycle of the product, and key environmental impacts. In addition, claims should be verified by a third party. When forming an EPD, the third party is a verifier appointed by the EPD-system, who reviews the completed life cycle assessment work and the EPD prepared on the basis of it before it can be published.
“Although EPD is a voluntary document, it is becoming a prerequisite for business in many markets.”
Development of the company’s operations and products
Companies should actively and strategically utilise the information provided by both life cycle assessment and environmental product declarations to steer their business in a more environmentally responsible and sustainable direction. Based on the information received, the following changes can be made (for example):
- The company’ s management can set fact-based and realistic environmental goals even for the long term.
- The company’s sales receive accurate information about the product, which can be used in sales negotiations.
- The company’ s product development can optimise material choices and assess the environmental benefits of the types and quantities of recycled materials already at the design stage.
- The company’s production can optimise its energy consumption or change energy source (e.g. from natural gas to biogas), but also generally improve its production methods.
- The company´s procurement and logistics centre can make logistics more efficient and choose other ways of transport or fuels used in transport.
Everything is based on a comprehensive and high-quality LCA report, which public manifestation is the EPD at the moment it is created. Although the EPD is valid for five years, it is advisable to update it over the years if there have been significant changes in the processes or actions. The reason for this is simple: in the past EPD in one form or another has been a prerequisite, and currently we are moving towards a situation where the information provided by the EPD is used to compete with another EPDs in public procurements. In other words, having poor environmental impact values the company cannot win in competition against other, competing companies.
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