Environmental Product Declaration Services

Market demand is growing for the disclosure of a product’s cradle-to-grave environmental impact. Manufacturers need to provide transparent reporting on the environmental performance or impact of their products to buyers and specifiers so they can make more informed buying decisions.

Environmental product declarations (EPDs) help manufacturers tell a product’s overall sustainability story in a single, comprehensive report, and can include details on land use changes, potential toxicity risks and corporate environmental initiatives.

Elements of an EPD

An environmental product declaration (EPD) transparently reports the life cycle assessment of a product’s environmental impact, including its global warming potential, smog creation, ozone depletion, water pollution and more.

UL Solutions offers a range of EPD-aligned services according to the ISO 14025 standard, which add third-party credibility to sustainability claims.

Here’s how we can help:

An EPD is a summary of the life cycle assessment (LCA) for a product from material extraction to production, shipping, consumption and disposal. The LCA is developed according to product-specific calculation requirements and methodologies called Product Category Rules (PCRs) that help ensure consistent data collection and analysis during LCA creation. This comprehensive approach is why EPDs support the comparison of environmental impacts of like products, providing increased transparency.

_{*All LCAs offered through this service are subject to independent third-party verification. The LCA creator and verifier are separate entities to ensure impartiality and compliance with ISO 14040/14044 standards. PCFs are developed and/or verified in accordance with applicable international standards and program operator requirements.}

What’s driving demand for EPDs?

EPDs can help a manufacturer become a preferred supplier for designers, contractors, architects, and other key buyers and satisfy investor and stakeholder requests. Several factors are driving growth:

Green building rating systems/schemes – Programs like Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), and Green Globes award credits to products with EPDs.

Public procurement – Having an EPD can give you a competitive advantage for green public procurement. EPDs can be used to show compliance with environmental criteria specified in bid or tendering documents.

Regulations – In some areas, EPDs are required for specific products or applications. For example, in the U.S., some states, including California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington, have carbon reduction policies that require EPDs for specific building products.

Sustainable development goals – EPDs can help you measure the impact of your products and optimize your processes.

Marketing – EPDs can help a manufacturer support marketing claims about a product’s environmental performance.

Building - level lifecycle assessment (LCA) – As interest in the embodied carbon of buildings grows, building-level LCAs are starting to be required. EPDs provide product-specific performance data that can be used towards the creation of the whole building LCA.