Services

Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)

An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) will quantify and demonstrate the environmental performance of your construction or manufactured product.

Construction work for environmental product declarations

What is an EPD?

An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) answers a crucial sustainability question – how does your product perform in different stages of its life cycle? It’s an objective report, and summarises a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). An EPD studies what your product is made of, in order to establish the environment impact across its entire lifecycle.

EPDs are becoming standard in product manufacture and construction, so supply chains and investors increasingly demand them. They provide data on a product’s environmental impact, such as resource consumption, energy use, waste generation and emissions to air, water and soil, in line with the European Standard EN 15804, ISO 14025 and other relevant international standards.

1. Offer commercial advantage, especially when clients ask about the environmental performance and impact of products over their life cycle. In addition, EPDs are also crucial when architects, designers and specifiers demand them as part of their procurement process.
2. Prepare manufacturers for upcoming legislation, such as EU and UK CBAM, EU Green Claims Directive, and others where failure to comply will increase operating costs.
3. Support building assessment schemes, such as BREEAM, LEED and WELL.
4. For innovative products, EPDs highlight the benefits of new and novel building materials in an industry that is increasingly focused on sustainability.
5. Provide a benchmark of environmental performance, so you can improve through greater energy efficiency, transportation reduction, product design and material supply etc. too.

What is an EPD?: In summary, EPD stands for Environmental Product Declaration, and is a summary of the environmental impacts of a product. It is based on a life cycle assessment (LCA) which we carry out on a product and its supply chain. Further, EPDs are conducted in line with EN 15804, ISO 14025 and are then third-party verified, too.
Who is an EPD for?: Architects, designers and engineers use EPDs in order to understand the environmental impact of the products they specify on projects. Additionally, manufacturers produce EPDs to be able to demonstrate the environmental impacts of their products.
How much does an EPD cost?: Generally, costs vary depending on project complexity and the manufacturer’s decision on which program operator to publish with. So, before committing to a fixed-price proposal, Blue Marble accurately scopes the project as part of our service.
How long does an EPD take?: The most time consuming part in any LCA project is gathering data, in our experience this averages out at about eight weeks. Additionally comes the LCA modelling and verification. As such, it usually takes four to five months to complete an efficient projects.
Software vs Consultant-led EPDs?: Usually, a consultant-led approach is most cost-effective for manufacturers with fewer than 25 product categories. Consultants do the complex work associated with life cycle assessments, then find the most cost-efficient route to verifying and publishing EPDs. In addition, consultants can project manage the process for you. Whereas, for manufacturers with large numbers of products, it may be more cost-efficient to invest in a software solution and training-up in-house staff to conduct the LCAs.

We have a substantial track record of delivering valuable EPDs for dozens of manufacturers in the construction sector. Further, we pride ourselves on delivering quality work and many of our clients have continued to publish additional EPDs using our services.
We recognise the cost associated with EPDs can be burdensome for some manufacturers, and we like to think we are the most cost-effective consultancy on the market. So we always look for the most commercially sensible option for our clients.
We are agnostic towards program operator and LCA software, in order to choose the best solution for our clients on the basis of cost, time and quality. We work internationally, meaning we can support clients with complex supply chains.
We bring expertise from beyond the construction sector, and in particular can bring the skills of the wider Blue Marble team to bear to support our clients’ broader sustainability requirements.

Services for manufacturing sustainability

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Video: What is an EPD?

Our expert team explain what data an EPD covers, who's involved, and how to get started.

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We answer the top questions we get about EPDs, so you understand the cost and timescales.

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