Environmental Product Declarations (EPD)
Your challenge:
Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) are an essential means for companies to communicate and transparently present the environmental impacts of their products. In the creation and use of EPDs, companies face various external challenges. Here are some of the key ones:
Market and legal regulations: Increasingly, both customers and (in the future) legislators demand that companies make the environmental performance or impacts of their products more transparent. Manufacturers are not legally obligated to provide EPDs so far. However, the market is increasingly regulating the use of EPDs in various applications.
Environmental tenders and public procurement: EPDs are listed as a requirement in private sector public tenders as a mandatory component in the procurement process, especially in connection with Green Building systems.
Benchmarking: Your competitors present the ecological benefits of their products and may already have EPDs. You also want to determine your benchmark status quo to continuously optimize your products ecologically.
Standards and regulations: You operate internationally and receive EPD requests from various countries. In this context, you must ensure that your EPDs comply with applicable standards and regulations, which can vary depending on the region and product type.
Your benefits:
The overarching goal of an EPD is to provide relevant and verified information to meet various communication needs. The creation of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) can offer various benefits for companies. Here are the key ones:
Improved transparency and credibility: By creating EPDs, companies can provide transparent and credible information about the environmental impacts of their products. This fosters trust among customers and stakeholders and strengthens the company's reputation for sustainability and environmental protection.
Market access: Some markets or customer requirements require EPDs as an entry barrier, which can facilitate market access.
Competitive advantage: Products with EPDs can stand out positively from the competition and be perceived as more environmentally friendly options, offering extended sales and marketing opportunities.
Promotion of innovation and eco-design: EPDs can contribute to developing innovative approaches to reducing the environmental impacts of products.
Circular economy: EPDs promote the integration of circular economy principles by encouraging a life cycle perspective on products.
In addition to the described benefits of EPDs, there are several others. We have described these in a comprehensive stakeholder analysis: 'Environmental Product Declarations - Benefits, Expectations, and Fulfillments - From the Perspective of Stakeholders,' 2019.
Our services (excerpt):
Our team of experienced life cycle assessment experts supports you with the following services:
EPD strategy: We assist you in developing an EPD strategy, considering questions such as:
Which EPD type (average, worst-case, representative, or specific EPD) is the right one?
Which program holders are the right ones in the context of different regional regulations, especially concerning the visibility of your products in key markets?
Life cycle assessment and EPD creation: We create professional life cycle assessments and EPDs using leading accounting software (LCA for Experts solution, formerly GaBi, or Umberto) and databases (Gabi, ecoinvent).
Data collection support: Procuring environmentally relevant data for EPDs can be challenging. We accompany you in the efficient data collection of all relevant influencing factors.
HOTSPOT analysis: The life cycle assessment can provide valuable starting points for ecological product optimization. For this, we offer our HOTSPOT analysis.
Benchmarking: Currently, creating a benchmark based on EPDs is very difficult. This can only succeed if comparability—usually not at the product but at the component or building level—is given. Many conditions must be met for this, which is hardly possible for non-experts. We assist you in enabling comparisons of the ecological advantages or disadvantages of different product systems. Our software solution www.epd-analyzer.com provides you with a first entry into the topic.
ECO-Efficiency analysis: Often, a purely ecological product alone is not enough to assert itself in the market. We support you in creating an ecological efficiency analysis with an additional cost analysis from your life cycle assessment to identify products and processes that are both ecologically and economically more favorable than comparative alternatives.
Thanks to years of cross-industry experience in creating life cycle assessments and EPDs, we can ensure a smooth publication of your EPD. Please contact us here or request a quote directly.