Neil Turner of Ecological Building Systems explores how Environmental Product Declarations are helping the construction industry move towards its goals of low carbon building, by providing verified information on environmental impact.
The UK construction industry is working towards achieving net zero by 2050. Meeting this goal requires a fundamental shift to low carbon materials and sustainable building design, as the government has set a target of 100% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, compared to 1990 levels.
As part of supporting this aim, Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) are becoming a vital tool for architects, builders and specifiers. enabling them to identify products that have certified sustainability credentials.
An EPD is a comprehensive document that provides transparent and verified information about a product’s environmental impact, throughout its lifecycle. This includes data on resource consumption, emissions, waste generation and other ecological factors associated with taking a product from raw material extraction to disposal.
EPDs are designed to make it easier for architects, builders and other stakeholders within the construction industry to make choices based on factual – and verified –information. By providing insights into the environmental impacts of materials, EPDs enable professionals to select products that meet specific sustainability criteria, ultimately contributing to greener building practices.
Why EPDs are important
As sustainability becomes increasingly important, EPDs are an essential resource for specifiers and building designers seeking to make informed decisions. They offer verified data that can guide the selection of materials that align with sustainability goals.
One of the key strengths of EPDs is that they assess the environmental impact of a product across its entire lifecycle, from raw material extraction and manufacturing, through operation, to end of life. These assessments are structured into five distinct stages, offering a detailed picture of the product’s performance. This starts with production, by evaluating the extraction of raw materials and manufacturing processes; considering the transportation and installation of products on site.
The EPD also takes into account the use of materials, by analysing the emissions and resource consumption during the product’s operational life. It also considers end of life disposal, by looking at what happens to the product once it is no longer in use. A key element is evaluating their re-use and recycling potential and assessing their potential for recovery and re-use of materials.
This data is invaluable for architects and builders looking to minimise the carbon footprint of their projects. By selecting materials with lower environmental impacts, they can significantly reduce overall emissions associated with construction.
This whole life analysis enables specifiers to understand the long-term implications of their material choices.
Environmental Product Declarations are therefore becoming increasingly important in the specification of building materials as the construction industry shifts towards greater sustainability.
Standardisation of EPDs
EPDs are developed according to international standards, including ISO 14025 and EN 15804. These standards ensure that the data presented in EPDs is reliable, consistent and comparable across different products and manufacturers. By assessing products based on these standards, EPDs provide a level of transparency that is critical for informed decision-making in the construction sector.
There are two main types of EPDs: product specific EPDs and industry-wide EPDs. Product specific EPDs focus on the environmental impact of a single product or a closely related group of products from one manufacturer. Industry-wide EPDs provide average environmental data for a category of products across multiple manufacturers, reflecting the collective impact of an industry segment.
Each type of EPD is useful in enabling architects and builders to choose the most relevant data for their projects.
Certification schemes
Many green building certification systems, such as BREEAM and LEED, require the use of EPDs as part of their assessment criteria. By integrating EPDs into their material selection process, specifiers can enhance their projects’ chances of achieving certification; this is something which is increasingly important in today’s environmentally conscious market.
Meeting carbon reduction targets
With global initiatives aimed at reducing carbon emissions, EPDs play a crucial role in helping the construction industry to meet these targets. By providing data on the carbon footprint of building materials, EPDs enable stakeholders to make choices that contribute to a low carbon or zero carbon build.
Sustainable construction
When it comes to specifying insulation, EPDs are an excellent source of verified information on environmental credentials. Some natural insulation products such as sustainable grass insulation and wood fibre insulation have achieved EPDs.
In addition, some airtightness and windtightness products including membranes, tapes and glue have recently secured EPD certification for a wide range of its airtightness and windtightness products including membranes, tapes
and glue.
As the construction industry moves further towards net zero, the demand for transparency in product sourcing and environmental impact is set to increase – and this is where natural building materials which have secured EPDs offer a compelling choice.
With increasing numbers of architects specifying products with EPD certification, there is an important move towards achieving higher sustainability standards.
Neil Turner is technical sales manager for Ecological Building Systems