Week 12 - Materials

An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is a particular type of LCA which provides environmental information in a common format, based on common rules, known as Product Category Rules (PCR).  "EPD's offer an international standard of communication to objectively compare and describe a product's environmental impact throughout its entire life cycle from cradle to grave" (NSF Sustainability, 2014).  PCR (according to ISO 14025) defines which data is used in a life cycle analysis and how the data is collected and reported.  LCA analyses the data specified in the PCR.  LCA measures inputs, outputs and environmental impacts of a product across its lifespan.  The EPD provides a summary document of data collected in LCA.  These enable comparison of a category of a products on environmental impacts.  This can then be verified by a 3rd party.

The creation of EPDs has improved the process of determining the impact of a product.  Environmental Building Declarations (EBDs) consider the impact of the whole building on the environment.  Both EPDs and EBDs are similar to a nutritional label on food products in that they provide a method for environmental comparison.  Initial reluctance by manufacturers to provide this level of information is being overcome by market competition.  EPDs offer comparison between products whereas EBDs allow trade off between systems in order to minimise total impact (Kilbert, 2013).

Table 1: Cost-benefit analysis of options for heating

EPD's are created according to ISO standards for which the 14000 series of standards deal with environmental management.  These standards can be applied worldwide and reflect international consensus on good environmental and business practice.  These standards assess the environmental impacts of an organisation's processes, products and services.  There are guidelines for how manufacturers provide information on the environmental aspects of their products (ISO 14020) which prevent the misuse of environmental labeling.  EPDs are designed to allow comparison of environmental impacts between similar products. However, as there are no other EPDs for New Zealand manufactured ready-mix concrete products, no comparisons are possible (Jones, 2014).