ENVIROMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY (EPD)

ENVIROMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is an independently verified and registered document that communicates transparent and comparable information about the life-cycle environmental impact of products. These declarations provide a reliable, relevant, transparent, comparable and verifiable environmental profile and highlight environmentally friendly products based on life cycle assessments (LCA), in accordance with international standards and quantifiable environmental data.

The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) forming the basis of the EPDs must be conducted in accordance with specific Product Category Rules (PCR) published as technical standards or by a recognized programme (e.g. the international EPD System). These PCRs guarantee a set of coherent criteria for a family of products with equivalent functions, in accordance with International Standard ISO 14025, ISO 14040/14044, and other relevant standards or methodology guides, which establish the requirements that must be met by these Environmental Declarations, including third-party verification.

WHAT IS AN ENVIRONMENTAL PRODUCT DECLARATION (EPD)?

The Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), is open to all companies, organizations regardless of size or activity inside or outside the Community, aiming at improving environmental performance and communicating this performance to the public. It is specifically addressed to organizations wishing to demonstrate their environmental performance and seeking promotion through registering into a recognized programme. Furthermore, it can be more easily applied to companies already certified with ISO 14001 or EMAS.

The International EPD® System is a global programme for type III environmental declarations operating in accordance with ISO 14025 that aims to verify and register EPDs and maintain a publicly-available library of EPDs and PCRs. The programme is open for companies and organizations in any country.

There are several PCRs developed under the International EPD® System, including the following categories:

Construction products

Food & beverages

Paper products

Furniture

Textiles, footwear & apparel

Vehicles & transport equipment

Electricity, steam & fuels

Machinery & equipment

Metal, mineral, plastic, or glass products

Chemical products

Infrastructure & buildings

Services

More information about the International EPD® System can be found here: https://www.environdec.com

STEPS TO CREATE AN EPD IN THE INTERNATIONAL EPD® SYSTEM

Developing an Environmental Product Declaration in the International EPD® System includes the following main steps:

Perform LCA study based on PCR,
Compile information in the EPD reporting format,
Verification, and
Registration and publication.

Eurocert is a Greek Independent Certification Body accredited by Greek and International Accreditation Bodies with offices in more than 14 countries in Europe and Asia. Eurocert possesses highly-trained and educated auditors with great expertise and experience in their field. In particular, EUROCERT is a verification body that possesses high-level of competence and experience to critically review the LCA report and verify the EPD of a product or service against the correspondent PCR and other relevant standards.