Update to the General Programme Instructions (GPIs) version 4.0

7th Apr 2021

An update to the General Programme Instructions (GPI’s), version 4.0 has recently been published, setting a new set of rules for operation and management of the International EPD® System according to ISO 14025. The update has been made to stay relevant and up-to-date following international developments in methodology, standardisation, research and applications of Environmental Product Declarations (EPD), continuing organisations to communicate the environmental impacts of their products in a quantitative, credible, comparable and understandable way based on international standards. These International GPI’s are used in conjunction with the Australasian Regional annex to the GPI for EPDs published with EPD Australasia.

Some of the new features of the new GPI are:

• New rules for adding multiple products in the same EPD
• Removal of indicators and characterization methods from the GPI
• Product Category Rules (PCR) contents and development process aligned with the latest standards and practices, including new feature of a PCR template which substitutes the PCR Basic Modules
• Further clarifications on the use of pre-verified tools
• Clarifications regarding the requirements for individual verifiers and the verification process
• Added procedure for products not yet on the market
• Update of the general LCA methodology to align with latest standards and practices
• Editorial changes for consistency and clarity

The new GPI’s can be found here. Please contact the Secretariat if you have any questions regarding these changes.