2,000 EPDs and Counting: A Milestone for Transparency

2nd May 2025

EPD Australasia has reached a major milestone with the publication of the 2,000th Environmental Product Declaration, reflecting the continued growth in demand for credible, transparent environmental data across Australia and New Zealand.

Fittingly, the milestone EPD was published for Holcim Australia, a long-time leader in sustainability and innovation within the concrete industry. Holcim was the first Australian concrete company to publish an EPD and the first in Australasia to have its EPD development process certified – demonstrating early leadership in transparency and sustainability.

Evan Smith, National Sustainability Manager at Holcim Australia, said it was “an incredible honour to be the 2,000th EPD registered with EPD Australasia. When we registered the first EPD for ready-mix concrete in Australia back in 2019, we knew we were taking an important step – but we had no idea just how quickly the industry would embrace this level of transparency.”

He noted that EPDs have “fundamentally changed how we think about materials,” by bringing clarity to the environmental impacts of construction choices and helping shift the market toward more responsible products. “That transparency fuels innovation, collaboration, and accountability – across the entire supply chain,” he added.

“Looking ahead, I believe EPDs will be the foundation of a smarter, more sustainable built environment. At this pace, EPD Australasia will be celebrating the 5,000th EPD before we know it – and I can’t wait to see what’s possible when data, ambition, and collective action come together,” he said.

The 2,000th EPD is a clear sign of the growing number of organisations choosing to share the environmental performance of their products through independently verified standardised declarations. The milestone highlights the journey since 2015, when EPD Australasia published the very first product-specific EPD for New Zealand-based David Trubridge’s Kitset Pendant Light Fittings – quickly followed by the first EPD from an Australian company with BlueScope’s EPD for their Hot Rolled Coil, and the first industry-average EPDs for Forest and Wood Products Australia.

EPD Australasia CEO Kelly Taylor said, “It’s an incredible milestone and one that has taken us by surprise with how quickly it arrived. It feels like just yesterday we were celebrating the publication of our 100th EPD for Zenith Interiors – a reflection of the growing success and impact of EPDs over the decade.”

Our growth was steady in the early years, as we worked to establish EPDs in Australia and New Zealand as the go-to source of independently verified and credible data for more sustainable decision-making. This was thanks to our strong advocacy and the initial strong support of amazing LCA practitioners from the likes of Edge Impact, Start2See and thinkstep-anz, and a pool of outstanding individual verifiers.

Since then, many more Australasian-based LCA practitioners have played a role in supporting companies to develop EPDs and we’ve seen exponential growth in EPD registrations over the past 12 months. The Programme has also expanded its global network of independent verifiers and approved a second EPD process certifier. These efforts have helped over 140 companies publish more than 2,000 EPDs.

None of this would have been possible without our strong partnership with EPD International and the International EPD System.

Today, the Programme continues to gain momentum – supporting businesses across a wide range of industries, from construction materials to packaging, consumer goods and more. EPDs are helping manufacturers demonstrate transparency and giving specifiers, procurement teams and end users access to credible, comparable data to inform more sustainable decision-making.