What is an EPD?

An Environmental Product Declaration (or EPD) is a verified and registered document that communicates transparent and comparable information about the life-cycle environmental impacts, resource use, and waste and output flows of products.

The life cycle covered includes resource acquisition, production, transport, use, maintenance and end-of-life stages.

Environmental impacts, including carbon footprint, smog and ozone impacts, water depletion, soil pollution and non-renewable resource depletion. View the full list of environmental indicators in an EPD here

Other relevant impacts and verified environmental information may also be included, such as product performance, recycled content, materials circularity indicator (MCI) and/or other environmental certifications.

The primary standard for EPDs is ISO 14025, which refers to them as “type III environmental declarations”. A type III environmental declaration must be registered with a Programme Operator. EPD Australasia is the regional representative of the International EPD System run by the Programme Operator EPD International.

EPDs are very useful for explaining aspects of production, distribution, usage or end-of-life options (recycling and disposal) that are commonly misunderstood by the market. See Applications

All EPDs registered with EPD Australasia are independently verified to ISO 14025, a relevant Product Category Rule (PCR) and the Programme’s General Programme Instructions (GPIs). For all building and construction products, the PCR is based on EN 15804 Sustainability of Construction Works to ensure the data can be included in a whole-of-building life cycle assessment to the EN 15879 standard.

Unlike type I ecolabels, an EPD does not judge products or imply that a declared product is environmentally superior to alternatives. That judgement or comparison is left to the EPD user in the context of their design project or usage. The standards and rules that an EPD must comply with ensure that products can be compared on a fair and equitable basis within their product category.

All EPDs registered with EPD Australasia are publicly available and mutually recognised within the International EPD System, ensuring global alignment and broad market visibility.

View EPD International’s video ‘What is an EPD and how is it made?’

Download the brochure ‘What is an EPD‘ (currently being updated)