Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) as a competitive parameter within sustainable buildings and building materials

Abstract

Abstract The demand for technical and verified documentation of buildings and building materials is growing, along with the increasing focus on sustainability in the built environment. However, despite a common wish to build sustainably, it is still found that EPDs and LCAs are not always similarly interpreted, leading to misunderstandings on how they should be used to quantify and verify sustainability along with being a competitive parameter when choosing materials. To overcome this barrier this project seeks to discover: 1. How can EPDs be used as a competitive parameter within the sustainable built environment? 2. How can product specific EPDs, used as an input to building-level LCAs, help to quantify the concept of ‘circular economy’? 3. How do some countries seem to succeed in introducing EPDs to industry while others only succeed to a lesser extent? By involving the Danish building-industry’s value-chain through qualitative interviews, workshops and reference groups, as well as by contacting EPD programme operators throughout Europe and USA, a mapping has been performed on the tendencies of how and to what extend EPDs are used to quantify and support material decision-making in buildings. Further, the drivers as to why EPDs are used in some countries is investigated along with suggestions on how to boost the development, use and integration of EPDs with the aim of quantifying and documenting sustainability in the built environment.