How to Get an EPD: PCRs, LCA and Verification Explained

Construction product manufacturers are being asked for Environmental Product Declarations more often, and more insistently, every year. Specifiers need them for LEED and BREEAM credits, contractors need them to hit project carbon targets, and public procurement increasingly requires them outright. This is a practical guide to what an EPD actually is and how you get one.

What an EPD is

An EPD is a Type III environmental declaration under ISO 14025: a standardised, independently verified report of a product's environmental impacts across its life cycle, based on a Life Cycle Assessment carried out to ISO 14040 / 14044. For construction products the governing rulebook is EN 15804, the core Product Category Rules.

Two things follow from that definition, and both matter commercially:

• An EPD is not a green label. It makes no claim that your product is good. It is a transparent datasheet — a product with high impacts can hold a perfectly valid EPD;
• It is comparable only within its rules. Two EPDs can be compared only if they follow the same PCR, the same declared unit and the same modules.

Step 1: Choose a programme operator and PCR

Every EPD is published under a programme operator — the body that administers the scheme, maintains the PCRs and manages verification. Well-known operators include The International EPD System, IBU in Germany, UL Solutions and NSF in North America, BRE in the UK, and EPD Ireland. Choose based on where your customers are and which registers they consult.

Then select the Product Category Rules. EN 15804 provides the core rules; a sub-PCR adds product-specific requirements for concrete, insulation, windows, steel and so on. The PCR fixes the decisions that shape everything downstream: the declared or functional unit (per m², per kg, per m³), the modules you must declare, the reference service life and cut-off rules. Picking the wrong PCR means redoing the work.

Step 2: Collect the data

This is where the real effort sits, and where projects slip. You will need, typically for a full year of production:

• Bill of materials for the product, with quantities and suppliers;
• Energy consumption at the manufacturing site — electricity, gas, fuels — allocated to the product;
• Upstream transport distances and modes for incoming materials;
• Water use, waste and emissions from the process;
• Packaging, and production yields and scrap rates;
• Allocation basis where a site makes several products from shared energy.

Primary data from your own operations is required for the manufacturing stage (A3); recognised background databases supply the upstream inputs.

Step 3: Build the LCA model and background report

The LCA is built in dedicated software and documented in an LCA background report — the technical file that records every assumption, data source, allocation decision and calculation. The published EPD is the short public summary; the background report is what the verifier actually scrutinises. Weak documentation here is the most common cause of verification delays.

Scope follows the EN 15978 / EN 15804 modules. Many EPDs are cradle to gate (A1–A3), though the current version of EN 15804 requires more than the minimum — including end-of-life modules and Module D — so confirm what your chosen PCR obliges you to declare.

Step 4: Independent verification

An EPD has no standing until it is verified by an independent third party approved by the programme operator. The verifier checks that the PCR was followed, the data is plausible and traceable, the calculations are correct and the declaration is not misleading. Once verified, the EPD is registered and published — and it is normally valid for five years, after which it must be updated and re-verified, or sooner if your process or supply chain changes materially.

Which type of EPD?

• Product-specific — one product from one plant. The strongest marketing position and the best result if your product genuinely outperforms;
• Average / multi-plant — one declaration covering several sites or a product family. Efficient when the range is broad;
• Industry-wide / sector — produced by a trade association for a generic product. Cheap access to compliance, but it cannot differentiate you from competitors.

What it costs you — and returns

Expect the process to run in months rather than weeks, with the data-collection phase usually the critical path. The return is straightforward: specifiers filter by what they can evidence. An EPD gets your product into carbon calculators and databases, satisfies credits in the major rating systems, and answers procurement questions that are increasingly mandatory rather than optional. The manufacturers being designed out of projects today are frequently the ones with nothing to declare.

The takeaway

Start by choosing the programme operator and PCR your customers actually recognise, then put real effort into a clean year of primary manufacturing data — that single step determines both your timeline and the credibility of the result. Document every assumption for the verifier, and treat the EPD as a five-year commitment to keep current, not a one-off certificate.

This article is general guidance and reflects information available at the time of writing. PCR requirements, programme-operator rules, declared modules and validity periods are set by the relevant standards and operators and change periodically — always confirm current requirements with your chosen programme operator before starting.