EPD: Environmental Product Declaration

EPD The Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) provides detailed information about the environmental impact of a product or service. EPDs are based on Product Category Rules (PCRs) which provide rules, requirements and guidelines for the environmental life cycle assessment of a defined product category.

The EPD allows to:

define the complete environmental profile of a product/service;
identify possible improvement strategies, determining the most critical elements according to different categories of environmental impact;
enhance the company's attention to environmental issues;
benefit from a more transparent relationship with clients.

RINA carries out the verification of the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), which can concern:

a single product/service of a company (Product EPD);
multiple products of a company (Product EPD);
a product of a company recently on the market (Product EPD);
a product of a company not yet on the market (Product EPD);
the average product of companies in a specific sector/geographical area (Sector EPD);
the focus on a single category of environmental impact, e.g. climate declarations (Single footprint EPD);
EPD Process Certification, where the organization can independently create and publish EPDs without involving a third-party verifier for each EPD produced.

Why choose RINA?

RINA was one of the first accredited verification bodies in this area, initially with SWEDAC in 1998 and since 2004 with ACCREDIA without geographical limitations, and can therefore provide the service for any type of organization, wherever it is located.

Verification process

The verification process is divided into the following steps:

opening contract with clients: acceptance of the offer formulated following receipt of the informative questionnaire;
document review: strategic and risk analysis, evaluation of the EPD study, data gathering and calculation methodologies;
verification activity: on-site verification, examination of the completeness of sources and flows, verification of data acquisition and modelling of the calculations carried out within the software used for analysis;
reporting: preparation of the verification report and the draft of the audit opinion/certificate (in the case of EPD Process Certification);
independent technical review of the verification activities performed;
approval of the verified EPD on the EPD International website.

Our experts answer to the most frequently questions

Possible reporting limits range from cradle to grave or from cradle to gate depending on the rules specified in the applicable PCR.

An EPD Single Footprint always requires a PCR approved by EPD International to base the study on, while a Carbon Footprint (e.g., based on ISO 14067) may consider different PCRs (where present).

All EPDs produced by an organization and verified by a third-party verification body are uploaded to the EPD International website in order to be available to the interested public.