February 2022

All You Need to Know About...
EPDS AND PRODUCT
SUSTAINABILITY
Designers and installers of flat roofing solutions are often told what they ‘should’ know about
products and standards. In this ongoing series, Rob Firman, of Polyfoam XPS, looks at
different aspects of flat roofing design and construction and helps to demystify them...
Environmental product declarations, or
EPDs, are internationally-recognised
documents that communicate
environmental impact. They are created in
accordance with applicable standards and should
be independently verified to confirm they meet
those standards. An EPD can be created for
products and services of all types, in all areas of
life, but this article specifically deals with EPDs
as they relate to construction products.
There is increasing demand for manufacturers of
construction products to make EPDs available,
and for products with EPDs to be selected for
construction projects. With that, however, can be
a misconception that simply specifying a product
that has an EPD means a ‘sustainable’ choice is
being made. Is that actually the case?
What standards are construction product
EPDs created in accordance with?
Reporting of environmental impact for
construction products is carried out as described
in EN 15804:2012 Sustainability of construction
works. Environmental product declarations. Core
rules for the product category of construction
products. The standard has been amended twice,
most recently in 2019.
Life cycle analysis, often shortened to just LCA, is
carried out for construction products. The
analysis involves making assumptions about the
environmental impact at different stages of the
life cycle. An EPD is then created, in a standard
format, to describe and report the conclusions so
that designers, specifiers and other construction
professionals can make informed decisions.
The contents of EN 15804 are extensive, but
some of its key aspects are: it
defines parameters that should
be declared and how they
should be reported; it
describes the life cycle stages
that can be assessed; and it
specifies the quality of data
required for reporting.
The full title for an EPD is a ‘Type III
environmental product declaration’. ‘Type III’
refers to the EPD’s environmental data having
been quantified in accordance with the ISO 14040
series of standards. An EPD reports on six
environmental impacts, which are as follows.
• Global warming potential.
• Depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer.
• Acidification potential of soil and water.
• Eutrophication potential.
• Formation potential of tropospheric ozone.
• Abiotic depletion potential.
Is a product sustainable if it has an EPD?
It’s inescapable that processing raw materials,
manufacturing construction products, and
constructing and changing buildings all have an
environmental impact. It’s why people say the
most sustainable building is the one that doesn’t
need to be built.
Minimising the impact of construction projects
starts with using resources as efficiently as
possible. This can be done by questioning whether
new construction is necessary, or if a client’s needs
can be met by reusing an existing building instead.
Left: Rob Firman, Polyfoam XPS.
Depending on the answer to that
question, design and
specification decisions can be
made to support longevity and
adaptability in the built
environment. Product choices that
prioritise the efficient use of resources
over the long term should be the aim.
“EPDs are a tool for
comparing materials
so that product choices
can be made to support
a construction project’s
sustainability goals”
All of this is to say that an EPD does not describe
whether a product is ‘sustainable’ or not, and it’s
important to remember that there’s no such thing
as a ‘most sustainable’ product. EPDs are a tool
for comparing materials so that product choices
can be made to support a construction project’s
sustainability goals.
Over the coming months, we’ll explore the topic of
EPDs in more detail. We’ll look at the different
stages of LCA, and also talk more about how
EPDs can be used to compare environmental
impact. If there’s an aspect of EPDs you’d like us
to look at in a future column, contact the Total
Contractor team or get in touch with us on the
details below.
Contact Polyfoam XPS
www.polyfoamxps.co.uk
@PolyfoamXPS
54 TC FEBRUARY 2022