An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is a document that displays the complete environmental impact of a product. An EPD certificate communicates the verified environmental impact of a product over its entire life cycle, following internationally recognised standards such as ISO 14025 and EN 15804 (for construction products). Organisations interested in ways to apply EPD certification will find that it goes beyond just evidence of commitment to sustainability. There are lots of practical ways to apply EPD certification, including sustainable product development, tender applications and adhering to green claims guidelines in various regions.
| 1. The Strategic Roles of Environmental Product Declarations | 2. Applying EPD Certification in Practice |
| 3. Use EPDs to Guide Building Strategies | 4. Support Regulatory and Voluntary Reporting |
The Strategic Role of Environmental Product Declarations
Before exploring practical applications, it’s important to establish a clear understanding of environmental product declarations and the EPD process.
- Definition: An EPD is a verified third-party document that displays transparent, comparable data on the environmental performance of a product, based on a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).
- Framework: EPDs are guided by Product Category Rules (PCRs) that set out the methodology for each product type, ensuring consistency and comparability. Established by independent EPD programme operators, these rules define which environmental indicators to measure (e.g., global warming potential, water use, ozone depletion potential), how to model them and which life cycle stages to include.
- Benefits: Beyond meeting compliance, an EPD certificate builds trust with stakeholders, informs sustainable product design, supports marketing claims and aligns with green building certifications like Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), and WELL building standard.
EPDs are rapidly increasing in global adoption. Data from RICS indicates that as of 2024, more than 25,000 EPDs had been published according to European standard 15804, with several thousand more published under specific projects and 70,000 in North America alone. EPDs are particularly prevalent in the construction and infrastructure sectors, where procurement frameworks often require them. However, their use should not be limited to just construction, as they offer benefits for a wide variety of industries.
Learn More: EPDs Explained | Tunley Environmental
Applying EPD Certification in Practice
Reduce Material Impact Using Early-Stage LCA
One of the most impactful ways to apply EPD certification is in early product or project design, using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) insights to optimise materials before production begins.
Why early-stage matters: Research from the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) shows that over 80% of a product’s environmental footprint is determined during the design phase. Selecting low-impact materials and processes early can prevent costly changes later.
- Use LCA as a decision tool: The EPD process requires a comprehensive LCA, which can reveal hotspots in resource use, energy consumption and emissions.
- Material substitutions: Insights from the LCA stage may suggest replacing high-impact materials with lower-carbon alternatives, increasing recycled content or sourcing locally to cut transport emissions.
Prove Sustainability Claims and Avoid Greenwashing
Regulations like the UK Green Claims Code and the EU Green Claims Directive require robust evidence for any sustainability claims organisations make. EPDs are highly beneficial to prevent against greenwashing as they provide evidence of the environmental impacts of products that is backed by data and verifiable.
- As proof of sustainability: By basing all claims on independently verified LCA data and following strict product category rules, organisations can confidently communicate their sustainability credentials using their EPD certificates.
- Marketing advantage: The transparency of an EPD certificate reassures clients, investors and procurement bodies that sustainability statements are factual and backed by science. The certificate can be an integral part of your green marketing activities in emails, reports and digital media.
Applying for Green Bonds and Grants
One often-overlooked way to apply EPD certification is to strengthen applications for green finance mechanisms such as green bonds, sustainability-linked loans and innovation grants.
Source: Sustainable Debt: Global State of the Market | Climatebonds.net
- Finance context: As of 2023, the global market for green financing is valued at $2.8 trillion, with issuers required to demonstrate verifiable environmental benefits.
- Grants and subsidies: Public funding programmes for low-carbon innovation, such as the EU Innovation Fund and the UK government net zero grants, increasingly require proof of measurable impact reduction.
The environmental data contained in an EPD certificate provides quantifiable, third-party verified metrics to support funding applications. As investors increasingly integrate ESG metrics into decision-making, EPDs provide the type of standardised, comparable data that financial institutions can trust.
Use EPDs to Guide Green Building Strategies
In the building and construction sector (where EPDS are most commonly used), one of the most direct ways to apply EPD certification is in alignment with sustainable building rating systems.
- BREEAM, LEED and WELL: These frameworks award credits for products with verified environmental product declarations, recognising the value of transparent life cycle data.
- Whole Life Carbon assessments: EPDs provide critical input for Whole Life Cycle Assessment (WLCA), enabling developers to meet sustainable building targets under RIBA and PAS 2080 guidance.
- Client assurance: Using products with EPDs demonstrates a commitment to responsible sourcing and helps secure planning permissions in jurisdictions with embedded sustainability requirements.
Learn More: EPDs for Sustainable Construction | Tunley Environmental
Support Regulatory and Voluntary Reporting
Finally, a vital way to apply EPD certification is in meeting regulatory and voluntary sustainability reporting requirements.
- Regulatory compliance: EPDs can fulfil obligations under the EU Construction Products Regulation, the UK Environment Act and public procurement frameworks requiring environmental product declarations.
- Voluntary frameworks: Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) all benefit from the granular, verified data an EPD provides.
- Audit readiness: An EPD certificate ensures that environmental claims are backed by auditable, standardised data, streamlining ESG assurance processes.
The Bottom Line
When considering ways to apply EPD certification in building and construction, FMCG and manufacturing, priority must be given to integrating EPD data into core decision-making processes rather than treating it as a standalone compliance exercise. This means using the EPD process proactively during early-stage design to minimise environmental impact, aligning product development with market and regulatory demands and ensuring all sustainability claims are backed by verified, transparent data to avoid greenwashing.