Annual Meeting of IBU Verifiers in Berlin
On 2 March 2017, IBU hosted all of the verifiers appointed by the Advisory Council at the annual verifier meeting in Berlin. The primary aim of the one-day meeting was to clarify current questions concerning the EPD verification process and to ensure harmonisation of verification practices.
Among the training topics was an explanation of Advisory Council decisions regarding PCRs A and B, which had been implemented since the last verifier meeting, the checklist for updating EPDs that are about to expire, and the data quality of LCI data sets. Other topics included the verification of EPD tools and the implementation of peer-to-peer reviews, in which verifiers compare each other’s verification practices.
The annual verifier meeting serves as professional training (in the context of general programme guidance) for the IBU auditors, in order to guarantee uniform practices and a high level of quality in the EPD verification process.
At present, 20 experts from science, standardisation, and testing institutes in Germany, Sweden, Italy, Switzerland, France, and the UK have been appointed by the IBU as independent third parties. This is an indication of the continuing high demand from building product manufacturers for EPDs, which allow their data to be verified and published by the IBU.
The verification, entailing review of the EPD and the underlying calculations, and carried out by independent third parties, is a prerequisite for every EPD published by the IBU. The verifiers are selected at the IBU home office for EPD projects that align with their areas of expertise. They are responsible for the scrupulous review of the individual EPD documents. In addition, they ensure compliance with decisions taken by the Advisory Board. Their independence assures their neutrality with regard to the EPD owners. This ensures that IBU EPDs meet the requirements set forth in the ISO Standard 14025, which calls for independent third-party verifications.
The independent verifiers are experts in the life cycle assessments of building products. They examine the EPDs submitted by manufacturers for plausibility, consistency, and completeness, as well as for the transparency of the calculations and data provided. They then generate a verification report, which is submitted to the IBU.