Over 390,000 times environmental product declarations were downloaded from the website of Institut Bauen und Umwelt e. V. (IBU) last year – more than ever before.
The high demand illustrates the growing influence of EPDs on the sustainability assessment of buildings. The IBU is thus making an important contribution to providing transparency on the ecological footprint of building products.
Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) are an important tool in the construction industry for providing factual, neutral and scientifically sound information on the environmental impact of construction products. They are crucial for the holistic consideration of sustainable buildings and their certification. By providing specific product life cycle assessments, aspects of sustainability can already be taken into account during the extraction of raw materials and the manufacture of all components. The Institut Bauen und Umwelt e. V. (IBU), the largest European association of manufacturers in the building materials industry with over 300 members, has published over 3,500 environmental product declarations to date – 857 of which were added in 2023 alone. Last year, these EPDs were accessed and downloaded over 390,000 times on the IBU website. The trend is also confirmed in 2024: in the first quarter, the IBU already recorded 144,453 downloads.
“The huge increase in demand in recent years shows that sustainability is being practiced consistently in the construction sector,” says Florian Pronold, Managing Director of the IBU. EPDs are being used more and more frequently in tenders. Architects and planners use them to create life cycle assessments for buildings and to quantify and optimize the ecological footprint. Building owners and investors are also increasingly evaluating properties according to these criteria, as the sustainability of buildings now has a generally recognized influence on market value.
As one of the leading program operators for environmental product declarations in the construction industry, the IBU has laid the foundations for including the ecological aspect in the sustainability assessment of buildings. Through practical, scientific and political commitment, the IBU has established an industry standard that is recognized in all sectors of the construction industry.
All published EPDs are available free of charge at www.ibu-epd.comcom/published-epds/.