Sustainability and transparency in the construction industry are in high demand – as shown by the development of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) in 2024. Institut Bauen und Umwelt e.V. (IBU) had a successful year with an increase in the number of EPDs published and a significant increase in membership.
EPDs: Progress in 2024
In 2024, 533 individual EPDs were published through the IBU programme, an increase of 9 percent over the previous year. Particularly noteworthy is the contribution of the Holcim Group, which additionally published over 300 tool-generated EPDs, including over 130 project-specific ones. This brings the total number of EPDs published through the IBU programme in 2024 to over 840.
Added to this are EPDs from other manufacturers that were created and published using EPD tools and are not yet linked to the IBU EPD Platform. These EPDs also meet the requirements of the IBU programme and have undergone independent verification. Since the introduction of the EPD Platform for the creation, verification and publication of EPDs in a standardised format in 2012, a total of over 4,700 EPDs from IBU have been published, a figure that underscores the continued importance of EPDs in the building sector.
The growing demand for EPD verification is met with limited availability of verifiers throughout Europe. This scarcity is a challenge that IBU is actively addressing: IBU is working on several measures to expand capacity, including the targeted training of new verifiers. The goal is to ensure more efficient verification processes over the long term and to meet the increased demand.
IBU.data as a source for digital EPDs
IBU provides access to digital EPDs through the IBU.data platform. By connecting to its own interfaces, IBU enables manufacturers and planners to integrate EPD data directly and efficiently into digital planning processes. This is a decisive step in promoting digitalisation and the future-oriented use of EPD data.
Membership growth strengthens IBU’s position
IBU was able to attract a total of 71 new members in 2024, bringing the total number of members to 350. This growth demonstrates the continued relevance of IBU and the EPD programme for the construction and building materials industries, particularly in the context of increasing environmental and sustainability requirements from European and national regulators. 45% of new members are based outside Germany, underscoring the leading role IBU plays beyond the country’s borders.
The future trend of digitalisation
Digitalisation is an important lever for the future development of EPDs. In particular, EPD tools enable more efficient creation and verification of EPDs, which in turn creates significant increases in the number of EPDs. Digital interfaces such as IBU.data will play an increasingly central role in the future by facilitating access to EPD data and supporting their integration into digital workflows.