FAQs

An EPD (Environmental Product Declaration) is a multipage document describing the environmental effects of building products based on a life cycle assessment with quantitative data. It is created by the manufacturer and reviewed at the IBU by independent verifiers on the basis of ISO 14025 and EN 15804 norms, and is subsequently published.

An EPD serves to provide transparency to the public regarding the environmental influences of building products. It is the basis for the ecological evaluat

IBU offers the following types of EPD to ensure that the appropriate EPD is created for each application:

For individual companies

• Project EPD
  – Declaration of a product from a company’s plant for a specific (construction) project (usually created with an EPD tool)
• Specific EPD
  – Declaration of a specific product from a company’s plant
  – Declaration of a specific product from several plants of a company
• Average EPD
  – Declaration of an average pr

Collecting the necessary data for the EPD, calculating the life cycle assessment and creating an EPD that conforms to the norms is the responsibility of the manufacturer. Normally, if the appropriate know-how is unavailable at his/her own company, the manufacturer will hire an experienced life cycle assessment service provider for support with the creation of the EPD. A list of companies and experts who have already successfully taken over these kinds of projects for EPDs with the IBU may be fou

The EPD creation process can be divided into three steps:

Step 1: Development of Product Category Rules

The basis of an EPD is the guidance document (PCR – Product Category Rules), which consists of two parts. Part A, which is uniformly valid for all product subgroups, is written and maintained by the Advisory Board (SVR). It contains the algorithm for the life cycle assessment and the requirements of the underlying background report.

Part B is written for spec

IBU has no basic requirements for the software used to calculate the LCA. The use of Umberto, SimaPro, openLCA and other tools available on the market is generally permitted.

IBU’s EPD platform is not itself a tool for LCA calculation or a database for LCA data, but is used to enter, verify and publish the final EPD data in a standardized and digitized format. IBU is not involved in the upstream step of preparing the LCA.

In principle, the EPD platform or an EPD tool verified by IBU must b

The costs for the review and publication of the EPD are documented in the IBU-Fee Schedule. The costs for an EPD, called declaration fees, are divided into two parts:

• The one-time verification costs of 2.000 € for each EPD, and
• the annual trade mark use fee, tiered according to the number of EPDs (€960 to €120).

The costs for the acc

The entire process for an EPD is complex and usually takes several months. In particular, the data collection and calculation of the life cycle assessment by your LCA practitioner are time-consuming.

The verification of the EPD data by the independent verifiers via IBU varies greatly from case to case, depending on the quality of the EPD, how quickly the EPD creator makes the necessary corrections after receiving feedback from the verifier, and how many EPDs are currently to be verified.
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