Tobias Brinkmann, Susanne Köhler, Alexander Boeth and Lukas Metzger from brands & values GmbH examine the benefits, expectations and fulfilment of environmental product declarations in the first part of a study published in February.
Last year, a stakeholder survey involving more than 100 participants — including many IBU members — examined the benefits, expectations and fulfilment of EPDs. The results of the survey have now been published in the two-part study “Environmental Product Declarations — Benefits, Expectations and Fulfilments — A Stakeholder View”. The results show that the benefits of EPDs are predominantly assessed positively. Nevertheless, optimization potentials are seen in the more than 20 identified benefit categories, since in almost every benefit dimension the expectations are higher than the actual fulfilment. This is mainly due to the fact that EPDs and LCAs are not properly understood and existing knowledge about them is insufficient. Thus, a self-explanatory purpose of the first part of the study, in addition to summarising the most important results, is to prepare the basics and most important questions on the subject of EPDs.
The study can be requested free of charge from the following address: https://www.brandsandvalues.com/study1-epd-environmentalproductdecl
Part 2 of the study discusses the possibilities to increase the potential benefits of EPDs. The publication is scheduled for spring 2019.