Environmental Product Declarations
An Environmental Product Declaration is an internationally recognised document drawn up in a unique format containing environmental information on a building product.
This is the only document that validates the completion of a stringent scientific environmental assessment of a building product and that presents the results of this assessment in a transparent, impartial manner.
Environmental Product Declarations
Compliance with standardisation
An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is drawn up in compliance with international standard ISO 14025 type III. It presents the results of a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) conducted for a building product in compliance with the ISO 14040-44 series of standards.
An Environmental Product Declaration can also be drawn up in compliance with national standards while still respecting international standards.
This is the case with:
- French Environmental and Health Declarations – FDES – which comply with French standard NF P01010 or French standard NF EN 15804 and its complementary national CN since 2022.
- IBU Certifikat, the German Environmental Product Declarations which comply with the “Metals for building 2009-09” Product Category Rules document.
- BRE Environmental Profiles, Environmental Product Declarations which comply with the English BRE Global Scheme document SD028 and BRE Methodology for Environmental Profile of Construction Products SD 6050.
Despite efforts to harmonise standards with the development of European standard EN 15804, the scope of study and its content may vary between different types of Environmental Product Declaration complying with different national programmes.
For example, the French FDES concern all stages of the life cycle (production, transport, implementation, period of use and end of life) for a functional unit and a product lifespan (e.g. insure 1 m2 of roofing for one annuity) whereas the German IBU Certifikat concerns a product mass unit for the production and end-of-life stages without taking the period of use stage into account (example: 1 kg of rolled natural zinc).
This is why the content of EPDs may vary.
Vital for calculating the Environmental quality of a building
An Environmental Product Declaration serves a dual purpose:
- It presents the environmental assessment of building products in a reliable, transparent manner,
- It provides the fundamental “Components and materials” sources of data necessary to assess the Environmental Quality of Buildings.
Assessment of the Environmental Quality of Buildings consists of calculating the environmental impact of a building according to the principle of a Life Cycle Analysis, i.e. using a multi-stage and multi-criteria approach.
Several tools can be used to assess the Environmental Quality of a Building:
- Elodie (CSTB),
- TEAM Building Industry (Ecobilan-PWC),
- Simapro LCA Software,
- Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability (BEES),
- Eco-calculator IE BEC (Athena)
- GaBi 4 Software,
- Etc.
These tools enable architects and clients wishing to design and construct buildings that respect the environment to eco-design their building and quantitatively assess its environmental profile.
EPDs for VMZINC solutions
Motivated by the unique environmental advantages offered by VMZINC solutions and convinced of their relevance for sustainable building, the VM BUILDING SOLUTIONS is working on:
- assessing the environmental profile of the main product families used in the building envelope applications in its offer,
- presenting the results of these assessments in a transparent, impartial manner according to the standardised format of Environmental Product Declarations.
The EPDs currently available for VMZINC solutions are the following:
- BRE environmental profiles, Environmental Product Declarations which comply with the English BRE Global Scheme document SD028 and BRE Methodology for Environmental Profile of Construction Products SD 6050.
- French Environmental and Health Declarations – FDES – which comply with French standard NF P01010 or French standard NF EN 15804 and its complementary standard XP P01-064 since 1 July 2014.
- IBU Certifikat, the German Environmental Product Declarations which comply with the “Metals for building 2009-09” Product Category Rules document.
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