What is an EPD?
An Environmental Product Declaration, or EPD, is a document which transparently communicates the environmental performance and impact of any product over its lifetime. Within the construction industry, EPDs support carbon emission reduction by making it possible to compare the impacts of different materials and products in order to select the most sustainable option.
EPDs are made with databases containing information on environmental behavior of raw materials. EPDs can be self-declared or third party verified. EPDs help to achieve EPD and LCA credits in certification schemes, like Red List Free, LEED, BREEAM and others.
- Architects, engineers, and designers are able to choose the most sustainable option for their projects.
- Manufacturers are able to optimize the impact of their products and market their carbon transparency.
Wherefore and for who are EPD's meant?
Different EPD types
There are several types of EPDs that cover different life-cycle stages of a product:
- A1-A3
Cradle-to-Gate only assesses a product’s footprint until it leaves the factory gates before it is transported to the consumer - A1-D2
Cradle-to-Grave includes all 5 life stages in your footprint measurements. It shows a full footprint from start to end without the option to recycle or reuse.
Manufacturers often only communicate the Cradle to Gate option claiming they have no control over the rest of the process. This is partially true. We believe that it is the responsibility of the manufacturer to include the other stages as well since these are highly affected by the product leaving the gate.
A roll of linoleum implicates immediate cutting losses of over 10% where linoleum tiles only have 3% cutting losses and liquid linoleum almost has none.
It is therefore important to look at the total stages.
| PVC | Nonrenewable | Limited resources |
| DOTP & Dibenzoates | Nonrenewable | Limited resources |
| Filler | / | Abundant resources |
| Epoxidized Esters | Nonrenewable | Limited resources |
| Glass Fibers | Nonrenewable | Limited resources |
The importance of the 'End of Life' qualification
Another highly underestimated issue is the “End of Life” qualification. Manufacturers can decide for their EPD calculation three options:
- Incineration
- Landfill
- Recycling
Depending on which part of the world you live in this can affect the outcome drastically. Where Europe primarily has no landfill policy the majority of the floorcovering is incinerated after use.
In Asia, Africa, and the Americas the option of landfill is more widely available.
When chosen “Landfill” in the EPD the Carbon Footprint is significantly lower than with “incineration”.
Forbo is very transparent in its EPD
Linoleum: “For the end of life stage no landfilling is taken into account, since the vast majority of the countries in which Marmoleum is sold are having a non-landfill policy.”
Vinyl: “For the end of life stage 100% incineration is taken into account”
Where Tarkett and Gerflor, who are supplying in the same market as Forbo, have chosen option “Landfill” for both linoleum and vinyl leading to significant lower carbon emissions. The reality will be however that also the floorcovering from Gerflor and Tarkett will be incinerated after life. We strongly suggest manufacturers to be more consistent in the way they publish their numbers. When you use our Future Friendly Flooring Filter please check for the accurate “End of Life” parameter.
Mind the
metrics
Resinous flooring manufacturers like Flowcrete and Senso use EPD’s which are harder to interprete since these EPD’s do not refer to the full floorcovering per sqm (m2) commonly used in the flooring industry, but to kilograms per sqm (m2) Also by doing this they leave out the fossil based epoxyprimers commonly used to bond these systems to the subfloor.
This means the architect, engineer or designer has to figure out what the consumption in kg per sqm (m2) is and to recalculate the declared unit to the actual usage and carbon footprint. The declared unit in the EPD has a relatively good result but needs to be adjusted to the consumption. We call upon manufacturers to use declared units which are accurate per the actual consumption to provide a better transparancy.