CLIMATE ACCOUNTING
An Environmental Product Declaration is the verified, publicly registered document that communicates a product's environmental performance across its full lifecycle — built on an ISO 14040/44-compliant LCA, critically reviewed by an independent third party, and registered with a recognized EPD program operator. EPDs are the product environmental document that construction specifiers, infrastructure procurement authorities, and green building certification schemes — including BREEAM, LEED, and DGNB — reference when evaluating and specifying products. For manufacturers supplying these markets, an EPD is not a sustainability credential. It is a tender qualification document.
Semtrio manages the full EPD development process — from LCA execution and critical review coordination through to EPD program operator submission and publication — producing declarations that satisfy the technical requirements of the most demanding specifier and procurement frameworks.
BREEAM, LEED, DGNB, and other major green building schemes award credits for the use of products with verified EPDs — and the weighting of these credits is increasing in newer versions of each scheme. For manufacturers supplying construction, fit-out, and infrastructure markets, the absence of an EPD increasingly disqualifies products from projects where specifiers are targeting certification. An EPD is not a differentiator in these contexts — it is a prerequisite.
EU Green Public Procurement criteria for construction products increasingly specify EPD as a requirement for product environmental qualification. The EU's Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) is establishing mandatory product environmental performance requirements for an expanding list of categories — with EPD-aligned declarations at the centre of how manufacturers demonstrate compliance. The construction products sector is among the first to face these requirements.
EPDs produced under the same Product Category Rules are directly comparable — buyers can evaluate two competing products' full lifecycle environmental performance side by side. For manufacturers with strong environmental performance, an EPD is a competitive asset that turns environmental data into a procurement advantage. For manufacturers with average or poor performance, the absence of an EPD means buyers will default to competitors who have one.
EPD quality is not uniform. An EPD produced using a generic system boundary, without compliance with the applicable Product Category Rules, or with primary data gaps filled by conservative defaults, will produce a result that may be technically published but commercially unusable — failing the scrutiny of independent technical reviewers on major projects, or producing environmental performance figures that compare unfavourably against a competitor's more carefully calculated EPD.
Semtrio's EPD development is built on the LCA and PCR depth that distinguishes a credible EPD from a published but weak one. As a PCR developer on the International EPD System, we author and apply the rules that define EPD methodology for specific product categories. Our LCA studies are designed specifically for EPD program operator verification — with the system boundary, data quality, and allocation methodology that critical reviewers expect and that support the most favourable defensible environmental performance profile for the product.
OUR PROCESS
A complete EPD — from LCA and PCR alignment through to verified publication on the program operator's platform.
Manufacturers in CBAM-covered sectors — particularly construction materials such as cement and glass — often require both EPDs for specifier qualification and CBAM embedded carbon calculations for EU export compliance. Semtrio structures both from the same underlying LCA data collection, eliminating duplication.
Learn moreConstruction and manufacturing buyers requiring EPDs frequently also evaluate suppliers through EcoVadis — managing both as a coordinated engagement strengthens supplier positioning across all qualification dimensions simultaneously and reduces internal data burden.
Learn moreEPD findings — particularly lifecycle environmental performance data — directly support GRI 301 (Materials) and GRI 302 (Energy) disclosures in sustainability reports. Organizations producing GRI-aligned reports can incorporate EPD data into their product-level environmental narrative without separate data collection.
Learn moreEPD quality depends directly on the quality of upstream supplier data — raw material extraction, component manufacturing, and material processing emissions. Semtrio's supplier engagement programs build the upstream data collection infrastructure that makes primary-data-driven EPDs achievable for complex manufactured products.
Learn moreWe are a PCR developer on the International EPD System — the platform where EPDs are registered.
Semtrio is a PCR developer on the International EPD System — one of the world's leading EPD program operators. Having authored the Product Category Rules for Denim fabrics and serving as moderator for several other product categories on the same platform, Semtrio operates at the methodological foundation of EPD development. The International EPD System is where PCRs are published and where EPDs are registered — being a PCR developer on that platform places Semtrio at the institutional centre of EPD methodology for the product categories where we have developed the rules.
The practical value for EPD clients is two-fold. First, Semtrio's LCA studies are designed specifically for EPD program operator submission — the system boundary decisions, data quality standards, and allocation methodology choices that often generate critical reviewer comments or require revision are handled correctly from the outset. Second, our familiarity with EPD program operator submission requirements across the International EPD System and other operators — including IBU and BRE — means we know what each platform's technical team expects and how to structure a submission that moves through review and publication without delay.
EPD development is not a standalone service at Semtrio. It is a natural output of the LCA and PCR methodology capability we hold — designed to produce the most favourable defensible environmental performance profile for each product, published on the right platform for the target market, and structured to serve ESPR, Green Public Procurement, and green building certification requirements simultaneously from a single engagement.
Talk to our team about developing your EPDWhether you're scoping a single service engagement, evaluating end-to-end advisory across multiple clusters, or looking for one accountable partner across strategy and disclosure — start here.
Yaren Ünal
Senior Specialist,Client Solutions
Hamza Söylemez
Specialist,Client Solutions
Frequently asked questions about Environmental Product Declarations
An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is a standardized, third-party verified document that communicates the environmental performance of a product across its full lifecycle — from raw material extraction through manufacturing, distribution, use, and end of life. EPDs are produced in accordance with ISO 14025 and must be based on an ISO 14040/44-compliant LCA study, critically reviewed by an independent third party, and registered with a recognized EPD program operator. A typical EPD contains: a product description and system boundary, environmental performance results across all assessed impact categories (including climate change, eutrophication, acidification, water use, and resource depletion), data quality information, and the applicable Product Category Rules the study was conducted under. EPDs are publicly registered and searchable on program operator platforms — making them directly comparable across competing products in the same category.
EPDs are most widely required in the construction sector, where green building certification schemes — BREEAM (UK and international), LEED (US and international), DGNB (Germany and Nordic markets), and HQE (France) — award credits for products with verified EPDs and increasingly use EPD data for lifecycle-based building assessment. EU Green Public Procurement criteria for construction products reference EPDs as the preferred format for product environmental qualification. The most widely recognized EPD program operators are: the International EPD System (global, construction and industrial products), IBU (Institut Bauen und Umwelt — Germany and Central Europe, construction sector), BRE (UK, construction sector), and INIES (France). EPD requirements are expanding beyond construction — textiles, packaging, chemicals, and electronic goods are increasingly subject to EPD-adjacent requirements under ESPR and the EU Green Claims Directive.
A product carbon footprint (PCF) under ISO 14067 reports a single environmental indicator — greenhouse gas emissions, expressed in tonnes of CO₂ equivalent per functional unit. An EPD reports environmental performance across all assessed impact categories — not only climate change but also eutrophication, acidification, water use, land use, resource depletion, and others as specified in the applicable PCR. Both are based on an ISO 14040/44-compliant LCA, and both are per-product rather than per-company figures. The key additional feature of an EPD is third-party verification — a PCF can be self-declared (though buyers are increasingly requiring independent verification), whereas an EPD requires a mandatory critical review by an independent reviewer and registration on a recognized program operator's platform. For buyers and specifiers in regulated procurement contexts, an EPD carries substantially more credibility than a self-declared PCF.
The critical review is a mandatory independent assessment of the LCA study underlying an EPD — required by ISO 14044 for studies intended for public comparisons or comparative assertions, and by EPD program operators as a condition of EPD registration. The critical reviewer — an LCA expert independent of the organization commissioning the study — reviews the LCA methodology, data quality, and results for compliance with ISO 14040/44 and the applicable PCR. The review produces a critical review statement that, if positive, is included in the published EPD as evidence of independent methodological verification. A poorly conducted LCA that fails critical review must be corrected before EPD registration can proceed — making the quality of the underlying LCA study the primary determinant of EPD development speed and cost.
Semtrio manages the complete EPD development process in four phases. We begin with scoping — identifying the applicable PCR, selecting the target EPD program operator, and confirming the system boundary and functional unit in alignment with both the PCR and the target market's specifier requirements. We then conduct the ISO 14040/44-compliant LCA study specifically designed for EPD program operator submission — with the data quality, allocation methodology, and documentation standards that critical reviewers expect. We coordinate the mandatory independent critical review — managing the reviewer relationship and responding to queries to ensure the study receives a positive review opinion. We then produce the EPD document and manage the submission to the program operator through to registration and publication. Where a client requires EPDs for multiple products or multiple markets simultaneously, we structure the LCA and EPD development to maximize reuse of data and methodology across the product range.
Talk to our team about developing your EPDOur team works directly with manufacturers developing EPDs for construction specifiers, green building certification, and EU procurement qualification — book a session and we will confirm the applicable PCR, select the right program operator, and map the path from LCA to published declaration.
Our team works directly with manufacturers developing EPDs for construction specifiers, green building certification, and EU procurement qualification — book a session and we will confirm the applicable PCR, select the right program operator, and map the path from LCA to published declaration.
