Emission Factors:EPD Library

Description

An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is a report detailing a product or material’s environmental impact across its lifecycle including emissions from raw material extraction to end of life. The International EPD System is a library of verified EPDs covering a range of product categories.

Metadata

Data Type: Activity-data
Publisher Type: Other, EPDs are published by companies and verified by external bodies
Number of Factors: > 12,000 EPDs
Database Format: View EPD online of download as PDF
Last Update: N/A
Update Frequency: N/A (EPDs are added as they are created and updated when required)
Cost: Free
Link: [1]

When to use

Use when processing quantity data for products or materials with available EPDs or when comparing the emissions of multiple products within the same category with available EPDs.

Limitations

EPDs are not available for many products and available EPDs shouldn’t be used as averages for other similar products without detailed comparison discussions. Using EPDs outside of the region they were performed for (e.g. sometimes they are based on production in a specific factory and with that locations supply chains but production may be happening in multiple locations) can lead to inaccuracies. Transportation and distribution emissions from the supplier to a reporting organisation is also based on a use case in the EPD so actual data here would be more accurate for the purpose of organisational carbon footprinting.

Page Contributors: Annie Tarpey