Record number of registered environmental product declarations

As many as 139 new environmental product declarations, so-called EPDs, were registered in the international EPD system during 2015. An increase with more than 20 registrations compared to the previous year. About half of the EPDs registered are related to engineering products.

– This is the continuation of a trend that has been underway for several years now, says Kristian Jelse, International EPD® System Project Manager. According to Kristian Jelse, a major increase in EPDs is discernable in the construction industry, as more and more actors adopt sustainable and environmentally friendly building practices. After the construction industry the greatest numbers of EPDs have been recorded for the food and agricultural industry, for wood and paper products, for the electricity sector and for transport vehicles and equipment. The countries that registered the most EPDs in 2015 were Italy, Sweden, Spain, Turkey, the UK, Argentina and Australia. In 2015 the International EPD system published nine new product-specific rules that will make it possible to produce EPDs for, among other things, elevators, yachts, cosmetics and aircraft. EPD stands for Environmental Product Declaration and is an information system that objectively describes the environmental impact of products and services from a lifecycle perspective. The international EPD system has been administered since 2014 by IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute. More than 500 declarations have been registered in the system since its beginning.