Continuing Education
Wood and Environmental Product Declarations
New EPDs are part of a growing trend
Sponsored by reThink Wood, American Wood Council, and Canadian Wood Council | By Layne Evans
E
nvironmental Product Declarations
(EPDs) are concise, standardized,
independently verified reports on
environmental performance. Despite their
name, they are used not only for products,
but also materials and services at either a
brand-specific or generic level. There are
EPDs in every sector, from automobiles to
consumer electronics.
This continuing education course
focuses on building products, specifically
wood products. As this course explains, an
EPD gives a decision maker an immediate,
reliable, and non-judgmental way to
evaluate a product’s environmental impacts
over its life cycle—in terms of its embodied
energy and global warming potential, and
by other important measures such as use of
natural resources, emissions to air, soil, and
CONTINUING EDUCATION
EARN ONE AIA/CES HSW
learning unit (lu)
EARN ONE GBCI CE hour
For Leed credential
Maintenance
Learning Objectives
After reading this article, you should be
able to:
1. Describe the function and format of
Environmental Product Declarations
(EPDs), and how they are used to analyze
a building product’s environmental
impact throughout its life cycle.
2. D
ifferentiate EPDs from other types
of ecolabels, rating systems, and
certifications of environmental
performance.
3. E
xplain how EPDs are being used now,
and the factors driving more product
manufacturers to develop them and
more designers and specifiers to use
them as a standard part of sustainable
product selection.
4. Evaluate the information in an EPD,
using recently published EPDs on
wood products.
To receive credit, you are required to read
the entire article and pass the test. Go to
ce.greensourcemag.com for complete text
and to take the test for free.
AIA/CES COURSE #K1307D
GBCI COURSE #0090010009
1
Wood and Environmental Product Declarations
Photo by Peter Powles
comprehensive, transparent data about
environmental impacts.
This course will explain why EPDs
are important, and how to understand
and use the information in an EPD, with
particular reference to EPDs recently
released for lumber and glued laminated
timber (glulam). The wood industry in the
U.S. and Canada has been at the forefront
of the trend, undertaking research and
developing life cycle information that verify
the environmental impact of wood building
products. As the tools for analyzing and
substantiating environmental performance
become more sophisticated, the wood
industry is working to use them to help the
building community better understand
wood as a building material in the context
of its environmental impact.
Photo by KK Law
EPD Explained
By definition, an EPD for a commodity
product like lumber can only review the
life cycle from cradle-to-gate. See the Life
Cycle Assessment (LCA) section below.
water, and waste generation. The relevant
characteristics and units of measurement for
a given product are determined through an
open, independent process, so that products
in the same category can be compared
directly in a much more transparent and
meaningful way than is otherwise possible.
Although EPDs have become a standard
part of decision making elsewhere in the
world (see sidebar “Global EPDs”), they
are relatively new to North America—
produced mainly by large manufacturers
or industries committed to being leaders
in environmental performance, and
used by leading design firms with the
same objective. But the use of EPDs
in the building industry is currently
expanding, thanks to a growing demand for
sustainability in every aspect of a building’s
design, construction, and operation,
and the recognition that this cannot be
effectively accomplished without verifiable,
Putting labels in Perspective
Graphic courtesy of Wayne Trusty
2
EPDs are a means of presenting
environmental information in a
standardized way, independently verified
by a third party. They conform to standards
by the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) with global
applicability. The specific elements of an
EPD are discussed in detail later in the
course, but following are some key concepts
and terminology:
Environmental Labels, Ecolabels, EPDs
EPDs are just one part of a large universe
of environmental labels or “ecolabels.” ISO
defines three general categories of ecolabels:
 Type I labels (ISO 14024) are awarded
by third-party programs to products
that have good environmental attributes,
usually according to a single attribute.
An example would be an energy-efficient
product identified with the well-known
Energy Star logo.
 Type II labels (ISO 14021) represent selfdeclared claims by product manufacturers
about some aspect of their product. An
example would be a product identified
as containing recycled content or being
biodegradable, acknowledged with a
logo developed by the manufacturer for
the purpose of identifying its corporate
sustainability efforts.
 Type III environmental declarations or
EPDs contain quantified environmental
data based on life cycle assessment
(see definition below), presented in a
standardized format in accordance with
ISO 14025 and 21930, and independently
verified.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
Data reported in an EPD is collected using
life cycle assessment methodology. LCA
is a scientific, internationally accepted
technique for assessing environmental
impacts associated with all stages of a
product’s life. LCAs involve compiling an
inventory of relevant energy and material
inputs and environmental releases, and
evaluating their potential impacts—
which helps people make informed decisions
about the products they use. Analyzed
metrics typically include (among others)
global warming potential, acidification and
smog potential, resource consumption, and
waste generation. Although LCA doesn’t
address every potential issue, it has emerged
as the most comprehensive and credible way
to compare products and make decisions
based on key environmental impacts.
Business-to-business EPDs, including
the ones featured in this course, look at
the life cycle from cradle-to-gate: from the
extraction of raw materials to the factory
“gate” or the point at which the product
or material has been manufactured and
Wood and Environmental Product Declarations
is ready for shipment. By definition,
an EPD for a commodity product like
lumber can only be cradle-to-gate because
the manufacturer may not be able to
characterize how the product is used
after it is sold. This is in contrast to
business-to-consumer EPDs that analyze
the life cycle from cradle-to-grave, taking
into account the entire service life of the
product including its eventual disposal
or recycling.
Embodied Impacts
A product EPD reports “embodied”
environmental impacts—for example, on
energy resources, air quality, fresh water,
or the atmosphere. A product’s embodied
impacts include those from its raw material,
its manufacturing and transportation, and
many other related processes. Depending
on the type of EPD, a product’s embodied
impacts might be reported from cradle-togate, or might extend to those that occur
during installation, maintenance, and
disposal or recycling.
Embodied energy is the measure of the
energy consumed at various stages of the
life cycle. Depending on the structural
and finishing materials used, each of
the many products in a building may
require large amounts of carbon-intensive
fossil fuel energy to extract or produce
the raw materials, transport them to
the processing site, manufacture them,
transport them to the construction site,
and then to install, use, and maintain
them, and finally to dispose or recycle
them at the end of their service lives. This
energy embodied in buildings has typically
received less attention than the energy
used to operate buildings. But as we create
higher-performance, more energy-efficient
Product Category Rules (PCR)
Though governed by international protocols
that guide how they are conducted, LCAs
of different products may use different
boundaries (i.e., may or may not include
certain steps in raw material procurement,
product use, or end of life disposal), making
comparison of results difficult. ISO has
addressed this problem by requiring EPDs
to be based on a set of Product Category
Rules that specify the parameters to be
considered for a given family of products.
These PCRs are developed by the Program
Operator (see below) for the purpose of
ensuring consistency and comparability of
EPDs across a category of “products” that
serve equivalent functions. For example,
a Product Category could be as broad as
all construction products or as narrow as
3
Continuing Education
An EPD is a declaration of the results of life cycle assessment (LCA). It is a fact-based
document including a summary of LCA, product description such as performance features
and raw material content, as well as an overview of the manufacturing process.
buildings, they use much less operating
energy. So their embodied energy takes
on greater significance, since it becomes a
higher proportion of the building’s total life
cycle energy use.
Operating energy typically depends
less on the choice of structural material,
and more on factors such as air tightness,
insulation, lighting, and occupant behavior.
Embodied energy, on the other hand, is
closely connected to the choice of structural
material, so it is important to look at both
the operating and embodied energy when
evaluating a building design in terms of
energy consumption.
Another reason why embodied energy
is an increasingly important consideration
is that reductions in the embodied carbon
emissions of materials have an immediate
benefit, while the carbon benefits of
reducing the building’s energy consumption
in operations are accrued over a longer
period of time. For example, during the first
20 years of occupancy, at least 45 percent
of a building’s total energy consumption
and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are
from the energy embodied in the building’s
materials and construction (Architecture
2030 Challenge for Products). Many experts
point out that the next 20 years are expected
to be a crucial time in the struggle against
climate change.
Reducing the embodied carbon
emissions of materials has an important
role to play in slowing global climate
change by lowering the amount of carbon
dioxide being released into the atmosphere
and doing it as quickly as possible. To that
end, targeted information that enables
comparison of building products based on
their embodied energy and other impacts is
a pressing need.
Wood and Environmental Product Declarations
Photo by Gord Wylie
Due to performance and energy efficiency
gains, buildings are using much less
operating energy. This places a greater
significance on embodied energy since
it becomes a higher proportion of the
building’s total life cycle energy use.
gypsum wallboard. A Product Category
could be material-based (such as wood
products) or component-based (such as
wall framing). The creation of PCRs is a
rigorous process guided by ISO standards
and, in some cases, other regional standards
or protocols.
Program Operator
A body that conducts a Type III
Environmental Declaration Program is
called the Program Operator, and can
be a company, a group of companies, an
industrial sector or trade association,
public authority or agency, or independent
scientific body or other organization (ISO
14025). Program Operators develop and
publish PCRs.
side-by-side comparison across multiple
criteria (for example, sodium, calories,
saturated fat, etc.).
Building product EPDs make
environmental information available in
the same neutral, transparent manner. But
building materials and products are much
more complex than a cereal or frozen food
product, and much more dependent on
how the product is actually used. At the
same time, building products even in the
same category do differ radically in their
environmental impact. EPDs capture these
EPDs in the Building Industry
In this course, the focus is on EPDs created
by building product manufacturers or
industry groups, to be used by architects,
engineers, specifiers, and builders to
evaluate and compare LCA information on
building products. EPDs are often compared
to nutrition labels on food products, and the
comparison for building products is valid in
some ways. The information is neutral, and
presented in a standardized format so that
one product can be compared to another. A
food nutrition label does not state whether
a food is good or bad, or deserves a “Good
Food Badge.” It merely states the nutritional
properties of the food and enables a fair
4
Developing an EPD: steps and participants
impacts by establishing clear categories, and
defining scope and boundaries for the LCA
information. As more PCRs and EPDs are
developed, direct side-by-side comparisons
are becoming easier for products serving
similar functional roles under the same
PCR. But even now, it is possible to use
the results reported in EPDs to make more
informed product selection decisions.
As mentioned earlier, EPDs can be
created for all types of products and
services—from building materials to
equipment, flooring, and other finishing
elements. The PCR is established and the
LCA data gathered and communicated
in the EPD. When properly structured
and verified against the same PCR, the
EPD for one alternative can be compared
against the EPD for another. The key is
that the functional unit must be the same
for relevant comparison. Products are
components of buildings and therefore
must be considered within a system at
the building level, providing the same
functionality, in accordance with the
specific criteria in the ISO standards.
EPDs are constituted in accordance
with sets of standard PCRs to ensure
that EPDs of products produced by
different organizations in the same
functional use category use the same
scope of data and metrics. This supports
consistency within an industry and
enables comparison of products via the
use of EPDs. The PCR process and the
use of ISO 14040 peer-reviewed LCAs
make EPDs the most accurate form of
environmental declaration available.
Many new PCRs are being created in
the building industry. The number of full-
Wood and Environmental Product Declarations
Photo by Gord Wylie
Continuing Education
Global EPDs
EPDs are currently being developed
worldwide, through various
mechanisms. Many are developed
by independent organizations, while
others are developed within highly
organized frameworks. EPDs have
momentum in Europe and Asia, while
North America is taking its initial steps.
A key to EPD development is the
creation of a national infrastructure,
including standards and Life Cycle
Inventory (LCI) databases.
fledged, published EPDs is also growing.
Current building industry EPDs include
ceiling tiles, office chairs, carpet, lighting
systems, concrete, and many others.
The North American wood industry has
completed and published several EPDs to
date, including: softwood lumber, glulam,
western red cedar decking and siding,
softwood plywood, and oriented strand
board (OSB).
EPDs simplify comparison for
information users. They are specifically
designed to be brief documents, and to
convey relatively complex LCA information
in a simple, concise way. But producing
EPDs is no simple matter for the product
manufacturer. Only manufacturers
prepared to produce extensive LCA
information for their products, to submit it
to independent third-party scrutiny, and to
divulge information that many companies
might consider highly confidential, have
so far created EPDs. But they are doing
so because the advantages of providing
information in the EPD format in the
building industry are growing.
Why EPDs Now?
On one hand, the proliferation of ecolabels
is a positive sign, indicating the desire of
both consumers and businesses to make
sustainable choices. But it can also be
confusing and counterproductive for
decision makers all along the chain. So
much information is available now about
products that at first glance it might be
difficult to understand why we need yet
another ecolabel. There are currently
more than 500 ecolabels worldwide, with
about 100 in the U.S. alone. Many have
proved extremely valuable for raising both
awareness and performance in a wide range
of products.
But as sophistication in design and
product manufacturing has increased,
along with awareness and demand from
clients and the public, it becomes obvious
that the information available is not as
transparent and useful as it could be. Some
are outright greenwashing. Some are based
on a manufacturer’s claims, policies, or
intentions, and although these are often true
indicators of environmental consciousness,
they are focused on the particular market
needs of the company. Even some excellent
programs are limited in certain ways. They
may focus only on a “single attribute”
such as energy use or low volatile organic
compounds (VOCs), or they may award
seals that require knowledge of the
program’s aims and procedures to evaluate.
A 2011 study by BuildingGreen,
an independent sustainable design
information source, highlighted the
importance of backing up claims with
third-party verification and providing clear
documentation of green characteristics.
The study found growing distrust of
product information, frustration about
lack of transparency, and confusion
about the overwhelming number of
standards and labels.
Ecolabels have traditionally been aimed
at consumers, but they are also becoming
Europe
A number of European countries
have all components of an EPD
infrastructure in place, especially
Sweden, Italy, France, Germany, and
the UK (CME 2010). Sweden was the
earliest, and led the creation of the
international EPD network. The EU
is working to ensure compatibility
among databases and harmonization
of EPD programs. France has
developed an EPD-based national
strategy for increasing the importance
of environmental data in consumer
choices and product manufacturing,
and is the first EU nation to move
towards mandatory EPDs.
Asia and Pacific
Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, and
Australia have some or all of an EPD
infrastructure in place. Japan has spent
significant federal dollars on a national
database and the advancement of its
EPD program, EcoLeaf.
important in business-to-business and
business-to-government purchasing
decisions. Clearly, science-based, thirdparty-reviewed information is required.
EPDs fulfill this function, making
evaluation of environmental impacts
of products accurate and transparent.
They also give a better picture of overall
environmental impact. A product
may have recycled content, for example,
yet require so much fossil fuel to
transport that any benefit is outweighed.
EPDs can also lead to reduced
environmental impacts. When a product
undergoes the life cycle assessment
necessary to create an EPD, the
manufacturer main gain valuable insight
into “hot spots”—i.e., points at which
5
Wood and Environmental Product Declarations
Impact Assessment Categories
Impact Category Indicators
Characterization Model
Global
Warming
Potential
Calculates global warming potential of all greenhouse gasses
that are recognized by the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change. The characterization model scales substances
that include methane and nitrous oxide to the common unit
of kg CO2 equivalents.
Ozone
Depletion
Potential
Calculates potential impact of all substances that contribute to
stratospheric ozone depletion. The characterization model
scales substances that include chlorofluorocarbon,
hydrochlorofluorocarbon, chlorine, and bromine to the common
unit of kg CFC-11 equivalents.
Potential
Calculates potential impacts of all substances that contribute
scales substances that include sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and
ammonia to the common unit of H+ moles equivalents.
Smog
Potential
Calculates potential impacts of all substances that contribute to
photochemical smog potential. The characterization model scales
substances that include nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds to the common unit of kg O3 equivalents.
Eutrophication
Potential
Calculates potential impacts of all substances that contribute to
eutrophication potential. The characterization model scales substances that include nitrates and phosphates to the common unit
of kg N equivalents.
Impact Category Indicators Table from the Softwood Lumber EPD: The life cycle impact
assessment (LCIA) results are calculated for impact category indicators such as global
warming potential and smog potential. These results provide general, but quantifiable,
indications of potential environmental impacts. The various indicators and means of
characterizing the impacts are summarized in this table.
processes could be made more efficient and
more environmentally benign.
EPDs are expressions of commitment
to long-term sustainability and
positive environmental stewardship.
The information contained in EPDs is
quantifiable and verifiable—but it is
not the final word, by any means. EPDs
are complementary to other third-party
independent certifications such Energy Star
labels and forest certification programs
(for example, Forest Stewardship Council,
Sustainable Forestry Initiative, and
Programme for the Endorsement of
Forest Certification). EPDs remain only
one of many reporting mechanisms, and
product certification continues to serve
important functions. Products have other
impacts besides those covered by EPDs,
involving human and social values such as
fair practices, biodiversity, and many others.
In the case of wood products, for
instance, sustainably managing forests with
future generations in mind, conserving
biodiversity, and protecting other values
related to forests have great worth and
complement the parameters measured in an
EPD. Together, EPDs and forest certification
provide a more complete picture of the
environmental attributes of a forest product.
Putting EPDs to Work
Environmentally conscious architects,
engineers, and specifiers often do their
own extensive research related to the
6
environmental attributes of products
and materials they select. Even the most
committed professionals cannot effectively
lower carbon emissions and other negative
impacts of building design and construction
unless they have a true understanding
of what those impacts are. EPDs are an
important additional tool.
In other parts of the world, EPDs and
other environmental labels play a key role
on a national level (see sidebar “Global
EPDs”). In the U.S., there are currently a
number of initiatives in both the public and
private sectors. Codes are driving demand
for verified LCA information on products,
notable examples of which include the
California Green Building Code (CALGreen),
the International Green Construction Code
(IgCC) for commercial buildings, and the
International Code Council’s ICC 700—the
National Green Building Standard aimed at
residential and multifamily construction.
Two initiatives in the private sector are
also driving both the development and use
of EPDs:
2030 Challenge for Products:
Architecture 2030 issued the “2030
Challenge” program calling for changes in
building design and construction to achieve
net zero carbon emissions by 2030. The 2030
Challenge for Products aims to reduce the
embodied carbon in building products by 50
percent over the same time period.
The plan calls for participating
manufacturers to develop accurate and
comparative data on the embodied carbon
of their products. Industry groups are
developing PCRs and ultimately EPDs to
standardize data across product categories
and to track progress toward the embodied
energy goals. More information is available
at the 2030 Challenge Information Hub, a
joint effort of BuildingGreen, Architecture
2030 and the Healthy Building Network (see
the list of resources at the end of this CEU).
USGBC LEED: Among the new credits
proposed for the Material & Resources
section of the upcoming U.S. Green
Building Council’s Leadership in Energy
and Environmental Design (LEED®) v4
rating system is Building Product Disclosure
and Optimization – Environmental Product
Declarations. The credit would reward
project teams at various levels for selecting
products that have EPDs.
Meanwhile, LEED Pilot Credit 52
Material Multi-Attribute Assessment gives
architects the opportunity to gain points
immediately by using EPDs (required
for at least 20 products) to document
performance. For example, Option 1.
Environmental Product Declaration
outlines the increasing point contribution
available for three types of EPDs:
 Product-specific life cycle assessment
(valued at ¼ product)
 I ndustry-wide generic third-party
certified Type III EPDs (valued at ½
product)
 For the highest contribution, productspecific third-party certified Type III
EPDs (valued at 1 product)
Photo by Craig Carmichael
The North America wood industry has
produced EPDs for softwood lumber, glue
laminated timber, softwood plywood,
oriented strand board, and western red
cedar decking and siding.
Cradle-to-gate product system for kiln-dried,
CRADLE-TO-GATE
PRODUCT
SYSTEM
planed
softwood
lumber
FOR KILN-DRIED, PLANED SOFTWOOD LUMBER
Anatomy of an EPD
Program Operator Certification
While EPDs are owned by the manufacturer
(“declaration holder”), they are verified
by a third-party, independent Program
Operator, as discussed above. Program
Operators develop and own the PCRs.
For the wood EPDs discussed here, the
Program Operators are UL Environment
and FPInnovations, two of a small number
of Program Operators currently issuing
EPDs in the U.S. and Canada. The Program
Operator’s responsibilities are set out in
the standards, and involve setting product
category rules, reviewing and verifying
EPDs, and in general ensuring that the steps
laid out in the standards are followed.
One of the most important
responsibilities of the Program Operator is
the development of the Product Category
Rules. The product category will describe
the scope and methodology of the LCA
information, including the attributes of
the range of products covered, and the
ways they will be measured and described.
These rules make it possible for information
Forest
Management
thinning, fertilization
Electricity
Energy
gasoline, diesel
Ancillary Materials
lubricants, fertilizers
Logging
felling, transport to landing
Planting
including site preperation
Roundwood
logs on truck
Transportation
Electricity
Log Yard
manufacturing facility
Energy
diesel, wood, fuel liquefied
petroleum gas, natural gas
Sawmill
debarking and primary log
breakdown
Kiln-Drying
Product Manufacturing
Governing Standards
The standard governing Type III EPDs
is ISO 14025. For building products, ISO
21930 specifically addresses PCR and EPD
standards for the building construction
sector. The first pages of the EPD typically
introduce the sponsoring organization
or company, cite the standards, and
summarize the information included, such
as the specific LCA results covered in
the report.
Seedling
greenhouse operations
Resource Generation & Extraction
In this section we’ll use new third-party
certified EPDs recently released for generic
forest products as examples to explain the
major standardized elements of an EPD
and the information they contain. The
North American forest products industry
is producing generic industry EPDs for
structural and non-structural wood
products. The reports discussed in this
course are on softwood lumber and glulam.
Distinct from these generic third-party
certified EPDs would be a product-specific
third-party certified EPD, which would
reflect the parameters for an individual
company’s manufacturing facility.
Although different organizations can
choose to present the reports in their own
formats, some major elements will appear in
every EPD:
Continuing Education
For more information about the pilot
credit, see the list of resources at the end of
this course.
Wood and Environmental Product Declarations
Cradle-to-gate life cycle
of softwood lumber EPD
illustrating the inputs and
outputs through the various
stages of the life cycle: The
lumber EPD includes LCA
results for all processes up
to the point that planed
and dry lumber is packaged
and ready for shipment at
the manufacturing gate; the
cradle-to-gate product system
includes forest management,
logging, transportation of
logs to lumber mills, sawing,
kiln-drying, and planing. The
delivery of the product to the
customer, its use, and eventual
end-of-life processing are
excluded from the cradle-togate portion of the life cycle.
This exclusion means the carbon
stored in the wood itself is not
accounted for since the benefit
of sequestration is not realized
at the point of manufacturing,
but occurs over the life cycle of
the product.
Planing
Softwood Lumber
dried, planed
System Boundary
about products in the same category to be
effectively compared.
Description of Industry and Product:
In the wood product examples, this section
describes the North American forest
products industry and includes a detailed
description of the specific lumber product,
its manufacturing processes, units of
measure, dimensions, and components (e.g.,
wood and glue in the case of glulam).
Scope of LCA
In general, LCA information in EPDs will
either be cradle-to-gate or cradle-to-grave.
As with many business-to-business EPDs,
the ones used in this course as examples
focus on cradle-to-gate: the life cycle up
to the point that the product has been
manufactured and is ready for shipment.
Cradle-to-gate excludes data about delivery
of the product, its use and its end-of-life
processing. The end user of the product can
take the cradle-to-gate EPD information
and add the rest of the story to complete the
cradle-to-grave picture.
Methodology of the Underlying LCA
This section documents the methodology
of the underlying LCA used, including
assumptions such as the declared unit,
system boundaries, data quality, aggregation
of regional results, and other indicators such
as how biogenic carbon is addressed.
LCA Results
The heart of the EPD is the LCA results.
The Impact Assessment Categories are
determined by the ISO and EU standards
and specified in the PCR. In these examples,
indicators include global warming
7
Wood and Environmental Product Declarations
Lumber EPD—Snapshot of Certification
Program operator
UL Environment
Declaration holder
American Wood Council and Canadian Wood
Council
Declaration number
11CA41590.102.1
Declared product
North American Softwood Lumber
Reference PCR
FPInnovations: 2011. Product Category Rules
(PCR) for preparing an Environmental Product
Declaration for North American Structural and
Architectural Wood Products, Version 1 (UN
CPC 31, NAICS 321), November 8, 2011
Date of issue
April 16, 2013
Period of validity
5 years
measure of the environmental attributes of
a product. Other third-party certifications
such as forest certification are essential and
complementary, and provide additional
information about environmental
performance. When EPDs are read in
conjunction with other certifications, they
represent the most complete picture yet of
a product’s environmental performance. As
such, they are helping to usher in a new era
of disclosure and transparency.
Additional Resources
For information on development and use of
PCRs and EPDs, consult the following:
Product information and building physics
Information about basic material and the material’s origin
Content of the declaration
Description of the product’s manufacture
Indication of product processing
Information about the in-use conditions
Life cycle assessment results
Testing results and verifications
The Declaration page of the North American Softwood Lumber EPD specifies such things as
the Program Operator, owner of the EPD, the reference PCR, and the independent verifier.
potential, ozone depletion potential,
acidification potential, smog potential
and eutrophication (excess nutrients that
promote harmful plant growth in water
bodies) potential. In addition to these
indicators, the LCA results present total
primary energy consumption and material
resources consumption, including fresh
water.
Summary
An EPD includes information about
both product attributes and production
impacts, and provides consistent and
comparable information to industrial
customers and end-use consumers
regarding environmental performance. The
nature of EPDs also allows summation of
environmental impacts along a product’s
entire supply chain—a powerful feature
that greatly enhances the utility of LCAbased information.
To begin taking advantage of the
usefulness of EPDs, and to encourage their
widespread development, designers can
use the LEED Pilot Credit, and discuss
EPDs with product manufacturers,
asking whenever possible for verified LCA
information compliant with international
standards. Designers, organizations,
and manufacturers can commit to
the Architecture 2030 Challenge, and
participate in the rapid developments on
this front.
As more EPDs are developed, the amount
of information expands and, in time, a
virtuous circle commences. Better ability to
evaluate and compare leads to more rigorous
purchasing and specifying, which in turn
leads to better products manufactured by
companies increasingly eager to document
and present the evidence of their superior
environmental performance. EPDs are
not necessarily the “be all and end all”
American Wood Council and Canadian
Wood Council EPDs (http://www.awc.org/
greenbuilding/epd.html) for Wood Products
UL Environment (http://www.ul.com/
global/eng/pages/offerings/businesses/
environment/services/certification/epd/)
Western Red Cedar Lumber Association
EPDs for Cedar Products (http://www.
wrcla.org/cedar_benefits/environment/
benefits_of_wood/default.htm)
FPInnovations (http://www.fpinnovations.
ca/files/html/en/fpsolutions/PB_edp_
en.html)
Architecture 2030 Challenge (http://
architecture2030.org/)
BuildingGreen 2030 Challenge for
Products Information Hub (http://www2.
buildinggreen.com/topic/2030-challenge)
USGBC LEED Pilot Credit 52 (http://
www.usgbc.org/node/2606888?return=/
pilotcredits)
The reThink Wood initiative is a coalition of interests representing North America’s wood products industry and related stakeholders. The
coalition shares a passion for wood and the forests it comes from. Innovative new technologies and building systems have enabled longer
wood spans, taller walls, and higher buildings, and continue to expand the possibilities for wood use in construction. www.rethinkwood.com
American Wood Council is the leading developer of engineering data, technology, and standards on structural wood products in the U.S.
These tools are used widely by design professionals, building officials, and manufacturers of traditional and engineered wood products to
ensure the safe and efficient design and use of wood structural components. www.awc.org
The Canadian Wood Council is the national association representing manufacturers of Canadian wood products used in construction. Through
its member associations, the Council represents those manufacturers. www.cwc.ca
8
Canadian
Wood
Council
Reprinted from the July/August 2013 issue of GreenSource
Conseil
canadien
du bois