First of all, clarification of what is meant by construction products: Construction products are building materials, components and installations as well as construction sets that are manufactured to be permanently installed in structural (civil engineering) installations and whose use can have an impact on the requirements for structural installations. Prefabricated structures that are manufactured to be connected to the ground (e.g. prefabricated houses, prefabricated garages and silos) are also considered construction products.

An EPD (Environmental Product Declaration) is a document that describes the environmentally relevant properties of an individual product in the form of neutral and objective data. The aim is to use the data to record the effects of the product on the environment more precisely and thus to provide experts such as architects and engineers as well as owners with a basis for the planning and evaluation of buildings.

EPDs are based on so-called life cycle assessments. These assess the entire life cycle of a product in terms of its environmental impact, from the extraction of raw materials to recycling, disposal or reuse. All processes and by-products associated with the product, such as transport and packaging, are recorded.

In the ecological assessment, the life cycle assessments of buildings, the environmental impacts from the use of a building and the life cycle assessments of the building products used are the decisive factors.

More and more manufacturers of products are turning to EPDs to make their product attractive in the increasingly sustainable and environmentally conscious building sector and to be approved for funded projects in the first place.

The topic is complex and places high demands on planners and construction companies. Not every product that appears environmentally friendly is sustainable in the overall context of planning, site selection and type of use. EPDs help with the necessary data to make the concrete calculations for the individual case.

What does the life cycle assessment of your product look like? Does your product have an EPD? How sustainable and environmentally conscious are you planning?