Environmental product declarations for building materials and products: u.s. policy and market drivers

Author(s): K.L. Simonen and L.M. Haselbach
Paper category: symposium
Book title: International Symposium on Life Cycle Assessment and Construction – Civil engineering and buildings
Editor(s): A. Ventura and C. de la Roche
Print ISBN: 978-2-35158-127-8
e-ISBN: 978-2-35158-128-5
Publisher: RILEM Publications SARL
Pages: 197 – 204
Total Pages: 8
Language: English

Abstract: Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) hold promise to designers, specifiers and policy makers looking to reduce the environmental impact of building materials and products. The U.S. government is not developing a national EPD program. Integrating life cycle assessment (LCA) methods and data to create meaningful EPDs is complex. The lack of centralized leadership coupled with the technical and policy complexity has lead to both industry confusion about and innovative approaches towards the development and use of EPDs. Leadership from industry, academia and environmental non-profits coupled with policy from State and Federal governments is shaping U.S. development. This paper outlines the current state of U.S. practice regarding EPDs in the building industry and is followed by an analysis of drivers motivating the development of building industry specific EPDs. The authors provide some observations about the opportunities and challenges to developing harmonized and rigorous EPDs within both U.S. and global context.

Online publication: 2012
Publication Type: full_text
Public price (Euros): 0.00