Expectations for EPD Development from a Fenestration Manufacturer’s Perspective
Five steps to your first EPD — and why it's worth the investment
Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) have become a cornerstone to compliance with USGBC’s LEED v5 Materials and Resources’ Building Product Selection and Procurement (MRc4) credit. Fenestration manufacturers are strengthening their sustainability stance by investing in this documentation. Having had experience going down this path, here are tips on what to expect in your first steps in developing EPDs.
Define your scope
In a perfect world, we’d like to provide information for each door, storefront, curtain wall, and every other product. In reality, choices must be made. Generating an EPD for a single product can take thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours. Each EPD then must be renewed, for an additional fee, every five years.
Consider defining your scope through one of two approaches:
- Provide EPDs for your best-selling products and add others as needed, or
- Provide an EPD covering a product group with similar features, such as a curtain wall series
Select your PCR
A Product Category Rule (PCR) document establishes the definitions and framework to transparently and accurately compare products. PCRs are collaboratively developed and brand agnostic, allowing for a fair comparison of different manufacturers’ products.
Building products can have more than one PCR, and it is important to use what best aligns with your and your competitors’ products. NSF 1102-23 is the current PCR for fenestration assemblies.
Map your process
To gather the data necessary for an EPD, you’ll need to map your manufacturing process from beginning to end. This includes all materials purchased, facilities and the processes that turn those materials into finished products, as well as the transportation and energy used in manufacturing each product. Documenting scrap and material recovery streams is important, too.
Partner with an LCA consultant
This “process map” will set you up for success when creating Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs), which consider production scope from cradle to gate.
An LCA consultant helps organize the information you’ve gathered and proposes a cost and timeline to generate the LCA and EPDs. LCA consultants also can recommend third-party validators for compliance. These independent third parties confirm the LCA was conducted following the agreed-upon PCR and in compliance with ISO standards 14025 and 21930.
A good LCA partner also guides you through the process of data collection. They develop a template based on the PCR and account for each process-mapped data set. A key concept to remember is “mass balancing” of material or energy inputs and their related outputs — product or scrap, or energy and emissions.
Mass Balancing Examples
While the process may feel complex at first, methodically approaching EPD development helps manufacturers gain more than documentation. You also gain insight into your operations, greater transparency with customers and a stronger position in an increasingly sustainability-driven marketplace.
