Environmental product declarations (EPDs) are like nutrition labels for products providing life cycle impacts of the product, from raw material extraction and manufacturing to the use of the product until it is recycle or taken to a landfill. The practice of providing these is very widespread in Europe and Japan but not in the United States. Still, there are organizations such as the Green Standard (www.thegreenstandard.org) that provide administration of EPDs in compliance with ISO 14025. The ISO 14000 provides standards for environmental management systems, which govern such the environmental categories covered in EPDs.

     According to the Environmental Business News June 2009 edition, the first product manufacturer in the United States to undergo the process was InterfaceFLOR, which audited its Convert carpet products. An EPD under ISO 14025 includes information on the materials, energy, and water used in making and shipping products as well as its effect on global warming and other environmental impacts.

     The product manufacturer could become more increasingly regulated or pressured to go through with this process as regulators and non-governmental organizations look to the manufacturing sector for a reduction in embodied energy in processes and a lessening in environmental impacts.

     Green Apple Group can assist manufacturers with the process of determining how green a product is and what it would take to innovate and produce a greener product based on an audit of the life cycle of a product. 

 

Environmental Product Declarations, green products, life cycle, ISO 14000, ISO 14025