What is an EPD?

An EPD is a verified, public summary of a product's environmental impact over its life cycle. It documents the impacts involved in:

• Making the product (what goes into the product).
• Using and disposing or recycling of the product.

These impacts cover a range of environmental indicators including the product's potential to emit carbon, pollute air and waterways, and deplete natural resources like water.

EPDs are based on international standards (ISO 14025 and for building materials EN 15804) and are independently verified. This makes them reputable, trusted sources of information. Industries, companies and governments recognise EPDs and often specify their use (e.g. in tender documents and contracts).

EPDs are registered in a central system by an EPD programme and publicly available.

Resene's EPDs (and the underlying Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) are being prepared by ThinkStep ANZ who are based in Wellington NZ and independently verified by Life Cycle Logic in Australia, then registered with EPD Australasia.

What is Life Cycle Assessment?

Life Cycle Assessment quantifies the environmental impacts of your product, service or organisation over its entire life cycle and value chain. It is a science-based, whole-systems approach to understanding and addressing environmental issues.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) measures the environmental footprint of a product or service over its life cycle. For a product, this lifecycle will generally involve:

• Extracting, processing, and transporting the raw materials used to make the product.
• Manufacturing and distributing the product (to wholesalers, retailers and consumers).
• Using, repairing, and maintaining the product.
• Disposing of the product or recycling it at the end of its life.

LCA bridges the gap between complex environmental information (e.g. carbon emissions and waste) and the information the business needs to make decisions (e.g. about market share and product design).

It helps to avoid trade-offs, e.g. reducing the carbon footprint while increasing other environmental impacts such as ozone depletion. It will help you understand the environmental impact of a product or service across its lifecycle so you can manage your business opportunities and risks.

LCA involves four steps. They are based on global standards (ISO 14040 and ISO 14044):

1. Goal and scope. At this step, the study is confirmed. What product is being measured? Which stages in the product's life cycle? (Manufacturing only? Manufacturing and distributing?) Which impacts are of interest? (Energy used? Chemicals discharged?) Who is interested in the results? How will the results be used?

2. Inventory analysis. At this step, data is collected data: the flows into the system (e.g. raw materials and energy) and out of the system (the product, any by-products, waste, direct emissions).

3. Impact assessment. At this step, the impacts are calculated (e.g. carbon footprint).

4. Interpretation. At this step, the results of the impact assessment are analysed and used to identify ways to improve the business.

Thanks to Gayathri, Caroline, Robin and Chanjief of the Thinkstep team, independent verifier Andrew D. Moore of Life Cycle Logic and Kelly of EPD Australasia for their assistance in creating and publishing these EPDs.