IGBC has developed the EPD Ireland programme. This allows Irish producers to create an Environmental Product Declaration for their product, using Product Category Rules (PCR) for Ireland and have it verified and published on a national platform.
About the development of the EPD Ireland Programme
IGBC started developing the EPD Ireland programme in early 2017 with the support of EPA’s Green Enterprise programme. IGBC started an operational programme in March 2018 with the first EPD published under the programme in June 2018.
IGBC is an established programme operator audited by Eco Platform the organisation of European EPD programme operators to ensure the quality of the programme and its adherence to EN 15804, and maximise harmonisation of the quality of EPD programmes across Europe.
Why has IGBC developed EPD Ireland
EPD provide the data for carrying out Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and embodied carbon calculation at the building level. In 2015 IGBC developed a business plan to mainstream embodied carbon calculation in Ireland. This included 4 steps:
- Establish EPD programme to develop quality data
- Make available generic data where specific product information missing.
- Develop Calculation tools
- Provide training to professionals in the use of LCA.
IGBC is currently working on the 3rd and 4th steps. For what concern the calculation tool, we collaborated with One Click LCA which has released a Free Embodied Carbon tool called Planetary. The software includes all EPD Ireland’s data. In 2021 we also released Carbon Designer for Ireland, a free early-stage whole life cycle carbon assessment tool specifically developed for the Irish region.
IGBC has also digitalized all the existing EPD. The data are now hosted on ECO Portal, available to international specifiers. This allows the data from EPD Ireland to be integrated into BIM enabled software, making quality data available to Irish construction professionals using building level LCA.
Regarding LCA training for professionals, you can find a list of the upcoming ones here, called “Whole Life Carbon Training”.
Product Category Rules
All EPD developed and published by EPD Ireland must comply with the programme Product Category Rules (PCR). This document sets out the rules for developing EPD in Ireland. This states that I.S. EN 15804:2012 [1] and the associated guidance document CEN TR 16970:2016 form the core PCR with the supplementary requirements set out in the document including:
- Environmental impact categories that are mandatory for use in the environmental impacts in the Environmental Product Declarations (EPD).
- Resource use categories that are mandatory for inclusion in the EPDs.
- Life cycle stage modules that are mandatory for inclusion in the EPDs.
- Establishes default values for Module A4, transportation of goods from factory gate to place of use.
- Establishes default values for loss in the form of construction waste.
- Establishes default values for end of life scenarios waste to energy.
We have recently revised our PCR according to the new EN 15804 +A2 2019. This standard became mandatory in July 2022 and the main change includes reporting on the end of life modules and additional mandatory environmental indicators.
The document can be downloaded here: Product Category Rules – PCR-V 2.1 05.03.2022
Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) published a Complementary Product Category Rules for Bituminous Mixtures (c-PCR Bituminous Mixtures) through IGBC’s EPD Ireland programme.
Here you can find the Verification Checklist that the verifiers use to verify LCA Study for EPDs.
General Programme Instructions
This document sets out how the EPD Ireland programme is run in compliance with ISO 14025, the procedures for the EPD Ireland programme, independent review and verification of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), the independence and competencies of verifiers and other rules pertaining to the quality and independence of EPD. It sets out the scale of fees for verification, and publication of EPD through the EPD Ireland programme.
Please refer to this document for further information on the programme: General Programme Instructions V 2.0 17-08-2021
ECO Platform
IGBC is a member of Eco Platform the organisation of European EPD programme operators to ensure the quality of the programme and its adherence to EN 15804, and maximise harmonisation of the quality of EPD programmes across Europe. The EPD Ireland programme has been successfully audited by ECO Platform and EPD published by the programme can carry the ECO Platform logo. All EPD Ireland published EPD are simultaneously published on the ECO Platform website ensuring that the EPD are made visible to specifiers across Europe.
In late 2020, ECO Platform launched ECO Portal, a central access point for users to digital EPD data. All EPD Ireland’s EPD are available in digital format on this platform and here. We are also in the process of switching our EPD development process to a cloud base one.
IGBC independently appoints EPD verifiers to verify the LCA carried out by the manufacturer’s consultants once requested by the manufacturer. The EPD verifier follows a standard procedure and checklist to verify the LCA completed by the manufacturer’s consultant. The EPD Ireland programme’s Verifier Approval Committee have approved four highly experienced EPD and LCA experts as verifiers to its register of EPD verifiers.
Jane | Anderson |
Chris | Foster |
Kim | Allbury |
Marcel | Gómez Ferrer |
Callum | Hill |
Stephen | Forson |
For information on the verification and publication fees please see here.
The transition to EN15804 +A2 2019
EN15804 + A1 2012 is transitioned to EN15804 +A2 2019 in Summer 2022. EPD Ireland has developed the PCR for the revised standard and producers must now use the revised standard.
Does this mean that I need to update my existing EPD to EN 15804 +A2?
No, unless you wish to.
All EPD to EN15804 +A1 will remain valid for their 5-year period of validity. However, all EPD issued after Summer 2022 must be in the EN 15804 + A2 2019 format.
What impact does the EN15804 +A2 2019 have for building professionals?
Please note that the EN15978 (Sustainability of construction works. Assessment of environmental performance of buildings.) standard used by design professionals to calculate the full life cycle assessment of buildings also needs to be updated to match the changes to EN15804 +A2.
The work to update the EN15978 standard has started but will probably only come into use in 2024. This means that for the interim period, 15804+A1 data will continue to be used as not all the data in the revised version is considered compatible.
The EN15804+A2 categories are almost identical, however, the measurement units they are represented by, are different from the ones in EN 15804+A1.
This means that for producers who want to see their data used in building level LCA, it makes sense to continue to include data tables developed to the 15804 +A1 standard.
Can I publish EPD to both EN15804 A1 and A2?
Yes.
EPD Ireland has developed a template which allows for both data sets to be included in an EPD if producers wish to do this. There may be a small additional cost for the LCA consultant and for the verifier but there are no additional EPD Ireland publication charges if published within the one document.
Therefore, you have two choices.
- Publish your EPD to EN 15804 + A2 2019
- Publish your EPD to EN 15804 + A2 2019 including EN 15804 +A1 2013 results