Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs)

Transparent, verified data for sustainable decisions

Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) provide transparent, comparable, and third-party verified information about the environmental impact of our products throughout their life cycle. Based on Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) and aligned with international standards, they offer planners, engineers, and asset owners a reliable basis for designing and documenting sustainable water infrastructure.

Understanding EPD value

Why EPDs matter

EPDs translate complex environmental data into a structured, comparable format. Each declaration is based on a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), showing how a product performs across defined life-cycle stages – from raw materials and production to use and end-of-life. For long-lasting water and sewer networks, this level of transparency is essential. 

EPDs help to:

What defines quality

Not all EPDs are the same

EPDs follow strict international standards such as EN 15804 and ISO 14025. However, declarations differ in scope, system boundaries, and underlying assumptions. To use them correctly, it is important to understand how they are prepared and verified.

Credible EPDs are:

Only EPDs that meet these criteria allow robust and fair comparisons between products and systems.

Frequently Asked Questions

What to consider when working with EPDs

What is an EPD and what information does it contain?

An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) provides transparent and verified data about a product’s environmental impact throughout its life cycle. It typically includes CO₂ footprint (GWP), energy and water consumption, waste generation, life-cycle stages covered, and product specifications. An EPD is a declaration, not a label or rating.

Do all EPDs follow the same standard?

No. Each EPD must follow specific Product Category Rules (PCRs) and be verified by an approved third party according to ISO14025. Verification ensures consistency, credibility, and comparability.

What is the difference between an LCA and an EPD?

A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a scientific analysis that quantifies environmental impact across all life-cycle stages. An EPD is the standardised, third-party verified format used to communicate the LCA results.

Amiblu conducts a detailed LCA for each main product, covering raw materials, manufacturing, transport, and use.  The resulting data are then compiled into an EPD, which is registered and published through the recognised programme EPD-Global.

Why are EPDs important for pipe systems?

Pipes are long-lasting infrastructure components. EPDs allow planners to assess environmental impact during design, document performance for certification, and compare materials objectively.

What does “cradle-to-gate” and “cradle-to-grave” mean?

Cradle-to-gate covers all processes from raw material extraction to factory gate. Cradle-to-grave includes the entire life cycle, from production to end-of-life.

Important: The system boundaries of Amiblu’s EPDs are generally defined as ‘cradle‑to‑grave’, even if certain phases are legitimately reported as zero.

Why do some life-cycle phases show “0” in Amiblu EPDs?

Some stages are reported as zero because they are not applicable or have a negligible impact according to the relevant PCR. For example, GRP pipes require hardly any maintenance, and end-of-life impacts may be reported as zero under current rules.

Maintenance is shown as ‘0’ or ‘MND’ because the chosen scenario assumes no maintenance that would generate CO₂ or other impacts. End‑of‑life is reported as ‘0’ because the pipes are assumed to remain in the ground; if removal were required, the impacts would be significantly higher.

Amiblu EPD phases

General EPD modules according to EN15804

Can EPDs from similar or different materials be compared?

They can be compared only when system boundaries, PCRs, and functional units match. Comparisons without methodological alignment are not scientifically valid.

Tip: Always verify the applicable PCR and make sure that the EPDs being compared use identical standards (e.g. EN 15804 +A2) and the same life‑cycle modules.

Why are product-specific EPDs important?

Product-specific EPDs reflect real materials, processes, and dimensions. They provide more accurate and useful data for design and certification than generic declarations.

Why does Amiblu use Product Carbon Footprints (PCFs) in addition to Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs)?

A Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) quantifies the total greenhouse gas emissions of a product over its life cycle, focusing specifically on its global warming potential (GWP). GWP measures how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere over a defined period (typically 100 years) compared to CO₂ and is widely used in LCAs to compare the climate impact of materials and processes – lower values indicate a smaller contribution to climate change.

This makes PCFs particularly effective for comparing climate impacts and highlighting carbon-related innovations. In contrast, an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is also based on LCA but provides a broader, multi-impact evaluation, covering additional indicators such as resource use, water consumption, and acidification under standards such as ISO 14025. While this comprehensive approach offers a more complete environmental profile, it can make it more difficult to clearly highlight specific climate-related advantages, such as the carbon storage potential of bio-based materials.

Amiblu therefore uses PCF to qualify its PROX pipes, as it clearly captures the benefits of bio-based resins, which absorb CO₂ during their growth phase and can be accounted for as negative emissions. Our PCF methodology is in accordance with ISO 14067 and has been independently verified by TÜV. It is further supported by the mass-balance approach, widely used in the chemical industry. It tracks the proportion of bio-based material in a mixed production process and ensures that an equivalent amount is assigned to specific products, such as PROX. In this way, renewable inputs can be used efficiently at scale while still transparently reflecting their impact on the product’s carbon footprint.

Where can I find official EPD registers?

Amiblu EPDs are registered with recognised programme operators such as EPD-Global and the International EPD System.

Our LCA platform

Verified Life‑Cycle Data for 1,200+ Amiblu GRP Products

Amiblu has built one of the most comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) platforms in the GRP pipe industry. We have completed LCAs for more than 1,200 products and condensed these studies into standardised EU Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs).

Each declaration is based on independently verified LCA data and represents specific pipe dimensions and stiffness classes. This enables planners and asset owners to:

Amiblu EPDs are generally classified as cradle-to-grave, following the relevant PCRs. Some life-cycle stages may appear as zero where they are not applicable or have a negligible impact according to the standard.