Environmental Product Declarations

Debra, let me try to answer your question, and please feel free to clarify what you're after.An EPD is a document produced according to certain rules. The EPD is the document you need for a given product. That's all. You don't need a certification. The manufacturer needs to provide it. Many can simply be found online or through tools like our company's GreenSpec directory.If subs are selecting products that I think you would want to take a team approach on gathering products with EPDs so that you meet the credit threshold.

Does this mean that project specifications should ask for a "blanket" approach to contractor-submitted EPDs? That is, for EVERY product specified? If not for all, which categories of products/materials, are likely to be the most fruitful source of EPDs? For a core and shell project, that may limit the field of available items (if one is trying for Option 1 Credit). Am I correct on this? What I'm trying to determine is a good method (via specifications requirements) to give a contractor bidding a LEED project some idea of how much effort s/he will have to expend to gather up the necessary documentation. It doesn't seem fair to ask them to submit EPDs for everything in the project.

As a specifier and a LEED manager, I agree. The project team needs to target what products carry EPDs that fit their project and specify those products. You need to narrow down your focus in order to be effective and eliminate people wasting their time trying to find things that don't exist. For example, much of Division 09 product have EPDs completed, for example. We'll concentrate there and see how many of the 20 we can get. Then we'll go looking for others. What is difficult is finding multiple products within a category that have EPDs when you are specifying a public project that needs at least 3 products in order to have a competitive bid. For example, I can get an EPD from one glass manufacturer but not the others in our spec master. I have to have a competitive bid so I can't sole source the one guy. However, if he wins the bid, I certainly want to collect that EPD. So we'll add EPDs to 08 80 00 Glazing and understand that it isn't one of our 'Top 20'.

What ever happened to Health Product Declaration forms? It was such a thing but it isn't listed in the Reference Guide. I can find an USGBC course for v4 online. I guess we'll throw it into our reporting language.

HPDs moved to the next credit.

Is EPD also the same with VOC test or emission test that needs a certain procedure or test before receiving a result or declaration of the materials or products?

Or how to identify if the product or material has EPD? Badly needed your reply. Thank you.

Ann, if you haven't already, I'd recommend reading our guidance and suggested research tools for approaching this credit: https://leeduser.buildinggreen.com/credit/NC-v4/MRc2 To identify if a product has an EPD, look it up in one of the major EPD databases that we discuss. There are criteria the EPD must meet, which are discussed in our guidance.