The EPD must be verified in order to be considered an EPD. It must be listed with a Program Operator to qualify as an EPD. Without that, the material can be considered to have an LCA completed for it, but not a full EPD.

The LEED guidance on baselines is very high-level. From our experience, as long as the baseline is a fair point of comparison for the building, it can be used. Examples of this include a similar building that serves the same function—like an office building. For the projects that were non-standard building types, like an airport terminal, we have seen teams use their first design as the baseline, evaluate that, then suggest changes to reduce impacts to meet the 10% reduction target in GWP and two other categories.

Yes, it is possible to still pursue the LCA at these later stages, but it is harder because changes to the design are harder to implement. There still could be an opportunity to change the sources of the materials (different manufacturers) or material types at this late stage. It just requires closer coordination with the architects and engineers to accomplish.
 

Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a systematic method that takes a full life-cycle approach to evaluate the environmental benefits and burdens from the production, transportation, use, and end of life of goods and services. Life-cycle costing (LCC) or a life-cycle cost assessment (LCCA) also employs a life-cycle approach, but applies it to the direct monetary costs from a product or service from production through transport, use, and end of life and does not include environmental impacts.