EPDs in sustainable construction

An EPD (Environmental Product Declaration) documents the environmental properties of a building material. It is an important tool for consultants and developers who want to know the environmental impact of the different building materials used in a building project.  

At Knauf DANOLINE we offer product specific EPDs that document the life cycle of our acoustic products. Our EPDs have been developed and verified by an independent 3rd party in accordance with the latest European standard EN15804+A2:2019. All EPDs have been renewed in 2022.    

Improved environmental data prove of several energy optimizations

Since our EPDs were last updated in 2014, Knauf DANOLINE production has undergone several energy optimizations that help lowering our product's carbon footprint on production stage with up to 48%. One of the major steps was completed in 2020 with a new heat recovery system that supplies 1,200 private homes with waste heat from our production facility in Denmark.        

Recycling potential with negative carbon footprint.

Knauf DANOLINE acoustic products are made of gypsum, a material which composition and qualities remain the same over time. That is why our products are recyclable and can be used in production of new gypsum products after end-life. The recycling potential of our products therefore record a negative carbon footprint in the life-cycle assessment.       

Choose product specific EPDs

There are two types of EPDs - product specific EPDs and industrywide EPDs. A product specific EPD is developed for a specific product from a specific manufacturer, whereas an industrywide EPD represents an average (or worst-case) scenario for a specific industry or product type.         

You therefore get more accurate data on a building life-cycle assessment by applying product specific EPDs instead of industrywide EPDs. Also in connection with certification of buildings, eg. DGNB cerfitication, you will need to add extra percentages, using generic data rather than product specific data. 

For example, DGNB dictates the use of uncertainty factors for generic data with a factor 1.3 and for industry EPD’s a factor 1.1. Only product specific EPD’s do not have any factors added.  

EPDs are not equally informative 

It is important to note, that an EPD is not a quality assurance of a product being sustainable. An EPD is an objective representation of a product’s environmental impact. A product’s sustainability can only be evaluated by comparing it to other functionally equivalent products.

Not all EPDs document a product's entire life cycle. Up until now, it has only been mandatory to document the environmental impact of a product's early life stages: from raw material supply to product production. The later life stages: from transport to building site, use, end-of-life and recycling-potential have been optional. You should therefore take care when comparing EPDs, and make sure to look at the environmental impact in the different life-cycle stages seperatly. As of October 2022, manufacturers are required to include a product's environmental impact in the end-of-life stage when publishing new EPDs.

Read more on EPDs in sustainable construction at www.epddanmark.dk/uk.