Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) Usage in Early Building Design Stages: Review of Effects on the Environmental Life Cycle of a Multi-Residential Building

Authors

  • Gabrielle Pichette NSERC Industrial Research Chair on Eco-responsible Wood Construction (CIRCERB), Laval University, Department of Wood and Forest Sciences, 2425 De La Terrasse Street, Québec City, QC G1V 0A6, Canada
  • Pierre Blanchet NSERC Industrial Research Chair on Eco-responsible Wood Construction (CIRCERB), Laval University, Department of Wood and Forest Sciences, 2425 De La Terrasse Street, Québec City, QC G1V 0A6, Canada
  • Gatien Geraud Essoua Essoua Vertima, 604 St-Viateur, Quebec City, QC G2L 2K8, Canada
  • Charles Breton NSERC Industrial Research Chair on Eco-responsible Wood Construction (CIRCERB), Laval University, Department of Wood and Forest Sciences, 2425 De La Terrasse Street, Québec City, QC G1V 0A6, Canada

Keywords:

Embodied impact, Product category rules (PCR), Building information modeling (BIM), Whole building Life Cycle Assessment (WBLCA), Wood-based structures

Abstract

The building sector has seen recent growth in the number of published environmental product declarations (EPDs). EPDs share environmental data of construction materials, which can help building practitioners prioritize products with lower environmental impacts. However, EPDs rely on varying assumptions within their life cycle assessment (LCA). This study aimed to evaluate the use of EPDs as a data source instead of a generic data source and its effect on the life cycle impacts of a multi-residential building. This study focused on 19 North American EPDs of structural wood products. The impact assessment results found in the EPDs were compared to the Ecoinvent V3.8 database. The findings of the present study suggest that EPDs can generally be used without distinction compared to the data in the Ecoinvent V3.8 database. However, a few data were found to be outliers. In addition, EPDs of structural wood products only disclosed its manufacturing stage. Other life cycle stages, such as transport of the construction product, can have a significant impact on the building’s LCA. Therefore, using EPDs to assess building impacts is recommended over their direct comparison for practitioners to make more comprehensive decisions towards embodied impacts of buildings.

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Published

2023-10-17

Issue

Vol. 18 No. 4 (2023)

Section

Research Article or Brief Communication