Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)

A published, third-party-verified summary of a product's life cycle impacts, following defined product category rules.

An EPD takes an LCA and turns it into a comparable, published document. Two things make it more than a report: it follows product category rules, so like is compared with like, and it is verified by an independent third party.

That verification is what distinguishes an EPD from a self-declared footprint. It is also why an EPD is slower and more expensive to produce, and why it is usually reserved for products where buyers ask for one — construction materials above all.

A self-declared PCF and an EPD are not interchangeable. Calling an unverified figure an EPD is a claim about who checked it, and that claim is checkable.

Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) The greenhouse gases attributable to one unit of a product across a defined part of its life cycle.
Life cycle assessment (LCA) A method for quantifying the environmental impacts of a product across its life cycle — not only carbon.
Verifiable, not verified A record anyone can check for themselves is not the same as one an accredited body has audited. Both are useful; they are not interchangeable.