EPD for Geberit products
EPDs: building blocks for green projects
01 August 2023
Swiss sanitary solutions’ provider Geberit believes that comprehensive, transparent and verifiable information on products and their ecological footprint is essential and environmental product declarations (EPDs) are an ideal way of meeting this requirement.
Sustainable products not only create added value for people and the environment, but also for the company itself, it says.
EPDs are building blocks for green buildings:
• EPDs provide standardised, quantified information on the life cycle assessments of individual products;
• An EPD contains both the ecological inventory of a product and the assessment of its ecological impact (for example, on climate change);
• The assessment is made in accordance with the EN 15804 standard for construction products, and is checked externally;
• EPDs create transparency and allow products to be compared in terms of their life cycle assessment, which makes them important for building owners and environmental experts.
What are environmental product declarations?
EPDs provide information on the ecological footprint of construction products and are based on a detailed lifecycle assessment. Each declaration analyses ecological impacts across the entire service life of a product - with the exception of its use phase. Among others, it provides information on the greenhouse effect, resource consumption or toxic impacts on humans and ecosystems - always with regard to a specific sales article. An EPD also helps in assessing sustainable buildings. It is primarily intended as a source of information for environmental experts in the construction process, similar to a technical product data sheet.
Which information is contained in an environmental product declaration?
An EPD provides quantified information on the following:
• Inventory (resource consumption, for example, energy, water, renewable resources, recycled resources, emissions output);
• Impact assessment (assumed environmental impacts derived from the inventory, such as contribution to the greenhouse effect, destruction of the ozone layer, acidification of water and soil, depletion of fossil and mineral resources, waste generated and disposal);
• Other indicators (for example, risks to human health).
How is the data calculated and checked?
Declarations for construction products are valid for five years. The creation of an EPD can be complex, depending on the product. All components of a product right down to the smallest screw have to be individually analysed and their environmental impact calculated -from definition of the raw material and weight, the associated manufacturing processes and transport distances, all the way through to disposal at the end of the product life. Following analysis of the inventory, an assessment is made of the various impact indications along the product life cycle. The assessment that an EPD is based on is standardised in accordance with EN 15804 for construction products and is always checked by a third-party expert.
Why does Geberit make this effort?
As in the food industry, where ingredients are listed on the packaging, an environmental product declaration provides information about the product in question. The voluntary EPDs create transparency and allow products to be compared in terms of their impact on the environment. As a result, they are an important source of information for building owners, investors, business partners and other decision makers. They also play a role in green building where certain standards have to be met (LEED, BREEAM, DGNB, Minergie, etc.). As the European market leader in the sanitary industry and key player in the construction industry, Geberit wants to contribute to sustainable building with its products.
Which Geberit products have a valid EPD?
Geberit has already been creating environmental product declarations for individual products since 2012. The following products have a valid EPD1: AquaClean Mera and Sela shower toilets, sanitary ceramics2, PE, Silent-db20, Silent-PP and Silent Pro drainage pipes, as well as FlowFit and Mapress Stainless Steel water supply pipes and fittings, and, most recently, the Duofix WC element.
In 2022, products with an EPD accounted for around 30 per cent of the group sales.
Environmental Product Declarations
