Mapping diffusion of Environmental Product Declarations released by European program operators

Abstract

In order to facilitate the adoption of green requirements in public procurement, European Commission has developed the Green Public Procurement (GPP) criteria for various typologies of products and services. Almost all GPP criteria require environmental labels as means of proof that the goods or supplies correspond to the required environmental characteristics. Among the labels required, there are type III labels, based on a life cycle assessment study.The aim of this study is to (i) investigate to what extent a specific type III label, called Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), is spread in Europe and (ii) explore whether there is a correspondence between institutional initiatives towards GPP and the market.This study explored the valid EPDs presented on the websites of the European program operators between September and December 2016. The identified EPDs were quantified and classified according to the program operator, title of the reference Product Category Rule (PCR), country, language and the product based on a classification system developed by the United Nations.In total, 4,888 EPDs were collected mainly released by the Institut Baum und Umwelt e.V. (IBU) and PEP ecopassport (PEP). The obtained results showed that countries with the greater number of EPDs are France and Germany and that construction products are the types of products labelled most. The analysis of the languages used in the EPDs showed that 45% of the identified EPDs are written in

Environmentally Responsible Behavior and Sustainability Policy Adoption in Green Public Procurement

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Research in Sustainability of Chain Conveyor Systems

“…An investigation result into about 38 programs, 1215 PCR documents and more than 11.000 EPDs all over the world [13], [14] [15]. One of the most known program operators is the international epd-system (IES/ environdec®), originally founded in Sweden, is it now a network with partners in Ireland, Norge, Slovakia, Brasilia, Austria, Australia and Turkey.…”

Development of a Pre-Verified EPD Tool with Process Simulation Capabilities for the Aggregates Industry

“…Factors that can influence the gathering and use of environmental impact information include, for example, demands or incentives from external stakeholders such as governmental bodies, or requests from product chain stakeholders such as a company's suppliers or customers that ask for environmental information to inform their purchase choices or to use them for their environmental assessment [2]. In the case of the aggregates industry, the increased demand for environmental data of aggregates products comes from the construction industry and the corresponding governmental agencies [3][4][5]. The environmental data provided by the aggregates producers need to be transparent, comparable, and representative of the aggregate products under consideration.…”