RTS EPD’s – Different Methods of Producing Reliable Environmental Information of Building Products in Finland

Abstract

The Building Information Foundation RTS sr launched a national EPD program in the year 2016 and after that there have been produced several RTS EPD’s published by the RTS. The Information gathered from the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is verified by a third party and therefore neutral and reliable. Environmental performance of construction products is compiled according to the standard EN 15804+A1 and A2 and with a guidance’s and methodology processed in the committee PT18 RT EPD’s. The name of the principal publication is “Methodology (PCR) for compiling environmental declarations for building products: EPD’s published by The Building Information Foundation RTS (2019)” and in addition there are guidance for the application process and verification processes.The Building Information Foundation got a full membership status of EcoPlatform in September 2018 and therefore the guidance has been revised. PT18 noticed the future demand of easy way of producing EPD’s and therefore it compiled a guidance of verification process of customized and product specific EPD-tools used in connection to production processes. PT18 considered also amendment of the EN15804 standard (A2) in advance as far as possible and updated the RTS methodology accordingly. The EPD’s are created in Finland by the Principal Committee PT18 of The Building Information Foundation RTS. A work group of the Committee PT18 will audit and approve/reject the applications. All RTS EPDs have been verified, there is no difference if the EPDs have been complied with the EPD tool or without it.The eco-profiles and other environmental aspects provide input data for the assessment of environmental impacts of the buildings. The purpose of the declarations is to provide environmental information of construction products in a standardized and transparent way. The EN-standardized method developed by CEN/TC350 is utilized in other European countries as well by different EPD-programs. The purpose of different EPD-tools is to provide easy way to produce EPD information of similar products and to use gathered information in multiple product information services and data modelling tools.