Type III Environmental Product Declarations – The perils and pitfalls of digitalization

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Abstract Recent research highlights buildings as significant contributors to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, entailing the implementation of legally binding CO2 limits for several countries and a widespread adoption of environmental product declarations (EPDs). While PDF remains the common EPD format, the emergence of the digital ILCD+EPD format introduces start to play a more significant role. The format introduces complexities, posing uncertainties and challenges in effectively managing product data and integrating them into LCA software applications. Despite this, persistent challenges in transparency and comparability underscore the need for robust methodologies to ensure reliable material assessments. Limited literature exists on the applicability and comprehension of the ILCD+EPD format, prompting this study’s exploration, using the Web API from the European umbrella organization, the ECO Platform Portal. By compiling digital EPD files into a standard schema, the study aims to scrutinize the format for enhanced reliability and usability. The study assesses a total of 12,962 datasets from the ECO Platform Portal, revealing discrepancies in compliance and documentation, with adjustments made to ensure accuracy. Notably, 17 datasets were removed due to unknown compliance with EN15804, 2097 datasets were expired, 330 datasets were lacking important information of expiration and functional unit, and 66 datasets were removed due to invalid units unsuitable for building-LCAs This resulted in a total of 10,452 datasets, with 29% allocated to EN15804+A1 and 71% to EN15804+A2. Embracing the ILCD+EPD format enhances EPD effectiveness and improves sustainability practices but requires efforts to address data extraction challenges and inconsistencies.