The importance of product-specific environmental labelling is growing

Other news 23.5.2023 15:57 EEST

An EPD (Environmental Product Declaration) is an environmental declaration based on the EN 15804 standard. It describes the environmental impact of a product at different stages of its life cycle, one of the most important of which in the construction sector is the impact on climate change, taking into account its carbon footprint.

The environmental impacts presented in the EPD are calculated through Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) over the whole life cycle of the product and this non-partisan environmental statement allows for a comparison of environmental impacts between materials as well as between similar products to facilitate the selection of a building product.

Comprehensive EPDs for UPM's WISA plywood products help contractors, builders and designers, among others, to better understand the environmental impacts of building products and materials. The EPDs are public and third-party verified. They are voluntary, but their implications for construction and building design are increasingly relevant. EPDs enable designers, for example, to calculate the carbon footprint required for a building and thus improve their position when applying for BREEAM certification, for example.

The EPDs for WISA plywood products are widely used for benchmarking at product stage (A1-A3), also in third party emission databases, as our values are among the best in the plywood industry on a global scale. The EPDs for our WISA products cover both our coated and uncoated spruce and birch plywood portfolios, and these reports are becoming increasingly important globally as national requirements become more stringent.

All our EPDs and other certificates are available centrally at: Certificates and labels