What is an EPD?

We are often asked what EPD Tier our insulation products fall under.

Firstly, let’s remind ourselves of what an EPD is. Simply put, an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is the tool used to communicate the outcome of a Life Cycle Analysis concerning the environmental impacts of a building material throughout a product’s life cycle. There are two tiers:

• EPD Tier 1 means a product is independently verified, cradle-to-grave.
• EPD Tier 2 means a product is independently verified, cradle-to-gate with options.

It is important to find out if products are backed by independent EPDs because they can be used to uplift credits in a BREEAM assessment.

Currently both our Kooltherm and Therma ranges are independently verified from cradle to grave, which classes them under EPD Tier 1. Products in EPD Tier 1 offer a maximum one point uplift to credits achieved from Green Guide Ratings. A BREEAM assessor will calculate an area-weighted combined score for all elements within a building based on Green Guide Summary Ratings and EPD Tiers, aided by the BREEAM calculator.

The below table shows how many credits and how much credit uplift can be achieved from products with a Green Guide Summary Rating of A+ or A (for example, those in our Kooltherm and Therma ranges) in EPD Tier 1.

Elemental Green Guide Rating	Credits	EPD Tier 1 Maximum Credit Uplift
A+	3	1
A	2	1

For product specific Green Guide Ratings please refer to our technical bulletin.

For more information concerning BREEAM criteria, view our post on the subject or visit the BREEAM website.

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