Why Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) Are Becoming Essential for UK Manufacturers

How EPDs Shape Material Selection in UK Construction

Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) have become a key resource for UK architects, engineers, quantity surveyors and contractors choosing materials for building projects. Their value is highest in the design phase, when material decisions do the most to set a building’s carbon footprint. At that point, EPDs give teams the verified data they need to make lower-carbon choices.

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In the UK, EPDs are now part of everyday sustainability work. They supply the product data behind BREEAM credits, whole life carbon assessments under the RICS Whole Life Carbon Assessment (WLCA) standard, 2nd edition, and the whole life carbon assessments that planning policy increasingly requires, such as London Plan Policy SI 2.

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Below, we cover how EPDs feed into material selection, what UK design teams look for in them, the policy context, why the market needs more UK EPDs, and how EPDs differ from life cycle assessments (LCAs).

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Why Embodied Carbon Matters in the UK

According to the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC), embodied carbon makes up around 20% of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions. It is expected to account for half of built environment emissions by 2035. The Future Homes and Buildings Standards are making new buildings far more efficient to run, so a growing share of a building’s lifetime carbon comes from the materials used to build it. That makes material selection one of the most effective ways to cut emissions.

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What UK Architects and Specifiers Look For in an EPD

Design teams use EPDs differently as a project develops:

• RIBA Stages 1–2 (brief and concept): EPDs are used to set a “carbon range” for each material type. This gives a clear picture of typical impacts in the UK market and supports early whole life carbon targets.

• RIBA Stages 3–4 (spatial coordination and technical design): The focus moves to product-specific EPDs, especially for low-carbon products that meet the specification and can be written into NBS clauses.

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Key selection criteria

• Compliance with EN 15804+A2: UK assessments, including those under the RICS WLCA standard and BREEAM, expect EPDs prepared to this European standard and independently verified.

• Transparency: Fair comparisons depend on clear information about recycled content, end-of-life assumptions, manufacturing methods and the energy mix used in production.

• Matching units: EPD data must use the same declared units as the project, such as m³, m² or tonnes, so calculations stay accurate.

• UK relevance: EPDs for products made in the UK, or for the specific plants supplying UK projects, are preferred. They reflect the UK grid, local supply chains and realistic transport distances.

• Low Global Warming Potential (GWP): As design moves forward, products with lower embodied carbon are given priority.

• Availability and compliance: Materials must be available in the right quantities and on schedule. They must also comply with the Building Regulations, including the fire safety requirements of Approved Document B and the Building Safety Act regime for higher-risk buildings.

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Where product-specific EPDs don’t exist, UK teams often use generic data, such as the ICE (Inventory of Carbon and Energy) database, or adapt EPDs from other countries. These are workarounds, though, and they can misrepresent UK manufacturing. Regulation can also limit options. An innovative low-carbon material may look promising on paper but face barriers in fire performance, warranties or insurance acceptance. This is why it pays to involve manufacturers, structural engineers and fire engineers early.

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A Practical Approach to Material Selection

Choosing materials with EPD data usually follows three steps:

1. Build a data pool: Gather comparable EN 15804 EPDs for each material category, such as concrete, steel, timber, brick or glazing, to set a carbon range for the UK market.

2. Remove outliers: Refine the pool so it reflects UK manufacturing and supply.

3. Refine by project stage: In technical design, pick specific low-carbon products that meet the specification. Check availability, Building Regulations compliance and how well each product fits the design. Then feed the results into the project’s whole life carbon assessment.

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The UK Policy Picture

The UK has no national regulation of embodied carbon in buildings yet. Pressure is growing, however:​

• Low-carbon industrial products: The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero is developing a market framework for low-carbon steel, cement and concrete. This includes guidance on embodied emissions reporting and green public procurement.

• Local planning: According to University of Sheffield research, 61% of local planning authorities now reference embodied carbon in policy, and a growing number are moving towards mandatory assessments.

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For clients and design teams, the direction is clear: robust, product-specific EPD data will become more important, not less.

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The Challenge: Finding UK Product Data

One of the biggest obstacles for UK designers is finding reliable, product-specific environmental data. Many UK manufacturers, especially SMEs, have not yet published EPDs. EPD databases and material comparison platforms help here. They let users search by product category, filter by type and location, build shortlists, and compare or export results.

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Why the UK Needs More EPDs

For manufacturers, the message is simple: if a product has no EPD, designers can’t easily see it or specify it. Even a highly innovative low-carbon product can be passed over if its environmental performance isn’t documented. And as public bodies and major clients bring in embodied carbon requirements, a missing EPD increasingly means a missed tender.

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More UK EPDs would help the industry in three ways:

• Better UK data: Without enough UK EPDs, teams fall back on generic or overseas data. This weakens assessments and can understate the performance of UK manufacturers.

• Credit for innovation: UK manufacturers investing in cleaner technology get recognised only when that performance is declared.

• Reliable benchmarks: UK industry baselines, and any future embodied carbon limits, are only as good as the range of EPDs behind them.

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EPD vs LCA: What’s the Difference?

The two terms are often mixed up, but they do different jobs:

• LCA (life cycle assessment): A detailed study of a product’s environmental impact across its whole life, from raw material extraction to disposal.

• EPD (environmental product declaration): A standardised, independently verified document that presents LCA results in a consistent, comparable format, typically to EN 15804+A2.

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Put simply, an EPD turns a complex LCA into practical data that UK designers and assessors can use when selecting materials and completing whole life carbon assessments.

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Looking Ahead: The Growing Role of EPDs in the UK

EPDs are now essential for sustainable design in the UK. They give project teams transparent, comparable data when it matters most and form the foundation of credible whole life carbon reporting. With Part Z under discussion, planning requirements spreading and Government work on low-carbon products under way, demand for UK-specific EPDs will only grow.

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For manufacturers, publishing an EPD is only the first step. Knowing how often your EPDs are used, in which regions and on which project types can guide product strategy. It can also improve market positioning and help you stay ahead of UK demand for low-carbon materials.

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