Architecture 2030 supporters eye open standard EPD template

Sources: Architecture 2030, Santa Fe, N.M.; CP staff

Working with various architecture/engineering stakeholders, the Architecture 2030 organization will develop an open standard Environmental Product Declaration and companion EPD summary template that goes beyond a list of typical document requirements to the creation of a full graphic layout.

Detailing a product’s environmental impacts over projected service life, the EPD has rapidly emerged in anticipation of credit provisions central to the U.S. Green Building Council’s new LEED v4 version. EPDs can be thought of as the environmental equivalent to nutrition labels, stating a product’s carbon-equivalent footprint and such environmental impacts as resource depletion. If adopted by all U.S. EPD Program Operators and/or product manufacturers and material suppliers, a well-designed template will simplify the process of reading, comprehending, and using the hundreds of EPDs anticipated to be developed for building products, Architecture 2030 backers contend.

Designers and engineers will increasingly be the primary consumers of EPDs, and Architecture 2030 backers believe that the template success hinges on input from this community. In order to offer feedback and expertise, the organization welcome inputs from designers, engineers, and other stakeholders via the completion of an EPD content/layout survey posted here.