EPD Preparation

EPD cost: what do the payments actually cover?

This is the most frequent question, and it cannot be answered with a single figure — because there is no single "EPD fee". The total is the sum of several separate items going to different parties: the LCA study and modelling, report preparation, independent verification, and the programme operator’s registration and publication fees.

Which item depends on what, and what moves the total most, is set out item by item on the EPD cost page. This page describes the work we take on for the preparation side.

For a cost breakdown specific to your product group, get in touch — we work it out item by item based on how many products, how many plants, and how ready your data is.

Choosing a programme operator: who will publish your EPD?

EPDs are published as verified declarations by a programme operator and entered into a public register. Choosing the operator is not a technical detail but a commercial decision: your target market, your customer’s specification, the publication timeline and the five-year total cost all follow from it.

Which criteria to weigh and how — target market, PCR availability, verification route, fee structure and database visibility — is covered on the choosing a programme operator page. We make the decision together at project start, once the target market is clear.

EPDlogy is an approved verifier with The International EPD® System, EPD Hub, EPD Global and RTS (Finland) — meaning we know these operators’ rules from the inside. Independent verification is carried out by a separate verifier; EPDlogy does not prepare and independently verify the same EPD. Fee policies differ between operators and change over time, so we work out current figures together at project start.

What is inside an EPD?

A published EPD presents your product’s environmental performance in a rule-bound format. When your customer or contractor opens the document, they see:

• Product and manufacturer description — which product, which plant, which scope
• Declared unit — what the results are expressed per (1 tonne, 1 m², 1 piece…)
• System boundary and modules covered — A1–A3 production, A4–A5 construction, B use, C end-of-life, D beyond the system boundary
• Impact category results — global warming potential (fossil / biogenic / land use reported separately), acidification, eutrophication, ozone depletion and others
• Resource use and waste indicators — energy, water, waste flows
• Data quality and reference year — which year the data belongs to and how it was collected
• Verification statement — who verified it, under which PCR and standard
• Validity date — typically five years from publication

When does an EPD need renewing?

EPDs are typically valid for five years. But the calendar is not the only trigger: when a change in the production process, energy source, recipe or suppliers materially changes the environmental result, an update is needed without waiting for expiry.

Starting the renewal 6–12 months before the expiry date is the safe window. The reason is data collection, not verification time: a renewal needs data from a current reference year, and in most plants that data cannot be gathered in one go. A manufacturer whose EPD has lapsed cannot answer tenders and customer requests during that period.