ERG releases key technical documents for EPD quality program
ERG is developing a first‑of‑its‑kind program to make it easier than ever to view and compare the embodied carbon of products, simplifying sustainable purchasing decisions. Our goal is simple: fill the market need to standardize the way embodied carbon data is calculated and disclosed, allowing similar products to be reliably compared.
Environmental product declarations (EPDs) disclose a product's environmental impact over its entire life cycle. They are increasingly driving procurement decisions across public and private sector construction projects, with a steady increase in clean construction policies enacted over the past 10 years. When a construction project owner is working to quantify their environmental impacts, looking at the project's total footprint—not just at one material category—is crucial. However, in the current market, it is difficult to know if a given EPD has been developed in a comparable manner.
Once launched later this year, ERG’s program will allow project owners and other interested parties to assess the quality of an EPD before using it to support project decisions. By making it easy to identify high-quality EPDs, this program will encourage manufacturers and organizations that develop, verify, and register EPDs to strengthen the transparency, methodological approach, reporting parameters, and other requirements that EPDs are based on.
To provide transparency into how ERG will evaluate EPDs under this program, ERG recently published two technical documents that will serve as the foundation for the program.
- ERG’s Approach to Implementing the Product Category Rule Criteria explains ERG’s approach for applying existing product category rule (PCR) criteria.
- ERG’s Environmental Product Declaration Requirements outlines ERG’s requirements for evaluating EPDs under this program.
We invite you to send feedback to EPDQuality@erg.com by June 15, 2026. Your feedback will help us refine our approach and launch a program that meets the needs of project owners, purchasing officials, and anyone else interested in making more sustainable purchasing decisions.
“We are excited to work collaboratively with EPD program operators, manufacturers, policymakers, and the life cycle assessment community to improve the quality of EPDs used in purchasing decisions,” said Peter Bacas, a senior manager of standards and sustainable strategies at ERG. “We look forward to helping purchasers reduce the environmental impacts of construction projects and expanding to other industries in the future.”
Check out the documents and learn more at erg.com/epd.