ASTM International, a standards development organization, will now help develop product category reviews (PCRs) and verify environmental product declarations (EPDs), according to the organization. Under the Environmental Product Declaration Program, technical advisory committees will oversee the development process for PCRs, which detail the rules and guidelines for developing EPDs. In addition, the program will evaluate EPDs to verify their adherence to ISO 14040 standards, as well as to ensure that the life cycle assessment data accurately describes a product’s environmental aspects. The program will address products in the 90 industry sectors in which ASTM currently operates.
ASTM developed the program in accordance with ISO 14025, Environmental Labels and Declarations—Type III Environmental Declarations—Principles and Procedures. “The ASTM International program will provide scientifically based, quantifiable information about product parameters such as resource consumption and ozone depletion,” says Timothy Brooke, vice president of certification, training, and proficiency testing at ASTM. Currently representatives of the roofing industry are working with ASTM to develop PCRs.
Separately, ASTM Committee E60 on Sustainability has a proposed a standard practice to give guidance on what information a PCR should contain, regardless of the product. Work Item 23356: “New practice for the development of product category rules for use in the development of environmental declarations for building products and systems,” is currently in the working stage and is not yet a standard. Brooke reports that a publication date has not yet been set for that work item.
More information on the EPD program is online as astm.org/epds.