Abstract
For some years now, environmental product declarations (EPDs) have been available to the public mainly for b2b communication. These contain important environmental impact categories (EIC) and are based on an externally audited life cycle analysis (LCA) according to current ISO standards. The information from EPDs can be used for company-internal product benchmarks and ecological optimizations. The method described in this paper follows the German Federal Environment Agency’s ecological priority method and investigates ecological scarcity, distance-to-target and specific contribution. The article explains the ecological single-score method based on EPD data and validates it against common single score assessments (ReCiPe and UBP). Therefore, 9 case studies have been examined by comparing the full LCA with the results of the new method based on EPD data. As a result, 8 out of 9 studies have similar results with the same benchmark rating. With this information important action alternatives for the future can be derived and ecological product optimization can be pursued.
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Notes
- 1.
An update of the DIN EN 15804 in 2018 extends the amount of EICs. The described method has not yet been extended for this update.
References
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Brinkmann, T., Metzger, L. (2019). Ecological Assessment Based on Environmental Product Declarations. In: Teuteberg, F., Hempel, M., Schebek, L. (eds) Progress in Life Cycle Assessment 2018. Sustainable Production, Life Cycle Engineering and Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12266-9_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12266-9_2
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