Page 16 - Kutnar, Andreja, et al., eds., 2015. Proceedings of the 1st COST Action FP1307 International Conference - Life Cycle Assessment, EPDs, and modified wood. University of Primorska Press, Koper.

A-­‐Db:
Integration
of
LCI
and
EPDs
with
decision
making

Tarmo
Räty

Natural
Resources
Institute
Finland,
Luke.
Finland.
tarmo.raty@luke.fi

Keywords:
Environmental
Product
Declarations,
Decision
making,
ILCD,
database

Introducing
EPDs
for
buildings
and
building
products
is
an
EU
wide
measure
to
assure
conformity

of
the
building
products
over
the
common
markets.
In
principle,
an
EPD
is
a
standardised
form
of

environmental
communication
of
a
product,
compiled
and
distributed
in
the
same
form,

regardless
of
the
materials
used
or
the
place
of
production.
Thus,
products
with
identical

intended
uses
should
be
comparable
in
environmental
terms
using
standardised
EPDs.
In
practice

this
ideal
is
often
not
realised,
as
the
structures
of
the
supply
chain,
applied
technologies,
raw

materials
used,
and
environmental
conditions
vary
considerable
over
the
EU.
It
is
already

challenging
to
harmonize
EPDs
for
the
products
with
the
same
raw
material,
such
as
wood

products.
It
appears
necessary
to
develop
a
strict
and
reliable
system
to
produce
EPDs,
covering

the
whole
value
chain
from
human
impacts
on
forest
life
cycles,
primary
transportation,

processing
of
timber,
and
further
processing
of
the
wood
and
wood
products
as
well
as

reasonable
scenarios
on
their
usage,
recycling
and
disposal.

As
an
application
of
Life
Cycle
assessment
(LCA),
compiling
EPDs
is
on
data
intensive
task.
Ideally,

each
agent
over
the
chain
of
custody
should
contribute
with
their
own
EPDs
that
downstream

agent
can
use
as
an
input
for
their
own
EPDs.
One
should
also
make
sure
that
comparable

inventory
data
on
environmental
impacts
are
used
when
data
are
cumulated.

Implementation
of

such
a
system
is
a
challenging
task.
In
an
unformed
system
the
quality
of
EPDs
may
remain
poor

without
a
reasonable
economy.
A
system
that
could
be
further
developed
to
support
harmonized

EPDs
for
wood
products
should
serve
three
principles:

1. Primary
data
from
the
chain
of
custody
should
be
used

Comparisons
of
the
products
are
meaningful
only
if
the
inventory
data
refer
to
proper

chain
of
custodies
of
the
products.

2. Special
attention
should
be
on
primary
production,
where
the
human
impact
is
obvious

and
spatially
dependent.

3. Confidentiality
of
business
data
and
intellectual
property
rights
should
be
honoured.

Prerequisites
for
such
a
system
are
discussed
in
detail
for
the
food
value
and
energy
chains
in

Usva
et
al.
(2009).
An
operational
version
as
a
commercial
service
is
under
development
and

known
as
Ecomodules,
(Ecomodules,
2014).

4